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From our second CD Alexandria: Madame Alchemier is the grande dame of a dilapidated second-hand bookshop peopled by stray customers and illegal tenants: outsiders, misfits, eccentrics, the unemployed, the exiled, the lonely. A ticking clock spells not only neglect or age, but also that diminishing treasure - Time. She is my own invention, the protagonist of my (still unfurling) novel by the same title, 'Madame Alchemier.' Genre is magic-realism. Background reading in this album's era included poems by Vallejo and the novel 'Momo' by Michael Ende, as well as writing by Milosz, Cavafy, Dunsany, Hesse, Holderlin, Emily Dickinson and John Cowper Powys.

Notes on magic-realism and the Magic Theatre, by Louisa John-Krol:

Hesse, in 'Steppenwolf', wrote of a Magic Theatre at the back of Time. (This calls to mind a story by Dunsany, in which Fame appears to shun a poet, yet agrees to meet him at the back of a warehouse in a hundred years.) How do we make a theatre of mortal life? Can we find enchantment in a world divested of old gods, myths and faeries? 15th century neo-platonist Ficino traced the soul through ‘idolum’, likened to an alchemist’s brew, a ‘theatre of imagery’ (like Dr Lao’s Magic Circus?). In the 20th century, Calvino’s novels 'Invisible Cities' and 'The Castle of Crossed Destinies' re-enchanted reality through veiling and unveiling reality, tomfoolery and interweaving imagery. Magic Realism is not the same as escapist fantasy. Quite the contrary. It searches within, rather than beyond.

'Real because imagined, imagined because real' - Czeslaw Milosz

lyrics

Last night a van with a clown on its back
took a one-man show down a windy road.
He's heading down to a woman I know -
and the saddest of places I used to go:

Rows of books would line the walls,
paper souls she had in store,
voices lurking in the hall, crying –
'Poetry's gone to Hell!'
and the turnover's not what it used to be
and the paint's been peeling for years –

But there's a snow-cat in the window,
and a card of the pier -
'Won't you come down the stair and try my wares?'
said Madame Alchemier -
‘Well maybe they don't want you,
and maybe they can't hear?
and maybe they don't want you’
said Madame Alchemier.

Out on the Boulevard sequins abound
in another Circus of Charisma.
One more festival glittering past -
If they want something, they'll come to me...

No more writers want to read,
No more talkers want to hear,
No more painters want to see
Looks like Poetry's gone to hell!
And the turnover's not what it used to be,
And the paint's been peeling for years –

But there’s a snow-cat in the window…

credits

from Alexandria - full album 1998, released February 4, 2021
Lyrics: Louisa John-Krol & Mark Krol
Vocal Melody, Chords: Louisa John-Krol
Oboe/ Cor Anglais melody composed by Mark Krol, transcribed by Harry Williamson from Louisa's guide Vocal, performed by Stephen Robinson
Keyboard riffs (Harp, Piano, 'Cello): composed by Louisa & Mark, played by Louisa via Midi, programmed by Harry Williamson
Vocals & acoustic Guitar: Louisa John-Krol
Synths, Clock, Carnivale & other effects: Harry Williamson
Timpani & 12-String Guitar embellishments: Harry Williamson
Produced with & engineered by Harry Williamson at Spring Studio
Photo of Louisa by Jerry Galea, The Age newspaper

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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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