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Apple Pentacle - full album 2005

by Louisa John-Krol

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1.
Atho 00:21
Atho we go whirling over, Atho we go …
2.
The Windrow 04:27
The Yarra of Warburton clashing cocoons ripping through the Mirrors of what we see glancing upon the screen of promise Which one is your world? Which one are you sure about? Take all your favourite dreams arrange them in patterns plenty No matter how deep you dive into wells of circumstances Windrow, Windrow, Drift like a curtain - Speak like thunder! Teapots at Yarraglen masking mountains leaping clover Caravans in the dawn carting musk and sandalwood Which one will you choose? Which one knows and questions you? Hazelnuts in the breeze carrying embers of delusion Why don’t take your drum and unleash the memory of you? Windrow, Windrow…
3.
and here's a world in which I can fly, and here's a lake I skim like a mermaid, here's a world where I'm imprisoned,  here's a pentagram of spells that take a shape and burn like fire, and here's a world where I beg for my life, and here's a pleasure screamed with delight, and here's a street I stalk as a vampire, here's a world where I am a queen, and here's a world where love reigns supreme, and here's a world where I cannot walk. And which of these worlds will I cry for? And which of these worlds will I yearn for? And which…. world did I choose? And which of these was I thrown into? and here's a lever lowering a bridge that's leads to castles far in the wood, and here's a carriage in which I ride to my demise, my execution, here I dance with daggers of steel and here I run with wolves to the sea, and here's a plate where poison is placed, a gun to end the life of a rebel here is snow where a life did expire, and here's a banquet filled with mirth, and here's an edict that would make a billion people into slaves, and here's a hole that leads to my freedom, here's a shroud concealing a grail, and here's a flag, and here's a sail to take me to the next galaxy.
4.
Moon stay: in your eyes I swim … Tune fray: tell me where you spin? Down in the valley of size Where the treasure slips by The roving eye finds - You sway to me: Spin one more day.
5.
Moon stay: in your eyes I swim … Tune fray: tell me where you spin? Down in the valley of size Where the treasure slips by The roving eye finds - You sway to me: Spin one more day.
6.
Did I hear you say they’re wandering? They’re rendering the seas and seasons And I hear they are wondering why They would wander to their home in the sky - O’ the wandering, O’ the sundering And for the rendering, the hopes ‘n’ horses When my feet are tired on moss an’ grasses O’ the wandering, O’ the sundering Soon, o’ how soon the Autumn comes along! Here, yes even here, no-one will know you. Over me the loneliness of trees Rest ‘n’ rustle rolling over me O’ the wandering, O’ the sundering And the humming of your hopes ‘n’ horses, For the tendering and wondering why – O’ the wandering, O’ the sundering O’ how soon, how soon…
7.
You want me down darling, let me be! For I am in love with the Lord of a Tree And I’m riding to the good Sir Malder … Saraway told me he was lithe* as the wings of bees But he got his blood from the Mountain - Told me I’d find him in the body of Tree Where his blood flows back to the Mountain - So I stole through his spirit Like a beetle in the shivering seas, I was lost in here for centuries – for the love of Tree! Of the seven seas inside you, Time is only one: I stirred them all as I floated through And then my fingers touched the ground. (Sometimes in singing this, I replace 'lithe' with 'fleet'. Just a whimsy.)
8.
Canterville 04:41
When a golden girl can win prayer from out the lips of sin When the barren bough bears and a little child gives away its tears Then shall all the house be still and peace come to Canterville. A golden girl can win from the lips of sin Come to Canterville! And the ghost spoke again And his voice was the wind
9.
Bow, your shield’s at ease. How many virtues are these? Count round your pentangle down to three: Which courtesy would you now break for me? Now, I’ll hunt to kill! Your every wish to fulfil; Master’s out, and the servants are all asleep: I’m… your love and shall be still. Keep my girdle green, Dream, we are not who we seem: So a good knight would have claimed a kiss From the wife of the Grim Man in Green. Face in the Leaves… leave the hunting to me! I’ll ride you down, I’ll ride you free…
10.
Ceracini 02:23
Ceracini dance in me Hear the children playing in the street Where the nut and brown berry speak Ceracini laugh and leap Down the muddling chestnut trees Marble echo under my feet Some were known and some never seen Sister-father, mother me.
11.
Poppet Plum 03:01
He is on the stair, he knows you: Take your seats inside the tune. The marionettes are there, listening through you, Human dreams hang in this room. Believe their faces, they know you, Their souls are waiting by their feet To hold your graces, and your failures, Not so far above the street. Poppet Plum, stamp and run Bobbing thumb, swing your drum Hand to hand, son to son Till the Human Tale is done. Old as this town, old as this man, With a bagpipe and a bell Tin-tap, lights go down: time for dancing hands! They can show what we can’t tell.
12.
There’s a red briar, in my garden Dressed in fruit she carries but once a year There’s a changeling, in my cradle With a phantom laughter and pointed ear There’s a black crow, at my window With the hollow eyes of a seer – oh! Tell me, do you know the Witch in the Wood? Come Robin, tell me - have you seen the Witch in the Wood? I’ve a stable, by the old tree, And her walls of spiderthorn tangle my hair There’s an ocean, in my cauldron And the earth’s belly is aching for more There’s a piper, on our hillside If you won’t follow I’m going alone – oh! Tell me, how to find the Witch in the Wood… Come plover, show me – if I am the Witch in the Wood Oh seer, you’ll wake the witch in my blood! For I am, mother, oh I am the Witch in the Wood.
13.
Kunmanngur 07:16
down in deep of dawn, where bough was horn a word was born roam in rune of rain, your reel is flame we call your name - Curlew and Eagle Pulloo-Pulloo, Karan Kar Kork and Weirk Tarduk… Darimun Kunmanngur! Kunmanngur!

about

Apple Pentacle is the green twin of Alabaster. Our 5th solo CD (2005 Prikosnovénie), it awakens from the underworld like Persephone, regaining fertile realms of flowers, wild vines and The Apple Tree Man.

The spirit of the Greenwood roves through the ages as Puck Robin, Robin Goodfellow, Robin Hood, Garland / Harvest King, Jack-in-the-Green, Herne, Bucca, Spanish Bosgou, German Woodwose, Sumerian Enkidu, Egyptian Osiris (The Great Green), moss-clad Tapio of Finland, Arcadian Pan, Dionysus, Roman Bacchus, Attis, or Rex Nemorensis. My Welsh ancestors knew him as Atho, Ardhuu, Gruagagh, or Pwca (Puge in old Danish, Pukje in Norwegian). He is Tolkien’s Treebeard and The Knot Wisdom (Solomon’s Seal) of Morris Dancing. The Face in the Leaves peers from foliate heads or sprouting masks. The Koran honours Al-Khidir the Green One. Farther East he appears as Krishna or Rama / Vishnu. Ancient Mayan, Aztec and Hopi Indian cultures celebrated him, eg. as Kokopelli.
Pacific Islanders and the First People of the continent now called Australia had stories of The Wild Man. In Europe his consort is the Spring Maiden, Flora, May Queen, Green Faerie Absinthe, or Lady Bercilak who desires a knight with a pentangle on his shield.

If you cut an apple along its equatorial line, its seed pod appears as a pentacle, a five-pointed star. The apple core shows the spirit bringing elements into harmony, as taught by Empedocles (circa 475 BC). The pentacle or pentagram (star in the apple) signals protection, luck, creative energy & everlasting life. It is the sign of the Illuminati and attracts unicorns. In the Welsh Câd Goddeu (The Battle of the Trees), the Apple symbolises poetic immortality. In ancient Silesia (now in Poland), it was a dream tree. If the oldest tree in an orchard is The Apple Tree Man, the fertility of the grove resides in him. He may bestow fortune on respectful mortals, though treasure at his roots may be symbolic. More about Applelore is on my website: Hermetic magicians and deities linked with apples, from Ishtar and Isis or her underground twin Nephthys, to Idunn, Morgan Le Fey, Ceridwen and Kore, whose Pentalpha interlaced 5 times.

So, our wayfarers are ripe for wassailing! Perhaps they wonder which galaxy to spin next? Diving inside trees, conjuring ghostly riders, courting faerie trysts, seeking wood-witches or twirling puppetry, is all in the star of an apple.

'On the day when the green fields
Are a colony goldenly ruled by Apollo
May the sensation we have of life
Be a dance within us'

- Fernando Pessoa

credits

released April 1, 2021

Lyrics, Music by Louisa John-Krol & Mark Krol, except for 'The Green Pentacle' and 'Kunmanngur', co-written respectively with Jenni Heinrich and Frederic Chaplain (Lys). We made the first half of the album with Brett Taylor, and the second half with Harry Williamson, except for the final song 'Kunmanngur', which Fred and Brett co-produced in France and Australia. Vocals: Louisa John-Krol. Other credits are listed with individual songs. They include players of Flute, Mandolin, Wurlitzer, Viola, Hurdy-Gurdy, Piano, Harpsichord, other Keyboards, Clay Puppet Feet, various Guitars, Chiming Fruit, Angel Harp and Dulcimer.

The album is split into two, like halves of an apple. Part 1, Atho and Part 2, Ardhuu, are Welsh avatars of the Green Man.

Album cover art: Sabine Adélaïde, Prikosnovénie

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Louisa John-Krol Australia

Louisa is an Australian singer, composer, writer & faery storyteller who has released many albums of ethereal music on indie labels, primarily in France. She's completing a fantasy series, The Elderbrook Chronicles, with a soundtrack.

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