Sanguinaria, by Avi C. Engel

Sanguinaria

by Avi C. Engel

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Daria S. another gorgeous offering from the cabaret folk legend themselves Favorite track: The Snake in the Mirror.

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Limited run of 70 professionally duplicated CDs
In a slim 4-panel cardboard sleeve enviropak
Design by Clara Engel

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32

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Too Many Souls, Sanguinaria, Undergrowth, Their Invisible Hands, The Cicada Session, Dressed in Borrowed Light, Ghost Bird, A New Skin, and 24 more. , and , .

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1.	Sing in Our Chains 03:59	lyrics	buy track
moonlit apes swinging in the trees the sky is huge and the sea is green borne in on a wave dissolve in the breeze as the waters rise we sing in our chains of hope and greed moonlit apes swinging in the trees don't climb down you'll bury the stars and boil the sea borne in on a wave dissolve in the breeze we try to gather the world in our arms but we were better off up in the trees moonlit apes swinging in the trees the sky is huge and the sea is green borne in on a wave dissolve in the breeze as the waters rise we sing in our chains of hope and greed
2.	Poisonous Fruit 05:13	lyrics	buy track
poisonous fruit luminous rind take out your knife let's see what's inside hallowed old hurt shrivelled and dry who are you without all you love to despise? poisonous fruit luminous rind take out your knife let's see what's inside the pale rider drinking lilac wine smoking a joint still shows up on time poisonous fruit luminous rind take out your knife let's see what's inside a warehouse full of hearts with no eyes they say love is blind just tendrils and tongues in a shivering fire poisonous fruit luminous rind take out your knife let's see what's inside
3.	The Snake in the Mirror 03:39	lyrics	buy track
the snake in the mirror is smiling at me the snake in the mirror is levitating tap on the glass it's liquifying and we swim in ribbons of light godspeed moon pulls too hard and strangles the tide gaping heart and bloodshot sky mindless body swirling and bright tide-pool eyes brim with primordial life the snake in the mirror is smiling at me the snake in the mirror is levitating tap on the glass it's liquifying and we swim in ribbons of light godspeed orchid bloom and vulture feed a husk, a hollow lonesome thing one foot in this world one miles in the deep half-life of love doesn't mean a thing the snake in the mirror is smiling at me the snake in the mirror is levitating tap on the glass it's liquifying and we swim in ribbons of light godspeed
4.	Deathless 06:32	lyrics	buy track
let it come down easy let it come down like rain a story with no ending tears and mends itself again sing a smoke ring sing a tempest sing a spiral and a burning wheel hold me like flesh around a skeleton like snow on a sleeping field let it come down easy let it come down like rain a story with no ending tears and mends itself again sing a waterfall a desert a trembling compass rose sing a hell and sing a heaven hungry ghosts in shepherd's robes let it come down easy let it come down like rain a story with no ending tears and mends itself again limbs twist into branches bud and ache with stars cold celestial heartbeat red root that leaves a scar let it come down easy let it come down like rain a story with no ending tears and mends itself again
5.	I Died Again 05:23	lyrics	buy track
oh no I died again can we restart the game, my friend? can I borrow your skin? can I borrow your eyes? can I borrow your wings for a couple of lives? or one more try? oh no I died again can we restart the game, my friend? I was walking along I was feeling swell when I stumbled into a bottomless well oh hell I was doing ok I was just hitting my stride when I tripped and fell in a river of knives oh my oh no I died again can we restart the game, my friend? the hanged man comes and goes the fool got lost in a labyrinth of woe oh no I died again can we restart the game, my friend?
6.	Extasis Boogie (Interlude) 04:54	lyrics	buy track
once upon a time some bones made of pure light decided to go out dancing they borrowed some rags from the sun, who said, "give them back before the morning comes and have yourself a ball, little one" they put on their dancing shoes made of mist and the finest dew and wandered the streets til they felt the pulse of a party no one saw them come inside but a quickening warm and bright crept over flesh like a wave cresting so high words will rob you blind fever dream of form subside wet cracking shell nowhere to hide once upon a time some bones made of pure light decided to go out dancing once upon a time some bones made of pure light dressed to the nines invisible and burning in borrowed rags from the sun they danced until the lights came on and floated home aglow and alone words will rob you blind fever dream of form subside wet cracking shell nowhere to hide
7.	A Silver Thread 04:22	lyrics	buy track
sleep until the sun retreats open your glowing eyes and feast shadows come alive clamouring and wild streetlamps prick the flesh of the soft velvet sky in my darkest hour break into my head shatter mirrors with your cry claw the maps to shreds start a fire and I'll close my eyes your talons shine with blood or moonlight I can't decide life too brief, a flickering thing to be motheaten by ghosts in waking dreams circle the word that trembles and glows and toss the rest back in the coals love songs pour from a weeping sore I don't want to hear about your broken heart anymore sew it up with this silvery thread and let a demon bird build a nest in your head
8.	Personne 06:26	lyrics	buy track
never been saved never been found never been the key singing silver on the ground never been the cup you raise to your mouth never been the wolf never been the hound never been your doorway never been your ride never been your breakdown lane at the end of the night never been violet never been blue never been the pane of glass you punch right through never been anointed never been tried never been real never been right never been frozen never been high never been delivered never been decried never been a seahorse never been a stag never been as gorgeous as adonis in drag never been a monster never been a saint never been a seagull perched on heaven's gate (reprise)
9.	Bridge Behind the Sun 05:28	lyrics	buy track
there's a bridge behind the sun made of spider's lace and wire I met a drowned man sprouting feathers of fire we traded songs before he took flight but I would rather have traded my eyes there's a bridge behind the sun made of knotted ropes of light I met a woman who'd been buried alive hollow eyes full of planets and vines she said "vengeance is a mirage" as she coughed up a morsel of sky there's a bridge behind the sun free from every storm and pain every earthly shape, every earthly name blind wolf in the forest of stars awaken, blow our houses down move through our bones like mist make no sound I have no face I have no eyes I'm a fruit tree in a circle of fire I bury my hands deeper in the sky
10.	Larvae 06:24	lyrics	buy track
larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels invertebrates larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels lost in space roots have so little room to grow flames lick the windows we watch and we wait snow globe prison pulsating schism hot-blooded static and the batteries fry larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels invertebrates larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels lost in space last night I dreamed mist poured over the sea a spider web glowed in a sunbeam and the undertaker and the kingmaker sat around the fire roasting hearts and hopes and joys larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels invertebrates larvae glisten in a moon dust garden rare jewels lost in space

about

CASSETTE AVAILABLE AT:
cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sanguinaria

SANGUINARIA REFLECTION

When I started writing this collection of songs it was spring of 2022, and bloodroot was blooming in the ravine near where I live. These flowers are spring ephemerals; they burst out of the ground with bright white petals that open, drop, disperse, and seem to be absorbed back into the earth within the span of less than a week. When I looked up bloodroot, I learned that its Latin name is "sanguinaria canadensis" and that the juice from the root is very potent, poisonous in large doses, and can scar the skin. The toxin is most concentrated in the thick bulbous rhizome of the plant, which is bright red if you slice it open. I read also that bloodroot has a long history of medicinal use in several different Indigenous cultures.

The name "sanguinaria" sounded familiar to me, and then I realized that on an album I own by Hildegard von Bingen there is a piece called "O Cruor Sanguinis/Cum Vox Sanguinis." I read the text, which speaks to the sacrifice of St Ursula as well as the sacrifice of a calf. Raised with no religion, I come to these texts as an outsider. As a young person I briefly studied religion, and I was very drawn to the Gospel of Thomas and the book of Revelation - drawn to the poetry of the language and to the startling imagery that seemed to reach beyond itself. I am still drawn to them, but my interest is complicated by a deep distrust in dogma, and in any claims to spiritual authority or power. The stain of patriarchy and of human-centric brutality often taints the poetry of religious texts (and the religious impulse itself). I'm increasingly drawn to stories that de-centre the human being, but that perhaps have a religious bent in the sense that they reach for transcendence. Utterances that reach beyond the bounds of utterance: I can sing it better than I will ever be able to explain it, and if I could explain it I wouldn’t be moved to sing it.

A plant whose juices can maim and whose physical beauty is only a small aspect of its being is a more potent and mysterious image to me than so many of our old human tales of blood sacrifice and other brutalities that disproportionally wound voiceless and socially subordinate beings.

The non-human world is awesomely heedless of, and dispassionate towards, human codes of meaning and morality. To be burned by bloodroot or blinded by hogweed does not make you a martyr or a sacrifice to a great green god (though this is beginning to sound like an interesting B-movie plot). Our small blood-soaked fables are drowned out by the immeasurably intricate polyphony of the natural world.

I also read the word sanguinaria as a fusion of "sanguine" and "aria." Sanguine means both optimistic (especially in the face of a challenge) and "blood-red." I would not describe my songs as optimistic or blood-red, but I do find something profoundly life-affirming in my practice of making art and music. The simplest translation of "aria" is just "song" or "melody" and all of these ten songs are centred around my voice.

A question that pulses insistently in these songs, but that I struggle to articulate outside the realm of music: I am and will only be (as far as I know) a human being, with all of the tragic and absurd baggage it entails. How can I live without falling prey to despair and misanthropy, and also reckon meaningfully with my own part in the destruction of the non-human world?

Captain Beefheart has a song called "My Human Gets Me Blues," and that title has stayed with me despite the fact that I haven't listened to Trout Mask Replica in many years. Skip James sings "I would rather be a little catfish/So I could swim way down in the sea." And there is the famous old song I first heard on the Anthology of American Folk Music, "I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground." I don't have a name for this genre of song, but I'm inclined to call it a music of transfiguration, and I would say this album falls somewhere in that tradition. Songs that reach beyond themselves, with a longing to be transformed, reabsorbed, to transcend the boundaries of self, social order, interpersonal pain, and become part of a more boundless and mysterious whole.

Avi C. Engel
2023

credits

released June 16, 2023

All songs written and performed, recorded and mixed by Avi C. Engel (fka Clara Engel)

Mastered by Krzysztof Sujata

Avi C. Engel: voice, electric cigar box guitar, acoustic guitar, talharpa, gudok, cajón, wooden trunk with soft mallets, tongue drum, melodica

Brad Deschamps: lap steel on Sing in Our Chains and Extasis Boogie, electric guitar on A Silver Thread, electric guitar and kalimba on Larvae

Lys Guillorn: lap steel on A Silver Thread

Paul Kolinski: banjo, percussion, backing vocals on Deathless

A big thank you to patrons and all who made this recording possible:
Attila, William Bennett, David Buchta, Joel Cuthbert, Jay Dee, Konstantinos Diamantis, Chris D'Iorio, Nicholas Field, Lys Guillorn, Hannah Heath-Engel, Jane Heath, Marc Hosemann, Brian King, Larry Lamb, Jeff McGivney, Taylor McLaren, Stephanie Merrin, Daniel Murphy, Jefferson Ogata, Karol Orzechowski, Emmett Pearce, Rob Raymond, Marley M. Rosen, Jarret Ruminski, Neil Sanders, John Scharpen, Michael Lawrence Senchuk, Wayne Smart, Oliver Strahl, Eliphas Üsher, Matthew Whitelegg, Astor Wolfe, Barrett Wolski.

Cover photograph and design by Avi C. Engel

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Avi C. Engel Toronto, Ontario

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I'm not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die.

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