I wrote this song 'Antiquity' at age 15 in bushland of Junortoun, near Bendigo, Australia. A silver cat perched on the fence beside me, under the stars. They shone brightly in a pristine sky.
Decades later, I recorded this song for my album Elderbrook, a soundtrack to fantasy chronicles I've been writing since girlhood. Timelessness is a constant companion, and Antiquity its cat.
lyrics
I walked down to the lake in Malnerholm;
Saw a man with weary eyes an’ a heavy load; he said,
'I am troubled because I have answers that don’t satisfy me!'
I told him: If you want to know …
Go, ask the stars that no-one has seen,
Where they shine between those galaxies far from home!
Go question the sunless night - through an eagle’s eye –
While the songs and seas ... are calling to Antiquity.
So we talked and turned each others’ thoughts around;
Well he told me, 'Life is a shadow of the mind ...'
Search inside and lay your questions down:
How many people are to be born?
How long the tide will rise an’ fall,
Maybe time means nothing at all?
Ask the moon when she’ll refuse to shine,
borrow the prophet’s eyes
But the songs and seas are calling to Antiquity.
There’s a kind of reason that we’ve both denied;
don’t ask me why
Just go, ask the stars …
We’re calling … Calling to Antiquity …
And the songs an’ the seas, they’re calling back
Calling right back now, calling ... to Antiquity.
credits
released August 7, 2022
Lead Vocals & acoustic Guitar: Louisa John-Krol
Male Harmonies: Brett Taylor
Vibraphone: Simon Lewis
Trumpet: Liam Taylor
Harmonic Guitar Thrums: Phil Setton
Bass: Phil Setton & Brett Taylor
Percussion: Jack Setton & Brett Taylor
Keyboards/Effects: Brett Taylor
Australian Birds licensed from Listening Earth: 'Favourite Australian Birdsong - Pure Nature Sounds' (Fairy Wren, Scarlet Robin, Magpie, Singing Honeyeater)
Recorded across two studios by two engineers:
(i) Jack Setton of Mad Cat Sound
(ii) Brett Taylor of Pilgrim Arts
Final mix: Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts, SA
On the double-album Elderbrook, in eco-friendly digipak, available at Louisa John-Krol's webstore.
The CD includes an additional, simpler acoustic version of this song as it first sounded on that bushland fence last century, 40 years ago.
Image shows a creek at dusk in Junortoun (near Bendigo), where I wrote 'Antiquity'. Photograph by Olaf Parusel, visiting from Germany, also on this album. Special thanks to Mark for his artistic advice and for moving home with me, here to Bendigo, ancient land of the Dja Dja Warrung.
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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