Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Art Schop: Death Waits I - Music And Fine Arts 2015 + Death Waits II - The Writers 2019

 

One man launched alone into the unknown with just a couple of guitars and a piano. On what strange planet will he land?
                          


Contemporary rock musician. Explorer of ideas. Bearer of beautiful, uncomfortable truths.

Brooklyn's Art Schop is the solo project of contemporary rock musician Martin G. Walker. Exploring historical and modern ideas, Art Schop's music is skillfully crafted with earnest consonance and poetic lyricism that inspire people to see the world in new ways.
                           

Born in the UK, Art Schop studied Physics at the University of Oxford, where he learned he would not

be a physicist. After a stint as a consultant in London, he realized he was no better suited for commerce. Thus, he moved to New York and reconnected with his musical roots. For him, songwriting is nothing short of miraculous: pieces emerge and live in the world while also speaking his inner truth.
                                   

As a songwriter with an intent to make a difference, Art Schop strives to communicate beautiful and

uncomfortable truths about human existence. Inspired by Schopenhauer’s World as Will and Representation, the artist developed an original theory that connects the universal laws governing the physical world with the foundation of morality and the meaning of life. This philosophy informs his life and art, and, particularly, pulses through his upcoming album Starguide.
                      

Art Schop is an explorer of ideas, calling for awareness and deep connection. His previous albums,

Death Waits I and Death Waits II, were recorded over several years in collaboration with musical genius Jimi Zhivago. Reminiscent of Nick Cave, John Grant and Tom Waits' ground-breaking voices
, Art Schop's vanguard sound beckons those following their own paths and searching for truth beyond the ordinary.
                               

Through ingenious and otherworldly soundscapes marked by vocals rich in cosmic wisdom, Starguide,

out in Spring 2021, highlights the profound miracle of planet Earth in relation to the universe with its trillions of stars and hundreds of billions of galaxies.

ART SCHOP – DEATH WAITS I - MUSIC AND FINE ARTS 2015

                                   

                              
Death Waits I is adapted from Jacques Brel’s song “La Mort,” with new music, and revised and

extended lyrics. Songs inspired by the lives and works of Will Oldham, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alberto Giacometti, Richard Wagner, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Michelangelo, and Sappho, with adaptations of songs by Jacques Brel and Henry Purcell.


Credits

Production: Jimi Zhivago
Arrangements: Zhivago / Walker
All songs: Walker
Vocals: Walker
Guitars, bass: Zhivago (except Lombard Cat, interlude Walker)
Keyboards, piano: Zhivago, Walker
Hammond B3: Zhivago
Drums: Tony Leone (tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10), Blake Fleming (tracks 1, 7, 9)
Percussion: Leone, Fleming, Zhivago

                         



Label: Not On Label (Art Schop Self-released) – none
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK   
Released: Nov 13, 2015
Genre: Rock
Style: Art Rock

TRACKS

                              


01. Back To Earth
02. Death Waits I
03. The Prince Of Darkness
04. Dido's Lament
05. The Sun Deceives
06. Again
07. Just A Lombard Cat
08. Song Before Dying
09. The Thistle And The Thorn
10. Insubstantial Man

BACK TO EARTH LYRICS

                




Through the cold and dark, across the muddy fields,
toward the glimmer in the night; torchlight like phosphorous beneath the pall...

When they cut me free, I lacked the strength to stand;
they drew me up against the sky.
Words like feathers on a distant wing,
pressing gently at the space around.
My world rearranged.
They came to find this fallen star, lost to the universe.

I've been gone, far away,
out of my body, out of my mind.
But now I'm back, back to earth.

To speed the hour, they sang a song of striving.
Like the wind it soared, receding and arriving.
Its beauty moved my heart to wonder – does love sustain or pull asunder? Oh, I don't know.
What binds the spirit at its birth, to the earth?

(You're out of the woods,
you're out of the dark,
you're out of the night...)

They put you on TV, and then they move on;
up to the stars you look, your distant home.
Now I listen closely to the twilight,
waiting for the whisper of my half-life.

I've been gone, far away, out of my body, out of my mind.
But now I'm back, back to earth. I've been gone, far away,
out of my body, out of my mind.
But now I'm back, for better or for worse, back to earth.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 110 MB
Flac  Size: 300 MB

ART SCHOP – DEATH WAITS II - THE WRITERS 2019

                         


Contemporary rock that's "a mixture of Murder Ballads, Songs from a Room, and Hunky Dory."

Label: Not On Label (Art Schop Self-released) – none
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK   
Released: 12 March 2019
Genre: Rock
Style: Art Rock

                             


01. Death Waits II    04:11   
02. A Poor Aunt    05:29   
03. My First Goose    04:26   
04. No Maggot Lonely    04:22   
05. Have You Paid The Gasbill    05:27   
06. A New State of Men    04:30   
07. Beatrice    04:09   
08. Points In Time    04:53   
09. Dublin to Trieste via Zurich    04:18       
10. Existentialist Nostalgia    05:33

DEATH WAITS II LYRICS

 
        



(Song for Emily Dickinson inspired by her poem "Because I could not stop for death," from the album "Death Waits II: The Writers.")

I remain — your patient servant, ever ready to oblige,
with a grizzly turn of fate, to yield some slow or fast demise,
whether by natural cause or by mischief — Your wish is mine

(Every blossom on the bush)
I confess — to some annoyance, that in obscurity you hide,
fear you not I will defend you, when the critics swoop and chide,
for they do not know as I do that you will rise
    
Every blossom on the bush, adjusts its tumbled head, as we pass by
Flurried signals in the dust, as we pass by

Don’t stir again your yellow eye toward the morning’s crest
like loaded gun — your work is done; ‘tis better now to rest

So at last — we ride together — just we two and what will come,
slowly past the scampering children — their lessons scarcely done
toward the sweeping house with mound for cornice,
bound for Eternity, not for Tunis

The centuries to while away, as if there passed instead — but another day
Every blossom on the bush, adjusts its tumbled head, as we pass by
Flurried signals from the dust, disturb the morning’s breath, as we pass by

7 comments:

  1. Hi Josef It's been a while since I heard you. Are you okay ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kostas thanks for the asking. I've been busy lately. In short: John Cale of course great ! I have 9 cds from him all from the beginning. And Datura besides this one 3 more. Thanks for the new entry. Unknown to me. Is slammed right after ( hope my English is here correct).
      By the way, Rockasteria has closed. I have said a few things about this also about Urban Aspirines. So if you're interested, all have to do read it.
      I hope i can write more regulary in the fututure.

      Delete
    2. Josef, I read the page and I think your criticism came up as harsh. In any case, I think the blog is on hold for the moment, so I wouldn't say closed. Maybe taking a hiatus.

      Delete
  2. Today i got 2 cds from SHERYL CROW very cheap, thanks for your incentive. Tuesday night music club & the globe sessions. I hope this is among their best.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Art Schop that a problem. Hard to get. We'll have that sent to me througes a dutch friend.
    Thanks for the secret tip.

    Nobody said anything about FINE ART. A pity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Art Schop is great but very difficult to find his CDs. I glad that you are okay. I read about Rockasteria but every blog has the same problems. What a shame.

      Delete
    2. Yes one is always in doubt. If you react to it at all, it pays off? Probably not. But then think why make it so easy for them. Later: they should get a lesson.

      Delete