ARTIST...: Adult Fantasies
TITLE....: Towers of Silence
YEAR.....: 2020
LABEL....: STROOM
CAT.NO...: STRLP-047
GENRE....: Electronic
TIME.....: 47:04
SIZE.....: 85.36 MB
QUALITY..: 251kbps/44.1kHz/Joint Stereo
ENCODER..: LAME
SOURCE...: WEB (WAV)
RLS.DATE.: 2020/07/23
WEBSITE..: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/towers-of-silence
TRACKLIST
01) (04:00) Under a Steelplate Sky
02) (04:36) Parsi
03) (04:39) Life in Transit
04) (03:48) Lear
05) (02:43) Cage
06) (02:50) Pagan Litany
07) (04:05) Le Petit Chat
08) (03:16) Of Things Gone
09) (03:41) Daddy-Bear
10) (04:42) Twilight
11) (04:57) In Darkness I Dwell (Renaissance Theme)
12) (03:47) The Party is Over
Quote / Unquote
ôAls das Kind Kind war, wusste es nicht dass es Kind warö the opening words of
ôHimmel ⁿber Berlin (Wings of Desire)ö by Wim Wenders are so incredibly simple and
innocent that they strike you down like the most murderous thunderbolt: ôWhen the
child was a child, it didnÆt realize it was a childö.
Are these words the fantasies of an adult or are these words the adult cogitations of
a childÆs brain?
ôThird Child: Grandma, tell us a story!
Grandma: Come here, you little crabs! Once upon a time there was a poor child without
a father and a mother, all were dead, and no one left in this world. All were dead
and she stood up and walked and searched all day and all night. And because there was
no one left on earth, she wanted to go to heaven and the moon looked so friendly down
upon her. And as she had reached the moon, it turned out to be a piece of rotting
wood. So she went to the sun, and as she had reached the sun, it turned out to be a
faded sunflower. And as she had reached the stars, they looked like tiny golden
mosquitos, all pinned down, like the red-backed shrike bird pins them down wiggling
and dying on sharp blackthorns. As she got back to earth, it turned out to be a
chamber pot turned over. And she was alone. And there she sat down and cried, and
there she still sits down and cries.ö (Georg Bⁿchner, Woyzeck)
This childrenÆs tale by German writer Georg Bⁿchner remains one of the most
heartbreaking tales of despair I have ever read. Yet à. in his play æWoyzeckÆ (1836)
it is meant to be told to children as a fairy tale. I have always found this paradox
extremely fascinating: the more innocent or na∩ve the form is, the more violent and
destructive the effect can be. Therefore, a whisper can hurt more than an outcry of
anger. The lesser the volume, the louder the result. A seemingly simple melody can
hide a message of despair. The border between æadultÆ and æchildÆ becomes very blurry
in this context. The imagination of a child can be very adult or the fantasies of an
adult can have a more devastating impact if told in a childlike way. Adult fantasies?
A traditional Inuit way of hunting polar bears was to hide a sharp spring inside a
piece of walrus fat: the bear was lured by what looked like the best treat ever but
when he put his teeth in it, the spring unfolded, cut open his mouth and he ran away,
bleeding to inevitable death. The hunter just had to follow the red snowmarks to find
the agonising predator.
What looks innocent and attractive might hide something lethal.
Is æmelodiousÆ the same as æpopÆ? Well, I guess in the sense that The VelvetÆs æPale
Blue EyesÆ could be labelled æpopÆ: it is simultaneously melodious and yet
bloodcurdling cold. A melodious song can hide a lethal spring. Caressing and killing
can be the same.
There are butchers who whisper soft and sweet words in the ear of the animal that
they are about to slaughter.
ôChekhov or some cheap TV or is this what we call ærealityÆ?ö (The Party is Over).
Chekhov is a master in describing boredom.
Our future lies in the past. The intensity of artistic movements at the beginning of
the 20th century has never been surpassed. Long before the literary cut-up technique
of William Burroughs or the musical mix of any Dj, Dadaists experimented with
typographic and visual collage. What is it other than a æmixÆ before that three-
letter word had been invented?
Gerrit and I met in a 4-track cassette recording studio in a basement where our
producer had accidentally mixed some of our tracks togetherà. His unstoppable flow of
musical creativity was only matched by his generosity and patience to work with me.
It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
'With this paraphrase of the historical closing line from ôCasablancaö, we have ended
where we started this æQuote / UnquoteÆ: at the movies. That is no coincidence. We
have always felt that we were making soundtracks for unexisting films.
ôNothing remains but Towers of Silenceö (Parsi). Towers of silence are funnel-shaped
towers upon which the Parsi (or Farsi), followers of the ancient religion of
Zarathustra, put their dead. As fire is sacred to them, they do not incinerate their
dead. The corpses are put on these towers, where vultures pick the flesh.'
The record is a canvas. This music is not about trends, it is about emotions,
colours, stories and images. And sharing these with you has been made possible by
this release on Stroom: we are very grateful to Stroom for that. And to you for
listening.
Released July 20, 2020
Music by Gerrit Valckenaers & Dirk Seghers
Produced by Gerry Vergult & Adult Fantasies
Recorded by Gerry Vergult, Peter Gillis & Staf Verbeeck
Liner Notes by Dirk Seghers
Handwritten typography æAdult FantasiesÆ by Johan Daenen
Photos by Stephen Feldman
Graphic Design by Nana Esi
Selection by Brecht Van Dingenen & Ziggy Devriendt
Mastered By Mathieu Savenay
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