‘The Garden of Live Flowers’ appeared on my third CD, "Ariel", released on the French fairy-world label Prikosnovenie, but it could be in any Wonderland.
It was recorded in two studios, a year apart, with different producers, musicians and arrangements.
Spring and Eden versions were then edited, chopped, reassembled and grafted into one piece, so Alice moves between sonic realms, through doors in Dreaming. Shrinking, expanding, the song sometimes even drops out completely... can you can find Alice in the silences? Free-fall or fall to freedom?
“And your cards are all blowing away in a Marmalade Parade’’: my pun on the music ‘jam’ irreverently upturns the ‘gravy train’, an industry loop in which everyone but the artist cashes in on the produce.
“The Queen was in the parlour, eating bread and honey”... so goes the nursery rhyme, but Alice wasn’t intimidated by royalty: “You are only a pack of cards!”
lyrics
Alice is falling, oh-h
Alice is falling, ohh-h
and your cards are all blowing away
in a marmalade parade -
and your caterpillar is shaking
did I hear him say – ?
Chorus
Take your Boots of Snow - Enter The Garden of Live Flowers!
Take your Wings of Pie an’ fly into the Eye of the Blackbird –
Alice is falling, ohh-h
Alice is falling, oh-h...
well the King’s in the parlour
and something is wrong with his head -
and the Queen and the Joker were
Seasoned an’ Served with the bread - they said:
Take your Boots of Snow - Enter The Garden of Live Flowers!!!
Take your Wings of Pie an’ fly into the Eye of the Blackbird –
of the Live, of the Live, of the Live
of the Live Flowers!
Enter The Garden!
Enter The Garden!
Alice is falling, oh-h
Alice is falling, ohh-h...
gnillaf si ecilA, h-ho
gnillaf si ecilA, ecilA,
ecilA
credits
released April 7, 2015
Composition:
lyrics & melodies: Louisa John-Krol
Performance, Instrumentation:
vocals, mandolin & chiming keyboard riffs: Louisa John-Krol
bass, electric guitars, percussion, orchestration, effects: Brett Taylor & Harry Williamson (each in respective versions).
Produced by Brett Taylor (at Pilgrim Arts) and Harry Williamson (at Spring Studio) - one entire recording per studio, then at my direction spliced by Harry and combined into a single piece, so that Alice slips back & forth between different versions of herself.
Special thanks to Mark Krol for his advice on expression & arrangement during the song's metamorphosis.
From Louisa's 3rd CD Ariel (Blue Tree, Australia 2000, then on Prikosnovenie, France 2001).
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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