cd
CAMILLE (OST)
CAMILLE
MARTIN HALL
CD
JANUARY 2002
MNW (MNWCD374)
Martin Hall’s soundtrack to Gladsaxe Teater’s major 2002 launch, the theatrical production of Alexandre Dumas fils’ The Lady of the Camellias, received a line of overwhelming reviews at the time of its release. All newspapers and magazines unanimously gave the album top ratings and called it Hall’s perhaps best album ever.
The album itself is a very quiet, mostly instrumental piece of work.
1. Camille (3:52)
2. Replicator (2:44)
3. 48/40 (2:53)
4. Slow Code (2:57)
5. A Darkness Of Our Making (3:10)
6. Demimonde (3:43)
7. Gloria (2:14)
8. Frostpowder (3:00)
9. Lucid (3:18)
10. Clinical Detachment (2:14)
11. Trivia (2:55)
12. The Music Room (2:02)
13. Texture (2:06)
14. Late August (4:54)
48/40
48 hours of no sleep
40 days turning inside me
Lit inside of me
48 hours of all need
40 days frozen inside me
Sentimental to the core
Take it all and then some more
Always more
All these imitated dreams
Never know just what they mean
DEMIMONDE
Hey baby
Let’s go out tonight
I don’t wanna feel this way
Hey baby
Let’s go feel all right
Wear that smile on your face
Forget all your troubles
Forget them tonight
GLORIA
In gloria Dei Patris
In gloria Dei Patris
Gloria in excelsis Deo
Deus Dominus, et illuxit nobis
Omnes
Omnes
Deus
Hosanna in excelsis
Miserere nobis
Sempiternam
Sempiternam
TRIVIA
Strepere
Bagola
Gemito erotico
Fertile
Grazia
Fragola memoria
La vanità in segreto vivrà
Molcera
Nàusea
Fertile memoria
Morbido
Limpido
Strepero, silenzio
La vanità in segreto vivrà
LATE AUGUST
When the sky falls down
We’ll be turning every shadow on the ground
Close your eyes and feel the strain
Let me hold you
While we’re waiting for the rain
Falling
Falling inside me
A feeling that’s fading
A feeling in gold
Hiding
Deep inside me
A summer that’s turning
It’s turning away
Cry like a yearning
That’s burning
Far away
Cool the pressure
Inside us
From the day
”Crystalline beauty … Sublime listening.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“Some of the most spellbounding and immediately accessible music Hall has produced.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“Hall is one of the most visionary and uncompromising artists in this country. A grand and strong listening experience.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest newspaper)
“Decadent, beautiful and mean.”
Berlingske Tidende (the Danish equivalent to The Times)
“A candidate to the very best album of the year. So good it hurts, so aching that it feels good.”
( * * * * * )
Nat & Dag (the Danish equivalent to The Face)
”One of Martin Hall’s most successful works of recent date.”
( * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
“An elegant and cultivated album.”
Ekstra Bladet (the Danish equivalent to The Sun)
“Grandiose and generous music.”
B.T. (the Danish equivalent to The Mirror)
“Album des Monats: Camille funktioniert auch ohne Bilder; Camille projiziert neue.”
(9/10)
Grenzwellen
Andrea Pellegrini: Mezzo-soprano
Katja Andersson: Vocals
Konsort: Choir
Martin Hall: Piano and electronics
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Camille has taken its title from the film version of the story from 1936 in which Greta Garbo stars in the leading role as Marguerite Gautier.
Among the soloists on the album is Danish-Italian mezzo-soprano Andrea Pellegrini who performs three arias out of the record’s all in all 14 compositions. Camille was recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Hamburg, Germany, with the orchestra The Vista Dome Ensemble and the choir Konsort. The end title “Late August” is performed by Saccharin vocalist Katja Andersson.
The leading parts of the theatre performance was played by Danish film star Stine Stengade and then intending upcomer Thure Lindhardt. Alexandre Dumas fils’ original manuscript was rewritten and directed for the stage by Flemming Enevold. The set design was made by Louise Beck of Operanord and all costumes were designed by the internationally acclaimed Danish designer Joergen Simonsen.
The play premiered at January 20, 2002 and ran until April 21.
MEMORIAL (FINEST MOMENTS AND FAMOUS LAST WORDS)
MEMORIAL (FINEST MOMENTS AND FAMOUS LAST WORDS)
IRMA VICTORIA
CD
NOVEMBER 2001
MNW (MNWCD369)
On the one-year anniversary of Danish “diva” Irma Victoria’s death (November 10, 2001) Martin Hall and MNW released the album Memorial – Finest Moments and Famous Last Words. The double-cd is a mix of her best recordings as well as a few at the time unreleased tracks. The release also includes a bonus disc, a Danish National Radio programme commemorating the life and art of Irma Victoria, originally broadcasted on the 9th of December 2000.
1. Expo 1: A Hospital Room (1:09)
2. Shine The Light on Me (3:33)
3. September Song (0:45)
4. Heart of Darkness (3:17)
5. Expo 2: The World Is Everything that Is the Case (3:13)
6. The Devil in the Flesh (0:44)
7. River of Light (3:45)
8. The Gospel According to Anti-Christ (1:01)
9. Expo 3: In Memory of Liberace (1:13)
10. The Beauty of Emptiness (4:40)
11. Palladium (2) (3:26)
12. European Need (2:59)
13. Expo 4: The Chatterbox Revisited (1:02)
14. Fight It Part 2 (2:21)
15. Tears and Morphine (4:06)
16. The Voices of the Dead 1:25)
17. Expo 5: Worst Case Scenario 0:35)
18. Angels and Devils 1:37)
19. Silent Rage 1:59)
20. Expo 6: In Transit (0:55)
21. Itsi-Bitsi (4:44)
22. Life Is but a Dream (3:03)
23. Expo 7: Famous Last Words (1:04)
24. Memorial (3:53)
25. Irma Victoria til Minde (14:55)
Aud Wilken: Backing vocals
Christian Skeel: Keyboards
Henrik Marstal: Bass
Jens Brygmann: Drums
Lars Top-Galia: Guitar
Martin Hall: Instruments
Ole A. Laursen: Backing vocals
Ole Hansen: Trumpet
Peter Westh: Backing vocals
Sharin Foo: Backing vocals
Torben Engberg: Organ
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Henrik Möll/Casper Sejersen
Born on the 2nd of September 1923, Irma Victoria made her debut at the age of 66 with the song “Memorial” on the Martin Hall production The Hall of Mirrors released in September 1989. The track instantly became a cult classic and mystique subsequently rose as to who this new Martin Hall finding was. In September 1990 she performed on the ep Palladium and in November 1990 she released her debut album The Rainbow Theatre – an album that quite surprisingly earned her a Danish Grammy nomination in the category “best female singer” in February 1991. Competing with the Danish multi-platinum act Hanne Boel and legendary Savage Rose lead vocalist Annisette, Irma Victoria unfortunately didn’t win the award.
Having received The Medal for Meritorious Service, a distinction handed to her personally by The Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, for loyal service in the Danish Department of Defence, in the autumn of 1993, Irma Victoria released her second and highly anticipated album Phantasmagoria – The Second Coming in October 1994. The record contains contributions from several prominent musicians on the Danish independent music scene (such as members from the original punk and post-punk bands Sort Sol and The Poets) and the release received massive media coverage … all helped along very nicely by a widespread poster campaign sponsored by Carlsberg.
Phantasmagoria received a line of great reviews in both Denmark and abroad and was exported to France, Germany and England. At the time of the release several tracks wound up in heavy rotation on the French radio station Scandal and a few years later the British neofolk group Death in June used the album as lounge music on their 1997 European tour.
In the autumn of 1995 Irma Victoria performed on the controversial tribute album to the legendary Danish sixties band Steppeulvene, Hip, where she interpreted the group’s signature song “Itsi Bitsi” (the track was singled out as one of the highlights of the album by the press, although several journalists found her version to be an outright desecration of the original song). In the spring of 1997 she furthermore appeared on the ep Hallmark 1–4 performing the title “Tears and Morphine”, a new version of “Tears in the Rain” from Phantasmagoria.
By invitation of the Danish record label Addiction Martin Hall and Irma Victoria discussed the possibility of recording a newly written narrative by Hall shortly before Irma Victoria’s death. Due to the singer’s deteriorating health the idea was never realized, but the titles “Expo 1–6” on the Memorial compilation album are based on the test recordings made towards this end at Holbæk County Hospital.
Irma Victoria died on the 10th of November 2000.
Memorial was released concurrently with the exhibition A Hospital Room at Ystad’s Konstmuseum (a Swedish art gallery), an audio installation made by Martin Hall about Irma Victoria. The exhibition ran from October 20th until November 25th 2001. You can read more about the event here.
As a special feature on the Memorial album, Sharin Foo – singer and front figure in the world famous Danish indie darling act The Raveonettes – appears as guest singer on the “River of Light” track.
All songs on Memorial are written and produced by Martin Hall except “Itsi Bitsi” which is authored by Eik Skaløe and Stig Møller.
When Irma Victoria died several international artists expressed their grief with her passing. Among names such as Jean Pierre Turmel from the French avant-garde label French Sordide Sentimental and Martyn Jacques from the renowned English cabaret band The Tiger Lillies, the most fierce appraisal of her talent probably came from Douglas P., singer and front figure in Death in June: “Her work was fantastic. May her soul live forever.”
“This voice that seemed to emerge from such depths immediately talked to my unconscious, passing my understanding completely by. This was her quiet strength. Irma Victoria: a true person, complicated and different … not only a human being, but a real individuality!”
Jean-Pierre Turmel, Sordide Sentimental, France“I have enjoyed so much listening to Irma Victoria. I dislike/do not listen to virtually any contemporary music, so this has been such a pleasant surprise.”
Martyn Jacques, The Tiger Lillies, England“Phantasmagoria is one of the most haunting albums I have ever heard. A desolate, sinister and totally honest work … a broken story that will drive you to tears if you listen carefully! Once it has grabbed you, it will never let you go, it will never leave your heart and soul. It is hard for me to hear that Irma Victoria is dead. A legend already in her own lifetime, she is ready to become real cult now. We already miss her sadly!”
Ecki Stieg, Grenzwellen/Music United, Germany“Her work was fantastic. May her soul live forever.”
Douglas P., Death in June, England
ELIA
ELIA
MARTIN HALL
CD
NOVEMBER 2001
POUL KRISTENSEN GRAFISK VIRKSOMHED A/S
(ISBN 87-7468-419-1)
In the summer of 2001 Martin Hall was given the honour to write the music for the inauguration ceremony of the Danish-Swedish visual artist Ingvar Cronhammer’s grand-scale monument Elia in Herning (a Danish city), a work of art that was opened to the public on the 27th of September the same year.
A cd with the music was enclosed with the book release about the project. The book itself is available in both Danish and English.
1. Elia (23:10)
Martin Hall: Piano and electronics
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Ingvar Cronhammar
Photo: Eigil Thomsen
Elia is a steel dome that, with a diameter of 60 meters at ground level, rises above the field at Herning. From the top of the dome (about 11 meters up) rise four steel columns, so the total height is approximately 32 meters. Two 10-meter wide stairs are laid on each side of the sculpture. In the middle of the sculpture sits a large gas burner which once during a 19-day period makes an 8,4 meter high and 1 meter wide fire column for about 30 seconds. The timing of the discharge is random and controlled by a computer. The sculpture is designed to receive lightning strikes. When this occurs, the sculpture will respond with an echo of approximately 40 seconds duration.
Martin Hall’s composition Elia is a 23-minute long orchestral work with a main theme played by a piano. You can read more about the installation as well as listen to the music here:
“It is both awe-inspiring and thought-provoking to stand here. What is the idea of all this grandiosity? Thus asked Mr. Ivar Hansen, Speaker of the Danish Parliament, in a speech at the September 2001 inauguration of the colossal sculpture, Elia. He speculated that Elia might be a comment on the present or that, perhaps, it looks unfathomably into our future. Ivar Hansen gave the answer himself: Elia is exactly what we make of it. Art reaches out to the diversity of the individual.”
METROPOLITAN SUITE
METROPOLITAN SUITE
MARTIN HALL/CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CD
MARCH 2001
MNW (MNWCD361)
Metropolitan Suite is a classically orchestrated work made in collaboration with visual artist Christian Skeel. The album was Martin Hall’s first release as a singer since his gold record achievement with Boel & Hall in 2000.
The album features 25 musical fin de siècle vignettes. Electrical instruments were banned on the recordings, a method of working that secured the album its fine air of Viennese exclusivity.
1. My Argentine Rose (1:52)
2. Opium and Sugar (1:10)
3. Stating the Obvious (1:17)
4. Plaza Flesh (2:31)
5. A Vulgar Display (1:42)
6. She’s My Goodbye Europe (0:58)
7. Unzipping the Abstract (1:11)
8. The Moon’s a Balloon (1:24)
9. The Mephisto Effect (1:36)
10. An American Tragedy (1:04)
11. Walking on Eggshells (1:59)
12. Natives of the Gutter (1:10)
13. Animal Emotion (2:04)
14. The Circus Comes to Town 2:18)
15. Young, Vain and Beautiful 1:52)
16. Pieces of Venice (1:23)
17. In Chambers (1:13)
18. Subject to Injury (0:51)
19. Pink and Fuzzy (1:03)
20. Eichstadt (2:23)
21. A Lonely Impulse of Delight (0:44)
22. Pristine (1:27)
23. Greed (2:10)
24. A Résume Highlight (0:35)
25. Tomorrow Belongs to Me (1:14)
MY ARGENTINE ROSE
She’s a cool breeze of discontent
She’s like a story that never ends
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
See the twenties within her eyes
Eternal stardust that never dies
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
She’s my melancholic maybe
Come and save me
Come and set me free
OPIUM AND SUGAR
Don’t flatter yourself
You died a long time ago
Opium and sugar helped me along
Now my heart is closed
To your bourgeois repertoire
So
I know your face
But no
I can’t relate
To the things that you say
STATING THE OBVIOUS
Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’ve
Fallen in love with you
Would you mind if I stated the obvious?
Would you mind if I did it again?
Would you mind if the sky fell apart?
Left us caught in the thunder and rain
Hey
I don’t know what to do
I’m
So in love with you
PLAZA FLESH
Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect no more
I don’t really give as much as a toss anymore
I just want to hide away, never beg anymore
I don’t really count the days or the hours anymore
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone
Come now, inject the daylight
Come here, each little girl
At first, I just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh
A VULGAR DISPLAY
I don’t know where to start
Never ever seen such a vulgar display
Losing mind, losing heart
Never ever want to fall in love again
No new sights to be seen
Sailing on the ocean of arrogant dreams
Chasing nightmares away
Trading any reason for lost yesterdays
Don’t spread your stars
Around this perfect moon
Don’t spread these stars
Around this perfect moon
SHE’S MY GOODBYE EUROPE
She’s my goodbye Europe
She’s my goodbye to the world
She’s my goodbye Berlin
She’s a goodbye to a thousand girls
UNZIPPING THE ABSTRACT
I believe in sincerity
I believe in it all
I believe in the good life
I believe in encores
I believe in forevermore
More and more
I’m unzipping the A-B-S-T-R-A-C-T
The libido-re-mi-fa-sol
THE MOON’S A BALLOON
The moon’s a balloon
That hangs in the room
The moon’s a balloon
All broken and blue
Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it be by then?
Where will it be tomorrow?
Where will it end?
Where will it all end?
THE MEPHISTO EFFECT
Now that you’re losing yourself
Now that you’re so far away
I want you to leave me
To never believe me
Now that your porcelain skin
Is cracking apart from within
I want you to love me
Forever think of me
Licking your sugartrace skin
Stirring up one final scene
To ensure and correct
The Mephisto effect
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
Your mouth’s so open your brain spills out
You’re everything I can do without
But I love you
For a moment
Of despair
When Johnny comes marching home tonight
He’ll find his beloved in tears of delight
She’s wearing that beautiful smile again
Cause I loved her
And I left her
To him
WALKING ON EGGSHELLS
Walking on eggshells
Finding my way to you
Midnight in Dresden
It’s such a depressing view
From Café du Monde the music still flows
All the way back to Rwanda dust roads
But where are you now?
Where are you?
I can’t seem to find myself
I can’t seem to find nobody else
NATIVES OF THE GUTTER
Never thought that I’d lose you again
To the thunder of the open day
Never two of a kind, me and you
Natives of every gutter we choose
ANIMAL EMOTION
I want to reach out and grab any pink cloud
I want to shoot them all down
I want to put you inside of that pink cloud
I want to push you around
Gonna show you animal emotion
Gonna show you automatic motion
Gonna raise a little locomotion now
I want to show you invisible cities
I want to waste images
I want to ride into sunsets on horseback
I want the world in a kiss
THE CIRCUS COMES TO TOWN
The circus comes to town
Ballerinas and clowns
Nothing new but the pain they provide for us all
I don’t give second thoughts
To the waves of applause
Pop a valium and chill
Art for art’s sake and the thrill
When they all end up crying and sad
I feel so glad
I feel so gay and marvellous
I feel refreshed for all of us
I feel like I am someone else
Someone better than myself
But then I’m not
What about me?
What about you?
What about us?
What are we going to do?
YOUNG, VAIN AND BEAUTIFUL
Young, vain and beautiful
For you I’d change it all
Your oral services
See you
Nowhere
But where my heart is
All blue
For you
For me too
PIECES OF VENICE
Hey-hey
Get a sailor and a priest
Hey-hey
Tame the world beneath my feet
Pieces of Venice
Pieces of Venice
All cool and mellow
I told you I’d love you
I’d love you
I’d love you
Is it Paris in the spring?
Hidden underneath your skin
Is it just another dream?
Hidden nowhere even near you?
Hey-hey
Be a soldier for a day
Hey-hey
Keep the enemy away
So alcoholic
So diabolic
So metastatic
IN CHAMBERS
We’re in chambers
Just like you wanted
We’re alone now
Until the end
Can I ask you that single question?
Can I ask you not to pretend?
SUBJECT TO INJURY
She’s so subject to injury
She’s so frail
Poor impulse control
They just don’t care how old she is
PINK AND FUZZY
Pink and fuzzy
Carved out of make-believe
Dreaming of good times
Working in coal mines
Breaking my heart
Pink and fuzzy
Not that you need to be
I’ll pay you off
A LONELY IMPULSE OF DELIGHT
A lonely impulse of delight
Raising Cain down the borderline
I don’t know, I don’t know
Words of the virus and words of the host
I get so tired without even trying
PRISTINE
I can’t forget
The words you said
Your voice, so loud
Your talk, so foul
Maybe the sea will hush my heart
Maybe the sea will wash away the stars
Within your eyes
Pristine
The mother of bad things
Pristine
Conveyor of nothing
Pristine
I never believed you
Pristine
Pristine
The day will come
My will be done
Forevermore
GREED
Famous last words
A playlist encore
Lips red as blood
Give me some more
Bad gene behaviour
Seems like my saviour
Hunting and shooting
Your tinseltown beauty
Love me for me
Love me for my greed
With pockets full of stars
Forgetting who you are
Your imitated gods
Were never quite enough
And these mighty dresses
A photographic session
With jazz age believers
The skyscraping feelings
Where have they gone?
TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME
Thunder on the sky
I wish it’d last forever
Caught within the night
You don’t know what it means to me
Set ablaze any sails
Aragon, Mandalay
Now I know that tomorrow is mine
Yesterday’s far away
Nothing left of today
But I know that tomorrow belongs to me
“A sublime work … a high-flown European cycle of songs.”
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“Martin Hall’s voice is more many-facetted and well-balanced than ever … a stirring and beautifully delivered project.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“In the history books Metropolitan Suite will easily override a whole section of Danish Music Awards.”
Geiger (the Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
“Exciting and visionary.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper)
Christian Skeel: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Less than a year after Martin Hall’s gold selling collaboration with Danish platinum act Hanne Boel Hall and Skeel released the album Metropolitan Suite, a labour of love that had taken the two gents three years to finish.
With titles such as “Walking on Eggshells”, “Unzipping the Abstract” and “Plaza Flesh” the audience was given a fair warning – this was not a work of intending radio hits, rather a joyous voyage of exploration into the literary realms of vaudeville, chamber music and cabaret-styled intellectualism.
Quoting Hall from an interview made at the time of the release, Metropolitan Suite was his idea of “the perfect follow-up album to the Boel & Hall success”. Despite critical acclaim the record was obviously destined to remain a niche release, so although Metropolitan Suite was an artistic highpoint, it remained a commercial disaster costing Hall’s new label MNW a fair amount of money.
The album featured the single “My Argentine Rose” (catalogue number MNWCDS 300), a release that included an instrumental bonus track called ”Pantomime Bloodline”.
MY ARGENTINE ROSE
MY ARGENTINE ROSE
MARTIN HALL/CHRISTIAN SKEEL
CD SINGLE
FEBRUARY 2001
MNW (MNWCDS300)
My Argentine Rose is a single released to support the classically orchestrated album Metropolitan Suite made in collaboration with visual artist Christian Skeel. The single was Martin Hall’s first release as a singer since his gold record achievement with the Boel & Hall album in 2000.
The album features 25 musical fin de siècle vignettes. Electrical instruments were banned on the recordings, a method of working that secured the album its fine air of Viennese exclusivity.
1. My Argentine Rose (1:52)
2. Pantomime Bloodline (2:46)
MY ARGENTINE ROSE
She’s a cool breeze of discontent
She’s like a story that never ends
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
See the twenties within her eyes
Eternal stardust that never dies
She’s my Argentine rose
She’s such a delicate rose
She’s my melancholic maybe
Come and save me
Come and set me free
Christian Skeel: Piano
Martin Hall: Vocals
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Less than a year after Martin Hall’s gold selling collaboration with Danish platinum act Hanne Boel, Hall and Skeel released the album Metropolitan Suite, a labour of love that had taken the two gents three years to finish.
With titles such as “Walking on Eggshells”, “Unzipping the Abstract” and “Plaza Flesh” the audience was given a fair warning – this was not a work of intending radio hits, rather a joyous voyage of exploration into the literary realms of vaudeville, chamber music and cabaret-styled intellectualism.
Quoting Hall from an interview made at the time of the release, Metropolitan Suite was his idea of “the perfect follow-up album to the Boel & Hall success”. Despite critical acclaim the record was obviously destined to remain a niche release, so although Metropolitan Suite was an artistic highpoint, it remained a commercial disaster costing Hall’s new label MNW a fair amount of money.
The single “My Argentine Rose” included the instrumental bonus track ”Pantomime Bloodline”.
BOEL & HALL
BOEL & HALL
HANNE BOEL/MARTIN HALL
CD
MARCH 2000
DOWNBEAT/EMI-MEDLEY (EMI5253392)
The release of the Boel & Hall album in March 2000 crystallized the collaboration between Martin Hall and multi-platinum selling Danish artist Hanne Boel.
After Boel’s two critically acclaimed records Silent Violence (1996) and Need (1998) – albums on which Hall wrote the lyrics as well as the song “Salt of Your Skin”, a 1998 European hit single for Boel – the two artists decided to go the full mile as Boel & Hall in 2000.
1. Chance of a Lifetime (4:42)
2. Why Don’t You Come Around (5:02)
3. Let’s Go Out Tonight (4:45)
4. Can’t Help Myself (5:12)
5. Between the Lines (3:53)
6. Performing the Heartache (4:26)
7. Stay with Me (4:25)
8. Blood and Honey (4:29)
9. Tender to Grey (6:17)
10. The Last Song in the World (2:41)
CHANCE OF A LIFETIME
I’ve been waiting
I needed the timing to be right
For once in my life
Kept on asking myself where you were
Kept on knocking on all of these doors
Just looking for you
I don’t know if we’ll make it together
All I know is we don’t have forever
Guess I don’t wanna waste any chance of a lifetime
Time is slipping away every minute
Gotta do what we can with our lives
Our only lives
Had this feeling
And everyone’s reasons in my mind
For all of this time
All I needed was somebody else
Someone else who was feeling the same
Somebody like you
I don’t know if we’ll make it together
All I know is we don’t have forever
Guess I don’t wanna waste any chance of a lifetime
Time is slipping away every minute
Gotta do what we can with our lives
Our only lives
No more waiting in vain
No more waiting in vain
WHY DON’T YOU COME AROUND
Ain’t got time for no hesitating
Ain’t got time for running around
I don’t need no comfort of strangers
I don’t need the comfort of crowds
Gotta know how it feels with someone like you by my side
Gotta know what it’s like to come to the end of the line
Why don’t you come around?
And stay till the morning
I wanna lie in the light of the dawn
And see it rain all over you
Why don’t you come around?
And stay a little longer
Why don’t you try to believe what you see?
Instead of chasing memories
Gotta see your face
Gotta see your eyes
Gotta let you know how I feel inside
Gotta feel your skin
Gotta know your dreams
Gotta know each secret in between
Gotta see your eyes in the morning
Gotta see your face in the light
Ain’t got time for too many heartaches
Ain’t got time for too many tries
LET’S GO OUT TONIGHT
Hey baby
Let’s go out tonight
I don’t wanna feel this way
Hey baby
Let’s go feel all right
Wear that smile on your face
See the light of the city
The light in the air
Spread everywhere
Always wanted tomorrow
More than today
Don’t believe what they say
Forget all your troubles
Forget them tonight
Hey baby
Let’s go out tonight
I don’t wanna feel this way
Hey baby
Let’s go feel all right
Wear that smile on your face
All you’ve taken for granted
It’s time to let go
Time to unfold
There’s no need to be aching
Feeling this blue
Guess it’s all up to you
CAN’T HELP MYSELF
Been keeping my distance
Been hiding away on my own little cloud
I’ve been trying to forget any piece of advice
The saddest of seasons
They suddenly felt like the sweetest embrace
I ran out of reason
Things I never believed anyway
I can’t help myself
I walk around in the rain
Feeling lighter than the air I breathe
The cars driving by
It’s such a glamorous sight
I can’t help myself
I never could anyway
Always riding on the light of day
I wanna break the news
Wanna take in the view again
Still looking for answers
Been passing the streets where the night fires burn
Don’t need second chances
It’s a feeling that always returns
I can’t help myself
I walk around in the rain
Feeling lighter than the air I breathe
The cars driving by
It’s such a glamorous sight
I can’t help myself
I never could anyway
Always riding on the light of day
I wanna break the news
Wanna take in the view again
A handful of stars
I’m falling apart
Don’t believe in any yesterday
I wanna try again
Break the chains
BETWEEN THE LINES
There’s a shadow on my skin
And it’s taking my world away
Like a circle closing in
I’m left with this feeling burning once again
Take a look at my face
Instead of turning away
It’s written in your eyes
It’s written in the feeling
In every little detail
That you hide between the lines
It’s hidden in the words
It’s hidden in the cheating
In every little reason
That you hide between the lines
Like a feeling made of ice
Never thought that I’d feel this way
Every how and every why
I guess every answer I needed came today
And the chill in my heart
Tears the silence apart
It’s written in your eyes
It’s written in the feeling
In every little detail
That you hide between the lines
It’s hidden in the words
It’s hidden in the cheating
In every little reason
That you hide between the lines
Inside me
There’s a yearning burning on
Inside of me
PERFORMING THE HEARTACHE
Hey
We’re shaking the memory
We’re shaking our make-believe
Performing the heartache
The rain is falling like a river
It’s falling on me
Sending down a rain of shivers
Relieving my needs
I never wanted to believe them
The songs that I heard
But oh this melancholy feeling
It’s healing the hurt
Hey
We’re shaking the memory
We’re shaking our make-believe
Performing the heartache
Hey
We’re singing the songs we know
We’re living the anecdotes
Performing the heartache
We’re singing the sad songs
The words on the walls
The high of the feeling
The cries and the calls
STAY WITH ME
Counting drops of rain
The feeling stays the same
Another lonely night
The wasted time runs by
Guess I’m waiting for you
I wanna feel you next to me
I wanna be the air you breathe
Stay with me
When the walls are moving in
When the shadows burn my skin
Stay with me
When the rains are coming down
When there’s no one else around
The longing never ends
It runs within my veins
I’ve tried so many times
To open up inside
Can’t you hear me calling
I wanna feel you next to me
I wanna be the air you breathe
Stay with me
When the walls are moving in
When the shadows burn my skin
Stay with me
When the rains are coming down
When there’s no one else around
All of the time the shadows come alive
Hiding away behind closed eyes
BLOOD AND HONEY
I’ve noticed your face
A face in a crowd full of strangers
I’ve noticed the way that you’re looking away
I’ve seen you before
I’ve seen you around for a long time
The look in your eyes, it’s always the same
I can’t understand why you cling to this feeling
Remember the things that you used to believe in?
Give me rivers of reason
To drown the stench of this feeling
Blood and honey, the craving
The song that’s always been playing
No stories to tell
Only pieces of soul left to sell
The way that you move
I know every secret you’re hiding
Been holding my breath just to hear what you say
I’ve seen you before
I’ve seen you around for a long time
You’ve worn every face, every face that I’ve known
I never believed in the tears you were crying
The easiest way is to live without trying
TENDER TO GREY
Give me more than a reason
Let me lie by your side
Let me lie in your shadow again
Somewhere under the sky
Somewhere in the night
Taken by this feeling
Another time and place
Images of a face in the dark
Of a world underneath
The moon and the stars
Let me fade into the moment
Let me fade into the night
Let me lie down in your arms once again
Let me feel nothing else
Than the stillness inside
Let me fade into the silence
Let me fade into your eyes
Let me lie down in your arms once again
Let me feel nothing else
Than the still of the night
See the silver lining
Fade from tender to grey
Always carry it deep down inside
Like the beat of my heart
The whispering scars
THE LAST SONG IN THE WORLD
Skimming the feeling of a song
Been living this craving for so long
Still telling the tale of lovers and fools
A piece of my heart, the one I would choose
If this was the last song in the world
If this was the last song in the world
So many stories in your eyes
A silent reminder of our lives
It’s all of the things I wanted to see
It’s all of the things that I’d want to feel
If this was the last song in the world
If this was the last song in the world
Anders Fog-Nielsen: Strings
Astrid Christensen: Strings
Boe Larsen: Keyboards
Christina Åstrand: Strings
Dimitri Golovanov: Strings
Frederik Stæhr Damsgård: Bass
Hanne Boel: Vocals
Henrik Dam Thomsen: Strings
Henrik Marstal: Bass
Jacob Andersen: Percussion
Jens Runge: Guitar
Jesper Riis: Trumpet
Johannes Søe Hansen: Strings
Kristoffer Sonne: Drums
Martin Hall: Backing vocals
Morten Dulong: Strings
Moussa Diallo: Bass
Therese Åstrand: Strings
Thomas Li: Sonic work
Design: Wibroe, Duckert & Partners
Photo: Casper Sejersen
Their joint efforts resulted in an album selling gold on the first day of its release. Furthermore the single “Chance of a Lifetime” became a top 10 hit for the duo and marked new heights for Hall as a songwriter. Apart from “Chance of a Lifetime” the album featured two other single releases, “Can’t Help Myself” and “Why Don’t You Come Around”.
The album was produced by Boe Larsen. The record was released in Scandinavia as well as the majority of countries in the European Union.
The Boel & Hall-cd also includes a cd-rom film made by Martin Hall during the making of the album.
PLAYLIST
PLAYLIST
SACCHARIN
CD
JANUARY 2000
MIND AND MEDIA (MM4000)
Together with the Greek/Swedish/Danish singer Katja Andersson Martin Hall formed the duo Saccharin whose debut album Playlist was released in January 2000.
Katja Andersson was taught opera in Athens from 1977 to 1985 by Maria Constantinou (Maria Callas’ classmate at the academy of music). Saccharin’s music, however, is more of a peculiar hybrid of techno and pop. And yes, Hall wrote and produced the album.
1. Sleeping on Waves (1:54)
2. Satellite Heart (4:56)
3. Scarlet Days (4:36)
4. Never Let You Down (4:13)
5. Salt of Your Skin (2:14)
6. Tambourines and Love Songs (4:02)
7. Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed (1:34)
8. Keeping the Distance (3:25)
9. Music of Chance (3:17)
10. Walking On (4:33)
11. Low-Key Version 4:31)
12. Under Skies of Silk 5:39)
SLEEPING ON WAVES
Water running down the wall
Shadows falling on the floor
She’s sleeping on waves
She’s making her way
Falling down without a sound
SATELLITE HEART
In the night the moon is still bleeding
Bleeding light on gardens of stone
Shadows break and fade in the mirrors
Leave the world to shine on its own
All my life I’ve been trying to keep every feeling inside
Now I look and I see that there’s nothing to hide
Under skies of silk in the open night
Lying wide awake underneath the sky
See the silver lights slowly passing by
Shining down on me from a million miles away
Every dream I carry inside me
Fallen down from one of the stars
Spin around the oldest of circles
Hidden in my satellite heart
All my life I’ve been trying to keep every feeling inside
Now I look and I see that there’s nothing to hide
Under skies of silk in the open night
Lying wide awake underneath the sky
See the silver lights slowly passing by
Shining down on me from a million miles away
It’s all that I ever wanted
It’s all that I needed to believe
It’s all that I ever needed
SCARLET DAYS
A summer sky
That comes alive
Like burning leaves inside me
The cutout moon
It fills the room
With all the sweetest longings
Coming in like the tide
Running into my mind
Hide away the reasons
Hide them underneath the falling rain
Run into this feeling
On the crimson nights
The scarlet days
I want it so badly
A feeling that’s tearing me apart
The light that rains
Upon your face
I hold my hand against it
Light is running like sand
Down the palm of my hand
NEVER LET YOU DOWN
Been trying to find you
Just trying to find you
I’m never gonna let you down
I’m never gonna leave you lonely
I’m never gonna let you down
I’m never gonna make the same mistake
I haven’t a slightest clue
The places you go or the things you do
Been counting a thousand times
A face in the crowd seemed to catch my eye
Been trying to find you
Right here behind you
Just trying to find you
To remind you
SALT OF YOUR SKIN
The blue of your eyes
The blue of the waters
You’re in my blood
And you’re in my mind
The salt of your skin’s
Been burning inside me
All this time
TAMBOURINES AND LOVE SONGS
Got tambourines and love songs on my mind
While picking up the pieces of my life
The kisses on the mirrors, my goodbye
My goodbye to you
The radio is playing someone’s song
I’m gonna make it mine before too long
I’m leaving on the first train in the morning
Gotta get away
You’ve been living inside me
I’ve been trying to find me
We’ve been playing the same scene
Once again and again
Got tambourines and love songs on my mind
While picking up the pieces of my life
The kisses on the mirrors, my goodbye
My goodbye to you
The radio is playing someone’s song
I’m gonna make it mine before too long
I’m leaving on the first train in the morning
Gotta get away
You’ve been breathing inside me
Everywhere, you surround me
Like the sky and the blue sea
Falling all over me
BRIGHT-EYED AND BUSHY-TAILED
Feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
A little moody along the way
KEEPING THE DISTANCE
I’ve been hiding away any hurt I feel
I’ve been writing your name in the air
I’ve been trying to erase any memory
But the trace of the burn always stays
Always stays
Can’t you see I’m keeping my distance?
Can’t you see I’m falling apart?
Sick and tired of looking for reasons
Sick and tired of animal hearts
Somebody just like you
I’ve been breathing the light of another day
I’ve been hiding away in the rain
I’ve been trying to let go of the memory
But the trace of the hurt never fades
Never fades
MUSIC OF CHANCE
Feeling sweeter than honey
Feeling larger than life
It’s better than money
When I look into your eyes
Cheating Venice
No need of the past
There’s nothing to do but surrender
Make a final act
Been playing this game a little too long
Guess it’s time to redo the wrongs
To believe the words in the sand
The music of chance
Feeling sweeter than honey
Feeling larger than life
It’s better than money
When I look into your eyes
Catch me falling on the way
Catch me riding on a wave
On a wave
WALKING ON
She’s walking away
She’s walking on
LOW-KEY VERSION
Scarlet days
Once again
I wanna see your face again
Over me
Take this fall away
I wanna see you
I wanna see you once again
UNDER SKIES OF SILK
In the night the moon is still bleeding
Bleeding light on gardens of stone
Shadows break and fade in the mirrors
Leave the world to shine on its own
All my life I’ve been trying to keep every feeling inside
Now I look and I see that there’s nothing to hide
Under skies of silk in the open night
Lying wide awake underneath the sky
See the silver lights slowly passing by
Shining down on me from a million miles away
Every dream I carry inside me
Fallen down from one of the stars
Spin around the oldest of circles
Hidden in my satellite heart
All my life I’ve been trying to keep every feeling inside
Now I look and I see that there’s nothing to hide
Under skies of silk in the open night
Lying wide awake underneath the sky
See the silver lights slowly passing by
Shining down on me from a million miles away
It’s all that I ever wanted
It’s all that I needed to believe
It’s all that I ever needed
Henrik Marstal: Backing vocals
Katja Andersson: Vocals
Martin Hall: Backing vocals, instruments
Tina Schæfer: Backing vocals
Design: Claus Andersen
Playlist features the minor radio hit “Tambourines and Love Songs”. Of the more obscure contributions included on the record you’ll find a two minute a cappella version of “Salt of Your Skin” – a track that Danish platinum artist Hanne Boel had a European hit with in 1998 – recorded on a dictaphone in a bathroom.
Although Saccharin as a band released no further titles, Katja Andersson later recorded the signature song “Late August” for Hall’s Camille soundtrack in 2002. She also features on the critically acclaimed Hospital Cafeterias album from 2009.
TESTCARDS 1994–1997
TESTCARDS 1994–1997
MARTIN HALL
DB-CD
OCTOBER 1999
TEST (TEST2)
Testcards 1994–1997 is a double-cd including 26 demos and live recordings with Martin Hall made in the given period. It was released in a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies.
Disc 2 contains the complete Ceremony of Purification performance, a highly praised midnight concert with him at Hellig Kors Kirken in December 1994.
1. Touch and Go (4:46)
2. Wherever She Is (5:26)
3. Tangerine Girl (4:41)
4. Palladium (3:53)
5. Tears in the Rain (4:16)
6. 80 90 Nothing at All (4:36)
7. Second View (3:58)
8. Lyceum Girl (4:41)
9. Animal Heart (5:20)
10. Alas, Again, Encore (3:58)
11. Salt of Your Skin (4:16)
12. The Other Side of Her Face (7:42)
13. Untitled (4:01)
14. Single Melody (4:51)
15. Premonition (Just a Feeling) (4:21)
16. Burning Sugar (4:06)
17. Nocturnal Mood (1:03)
18. Leathern (5:23)
19. An Attempt of Interruption (6:15)
20. Another Chapter (8:40)
21. Worlds Apart (6:56)
22. Imagine Focus (6:46)
23. Winter Sun (6:04)
24. Synthesis (9:56)
25. Paraphrase (16:51)
26. Titles (8:32)
TOUCH AND GO
Fading seasons under the sky
Summers turning gold again
See the air bleed
It’s sweeter than anything
Like the sweat within the rain
You hold on
You don’t want
To believe in any feeling
It’s all you know
It’s touch and go
The night turns
Your skin burns
But it’s just another feeling
It’s all you know
It’s touch and go
Spreading in you
The thinnest of air
All this time you never knew
There’s a thin line
Broken a thousand times
And it’s breaking once again
You hold on
You don’t want
To believe in any feeling
It’s all you know
It’s touch and go
The night turns
Your skin burns
But it’s just another feeling
It’s all you know
It’s touch and go
If only I could
You know that I would
That I’d heal the wounds inside
But all of this time
It seems you’ve made up your mind
Such a long, long time ago
WHEREVER SHE IS
Sand paintings of me and her
When the symmetry’s breaking
It’s closing the doors
To the emerald sky and the emerald sea
Still spinning round on the medicine wheel
Michelangelo’s gold
It shines in her eyes
I guess it’s time for the saddest goodbye
Just a handful of dust that’s spread in the air
Now she’s everywhere
Wherever she is
Wherever she’s hiding
I want her to cool this feeling
I want her inside of me
Feeling somewhere in between
Taking walks on the floorboards
They’re rice paper thin
Running down avenues on Titanic feet
The mirrors turn
Never know who’ll you be
Singing songs to the moon
To the carpet of stars
They’re shining down and they’re shining quite hard
They’re the comfort of strangers you get on the streets
And it feels so sweet
MY TANGERINE GIRL
My tangerine girl
She’s the star in the films of my mind
She’s turning my world
Like the sun and the zodiac signs
The blue of her eyes
Makes me feel like I’m drowning
Her Mephisto smile
So exquisitely blinding
The sweetest of wine
Can’t compare to the taste of her lips
Her poetic sighs
And the stardust of her fingertips
On midsummer nights
When she imitates heaven
The moon in the sky
Looking down, feeling jealous
My tangerine girl
I’ve been writing her name in the air
She’s all of my world
She’s the face that I see everywhere
She hangs from the sky
And she fills my horizon
The look in her eyes
God it’s so tantalizing
The things that she says
She means everything to me
She makes me forget
Undesirable feelings
My tangerine girl
She’s a child of the wildest of winds
The face of the world
She’s a story without any end
The blue of her eyes
Makes me feel like I’m drowning
Her Mephisto smile
So exquisitely blinding
PALLADIUM
Never thought I’d ever be myself
Thought I was within my prison cell
‘Cause the windows gave the view
That all to know was what I knew
In this Palladium
In this Palladium
And I know you’ve seen it all
In mirror-mirrors on the walls
Sharing weaknesses with so-called friends
In a game that’s called “it never ends”
Had to leave it all behind
And face the sentence of my mind
TEARS IN THE RAIN
Like tears in the rain
They’re fading away
No eye shall absorb the tear it cries
Each tear is a stream that purifies
Fade away
If just for a while
While these days melt into mind
Never thought it’d come to this
Heart and soul
Never thought it’d come to this
Like tears in the rain
They’re fading away
No eye shall absorb the tear it cries
Each tear is a stream that purifies
Tearing the pages out of any book of reason
Tearing the pages out of any book of days
Never believed that I would ever see the reasons
But all of this time
I must have been have blind
80 90 NOTHING AT ALL
80 90 nothing at all
Watching you come and go
Such a cinematic feeling
Signing off and kissing goodbye
Leaving it all to you
All for you girl
I’ve been watching your face
I’ve been watching the way you’re always hiding
Drawn in pale and in grey
You’re the face of the age
For a while
Like a kite on the sky
The shortest of nights burn for you
Tear the heavens apart
The moon and the stars shine for you
80 90 nothing at all
Watching you come and go
Such a cinematic feeling
Signing off and kissing goodbye
Leaving it all to you
Too good to die girl
80 90 nothing at all
Watching the days go by
All the time now
Hear the next millennium call
Leaving it all to you
Just for you
Easy come
Easy go
All they want you to know
They’ve waited just for you
Leave a trace in the rain
For those who came in your way
Walk on streets made of gold
Of heart and of soul
For a while
Fingers running through sand
The palm of your hand open wide
SECOND VIEW
Rain falling like the seasons
Falling down on me again
No melancholy feeling
Is gonna take these days away
All this time I thought I knew
What to say and what to do
Like a sea of ice that breaks
Try to keep it all away
Rain falling like the seasons
Falling down on me again
No melancholy feeling
Is gonna take these days away
I never wanted to
I never needed you
I’m gonna keep it in my mind
LYCEUM GIRL
She’s been hiding away any world of tomorrow
She’s been reading the writing that runs down the wall
She’s been living inside me
She’s been trying to find me
She’s been playing the same scene
Shedding light in my sleep
It’s the pale and the grey
Of the lyceum girl
Turn my night and the day
In this lyceum world
Interfering my nights like the sweetest distraction
Interfering the heart and the soul of it all
‘Cause she’s breathing inside me
Everywhere, she surrounds me
Like the sky and the blue sea
Falling all over me
It’s the pale and the grey
Of the lyceum girl
Turn the night and the day
In this lyceum world
A little sweeter
A lot a little sweeter
A little nearer
A lot a little nearer
ANIMAL HEART
You carry the world inside you
You carry the world within the air
With all of your heart shining through skin
You’re shedding your light like angels
You’re shedding your light as make-believe
With all of the sky torn apart where you’ve been
You’re all that I ever wanted
You’re all that I ever did believe
You’re all that I ever needed
Count a thousand stars in my animal heart
Throw them out in the open
See them turning around
See them all coming down
Feel them fall inside you
Light a thousand lights for a little while
Make it all I’ve wanted
Keep them under your skin
Keep the world in a string
Keep it all inside you
You carry the world inside you
You carry the world within the air
With all of your heart shining through skin
You’re shedding your light like angels
You’re shedding your light as make-believe
With all of the sky torn apart like a need
ALAS, AGAIN, ENCORE
I’ve been walking in the rain
I’ve been falling down again
Thought I heard you calling
Like a kite upon the sky
Going up and going down
Don’t you know how it feels when you’re losing the feeling?
And in the night the rain keeps on falling
And in the streets the silence keeps calling
Keep on calling
You’re in my blood
You’re in my mind
You’re everything I feel inside
The world inside me keeps on falling
It keeps falling
You’re in my blood
You’re in my mind
You’re everything that spins around
The world inside me keeps on falling
It keeps falling (inside me)
Kiss and tell and make-believe
Suddenly it’s river deep
It’s the strangest feeling
Crossing fingers in the dark
Hope it’s only really started
Seems like everything’s hidden within the air I breathe
SALT OF YOUR SKIN
Lovers will come and lovers will go
Leaving a name that nobody knows
Spread like the stars at night
A handful of days
I’m closing my eyes and I’m watching your face
The blue of your eyes
The blue of the waters
You’re in my blood
And you’re in my mind
The salt of your skin’s
Been burning inside me
All this time
Memory lines all over the sky
Telling the tales of whispers and cries
Calling inside of me
The trace of the hurt
I’m sick and I’m tired and I’m losing the words
THE OTHER SIDE OF HER FACE
She whispers me
So tenderly
She stills the rage inside me
The summer sky
The crimson nights
She comes and goes inside me
Coming in like the tide
Running into my mind
Shedding light like angels
See her turn away within the night
Hide away her reasons
Hide them underneath the open sky
She’s all that I’ve wanted
She’s all that I’ve needed to believe
The cutout moon
A silent view
She holds her hand against it
The light that rains
Upon her face
It falls like lines upon her
Light is running like sand
Down the palm of her hand
Shedding light like angels
See her turn away within the night
Hide away her reasons
Hide away her face to close her eyes
The shadows keep falling
They’re running like water down her face
The shadows keep falling
They’re hiding away one side of her face
UNTITLED
I don’t know what I feel
I’ve been trying to find out
Been trying to see what you see
The same thing always shows
Maybe yes
Maybe no
I don’t know what to do
I’ve been running in circles
Been running around like a fool
I feel hot
I feel cold
Maybe yes
Maybe no
The world’s turning around
Falling down like a mirror
That’s breaking inside of my mind
It feels so long ago
Maybe yes
Maybe no
And it’s stranger than fiction
It’s way out of hand
It’s a feeling that’s out of control
Guess you know how the story will end
‘Cause it already shows
See it run like a river
And rise like the sky
See it falling down on me again
It’s a feeling inside getting on
Getting high
Getting low
Maybe yes
Maybe no
SINGLE MELODY
Logic at the end of its tether
Feeling slightly under the weather
All the time
In my mind
Helter-skelter losing my shelter
Just another secret agenda of its kind
Of my mind
I’m chasing the blue sky
I’m chasing the sky within your eyes
Take me to the forever fields of your mind
Take me to the forever needs you hide inside
Take me down the rivers wide and deep
The mountains high
The forever fields
The forever dreams
Floating like a leaf on the water
Turning over things that I’ve thought of all my life
For a while
Images keep falling like feathers
Hiding somewhere under the layers of my skin
Whispering
PREMONITION (JUST A FEELING)
Silver lining inside me
You’re adapting my every word
Such an eloquent silence
Feeling hurt?
Still you’re moving so lightly
Like you’re hanging within the air
Seems it’s your way of saying
Couldn’t care
It’s just a feeling
Another feeling on the sky
It’s just a feeling
Another feeling coming down
The silver lining
You’ll see it run into the air
For just a moment
Another line that disappears
Guess it’s all second chances
Getting used to the sights and sounds
With the greatest indifference
Running down
All aesthetic behaviour
Still I’m watching your every move
Sugarcoating the daylight
With a view
BURNING SUGAR
The memory lines that run down the sky
Running like streams of reason
The story is told in silver and gold
No words ever tell the tale
I believe in all that I see
In all that I know
In all that I feel inside me
I know that dreams will come true
If they’re burning
Burning sugar
Burns inside me
Burning sugar
Burning so sweet
The things that I’ve seen
The places I’ve been
A secret that stays unbroken
The sheltering sky
It’s high as a kite
Cooling my every need
LEATHERN
Edges of speaking
Outlived of hatred
Could I forgive at all?
Or could sigh be further
Than I reached always
Light died, -ly pregnant
Up, killed in your words
Sheet-minded loving was
Respect as given thought
Of hairy swine-like
Hours of nameless
Of this penetration
Could I still cry for sad?
Tell friend and leech apart
The fall of the fallen
Unnamed or misused
Lethal hate given
Word castles built in vain
Salute nugacity
Could I feel guilty?
The leathern tenderness
Did you cry lustful?
I can now nevermore
Give what I wanted to
To feel so leathern
Cry of the stone tears
Kiss of the unsaid
Without these arms to stretch
Like passion for unseen
I seek the guiltful
To feel so leathern
Emotionally leprous
AN ATTEMPT OF INTERRUPTION
The nurseling and the tendon
The naked responsibility
Unexisting possibilities
Like long gone friends
Infectious ideas
I kept your sins
Sincere to the end
And I concentrate on remembering your face
Your eyes
But the noise from the second day’s party wipes it out
Sentimental warfare
Days of life
Seconds of love
Hours of sin
This could be as heart-known
Lust-dead in deed
Vulgar to feed
Holding me down
You could be forgiven
‘Cause I’ll lie for you
I’ll die for you
I’ll do anything
‘Cause I’ll lie for you
I’ll die for you
I’ll do anything
To be forgiven
ANOTHER CHAPTER
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
A fantasy world of omniscience
Heavens and ambitions in showrooms of the mind
In another chapter of forgotten time
Faces disappearing in memory and mind
But you, you know it all in your identity design
So twentieth century
Things are what they are, no matter what we feel
Endeavour is the key, not the mastermind ideal
And if you don’t agree
Well then you don’t agree
So come on little playtime Hitler
Forget your intellectual parades
There are no final solutions
Only final denials
No need for vain display
I’ve seen your religion and I’ve seen your holy water
But my spit is more sacred than all your inner borders
‘Cause it’s of flesh and blood
I’ve seen your religion and I’ve seen your inner borders
But my spit is more sacred than all your holy water
‘Cause it’s of flesh and blood
It’s my flesh and blood
WORLDS APART
Somebody told me that love never dies
It grows silent
But once every often
It takes on the form of indifference
Child of northern light
You’re lost at winter stations
You always cried for change
Now you keep the same locations
Year after year
In a world of cards you kept looking for a future
But all you ever found was your isolated nature
Reflected in dreams
The fire and the gold
All the stories that you told
Never seem to set you free
The innocence is gone
But the shadow hunt goes on
In a night without end
In a heart that pretends to believe
In worlds apart
In worlds divided
You breathe the air
I breathe the silence
The moon is turning gold
As the stars are shining silver
I can’t recall this room
But it feels like I have been here
So long ago
A season without end
It cuts the sky wide open
Another line of thoughts run into the distant ocean
Of sheltering blue
We used to never part
Guard the secrets of our hearts
Underneath a nightless dream
But stories always end
And they don’t begin again
When the eyes go to sleep
When the eyes go to worlds out of reach
In worlds apart
In worlds divided
I hold your hand within the silence
The darkness drowns the light
Spitting shadows in our faces
It’s making you forget
It’s erasing all the traces
Except in my heart
The night is turning red
As it’s running through your fingers
You’re bleeding heart and soul
As you give up
As you surrender
The last breath of life
Breathe the light
IMAGINE FOCUS
Just a touch of lost
Burning as always
As it was
As it is
And eventually
Just in trust
Nothing more
So suddenly
From beginning to end
While this centreless present reflects itself
In inverted moves of an obsessional stage
In a stream of light from unreachable marks
Something long ago in everlasting terms
In a cross-fade of untitled reasons
What it turned out to be
And occasionally
Everything in my hands
So totally
In the heat of the touch
Like the way we were
Beyond love under will
Suddenly away in these only words
By mistakes again into changing links
In this compromise of dependence then
Stage by stage in exposure
Still so timeless in this life release
Nearness hidden in casual moves
Watch the changes and recall
Touch through another focus
Mark perfection twice
With or without purpose
Still tons against tons
Carefully mistaken in retrospective fear
Restrain it all while I imagine focus
As I lie down
As I lie
WINTER SUN
It’s like a winter sun
Shining with a cold light
It’s like a moment that’s frozen in time
Shining with an afterglow
Like a deserted dream
I’m watching from a distance
I see a sky full of thunder above
A face within the sudden light
But then the face disappears
Hidden in the sea of the night
Until the sky catches fire again
I see your face within the light
It’s like a winter sun
Shining with a cold flame
It’s like a moment that’s frozen in time
Shining like the light of day
When the sea runs dry
When the stars burn out
When day turns the night
You’ll see the winter sun
See the winter sun
Feel the winter sun
SYNTHESIS
To my love
Wherever you may be
I’m with you
United in spirit
My life lies in your hands
All power ever been
All power yet to come
Is here now
This instant
Around us
Inside us
Henrik Marstal: Cello
Iben Teilmann: Viola
Kasper Söderlund: Guitar
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Signe Kjærsgaard: Bass
Torben Engberg: Keyboards
Design: Peter Graabæk
The background for the release is explained in an introductory statement by website editor Peter Engels Ryming:
”Disc A of this limited edition double-cd presents a series of private MH demo recordings made in 1996 and 1997. This period is characterized by an emphasis on shorter, more straightforward melodies than in the previous period (Testcards 1989-1995), and the material culminates with the Dog House demos of three Adapter tracks recorded in collaboration with Thomas Li. One of the curiosities included on this disc is Martin Hall’s first demo version (of several more to follow) of “Salt of Your Skin”, a track that later became a huge 1998 hit for Danish platinum act Hanne Boel in several European countries.
Disc B features the recordings from Hall’s already legendary midnight concert in Hellig Kors Kirken (a church in Copenhagen, Denmark) in December 1994. Ever since the event people have been making inquiries about the possibility of having this material released so it is with the greatest pleasure that we’re finally able to do so. As a bonus this disc ends with two pieces of environmental works, “Paraphrase” from 1995 and “Titles” from 1994.
The motives for releasing the Testcards series is to enable hardcore Martin Hall collectors to get hold of tracks and recordings otherwise lost (the majority of the included songs have never been re-recorded for any official release). The reason behind the limited edition package is a demand from Mind and Media and Hall himself who doesn’t want any of the double-cd’s to appear as grand-scale releases. Both titles should be considered as objects of affection, not as an introduction to Martin Hall as an artist.”
TRACE
TRACE
VARIOUS ARTISTS
DB-CD
SEPTEMBER 1999
AUDIO RESEARCH EDITIONS (ARECD102)
Trace is a limited edition collection double-cd consisting of pieces made by international sound artists and experimental composers such as Martin Hall, Yoko Ono, Lee Ranaldo and Will Sergeant among many others. Each artist has produced an original recording of two minutes’ duration for the project based on the theme “trace”.
Trace was released in relation to the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art 1999.
1. Buffer (Martin Hall) (2:00)
Martin Hall, Yoko Ono, Lee Ranaldo and Will Sergeant among many others. You can find a list featuring all participants on the release here.
Design: Colin Fallows
Trace was produced and released to coincide with the Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art 1999 running from the 21st of September until the 7th of November this year. The artists on the release range from well-known figures in the art and music world to individuals and groups making their debut on this occasion.
Martin Hall contributes with the track “Buffer”. Other names on the double-cd feature names such as Yoko Ono, Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth and Will Sergeant from Echo & The Bunnymen. You can find a list featuring all participants on the release here.
Founded by Colin Fallows in 1998, Audio Research Editions is a limited edition imprint for artists’ soundworks. The label has published over 150 works by artists from over 20 countries. Publications include Hope which coincided with the ninth International Symposium on Electronic Art in 1998, a double-cd to which Martin Hall also contributes.
GILLES' REQUIEM
GILLES’ REQUIEM
VARIOUS ARTISTS
CD
AUGUST 1999
RUO RECORDS (RRC16)
Gilles’ Requiem was a stage play performed by Operanord in Citroën’s old factory halls in Copenhagen throughout August and September 1999. The leading part was played by Lars Bom and the stage performance included a boys’ choir consisting of 100 members.
Martin Hall wrote and performed “The Coronation” for the event. Other contributors feature Jovanka Trbojevic, Juliana Hodkinson, Fläskkvartetten and Daniel Nelson.
1. Introitus (Jovanka Trbojević) (7:43)
2. Chorale (Jovanka Trbojević) (2:47)
3. Kyrie (Jovanka Trbojević) (3:27)
4. Graduale (Juliana Hodkinson) (5:57)
5. Intermezzo (Juliana Hodkinson) (1:22)
6. Tractus (Juliana Hodkinson) (4:48)
7. Offertorium (Daniel Nelson) (9:44)
8. Sanctus (Daniel Nelson) (5:21)
9. Angus Dei (Daniel Nelson) (12:02)
10. Post Communio (Juliana Hodkinson) (3:09)
11. Dagene Går 1-5 (Fläskkvartetten) (9:09)
12. Kroningen (Martin Hall) (8:13)
Københavns Drengekor: Choir
RadioUnderholdningsOrkestret: Orchestra
Design: Bedford Lumhold
The story is based on the French Gilles de Rais a.k.a. Gilles de Montmorency-Laval (1404–1440). Baron de Rais was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children.
The Gilles’ Requiem soundtrack features compositions by Jovanka Trbojevic, Juliana Hodkinson, Daniel Nelson, Fläskkvartetten and Martin Hall.
