THE YEAR ROUND
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When we think ‘Time’ it sounds monolithic, uniform, the thing that takes us inexorably from the cradle to the grave in an unbroken line, straight as a Roman road. It stretches unimaginably far behind and ahead of us, framing our brief appearance. But when you look more closely, you see how complex it is – how its many strands weave together and sometime fray apart. We humans have our own cyclical renewals, physically and emotionally, never twice the same as we move through the days, weeks, months and seasons of each succeeding year. Our cells replace themselves; we find ourselves in the light again after long spiritual darkness. Like elderberry wine that starts re-fermenting at the time of year the berries first ripened and were picked, our bodies remember the seasons and dance to their rhythms in ways we can sometimes articulate, but more often cannot. (Pippa Marland)
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Seasonal and Circadian Songs
All around us we are bombarded by loud noises, grandiose statements, and exaggerated hype. Co-existing with these are the smaller things; quiet, unique, and beautiful. Natural elements that keep 'singing' unselfconsciously. The Year Round is a celebration of these too-easily unnoticed things. A deep connection that we cannot afford to lose.
I shall be releasing a song every month, each reflecting on that specific time of year. Each is a setting of poetry and prose by a broad range of writers. This words and music meditate on light and dark, the seasons, weather, place, and our relationship with the natural world and its rhythms. The words are sung by the unique Melanie Pappenheim with several guest musicians sprinkled in.
On the shortest day of the year (the Winter Solstice) the journey of my new album begins.
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If there were no tilt, and the earth spun straight, every day would be an equinox: twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness all the year round. It would be hotter and colder, according to latitude, but there’d be no spring, no winter, no monsoon, no hibernation, no first flowerings. No deciduous leaf-shed, no life-cycle as we commonly understand it. (Anita Roy)
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