Mistletone

Mistletone is ecstatic to share “Cyclamen” from The Orbweavers’ new album Deep Leads, out September 15 on Mistletone Records via Inertia. Listen below:

Cyclamen Artist Statement

Subjects: plants, soil types, seasons, cycles, sleep, photosynthesis, classical mythology, quest

An evening invocation for protection through winter, and deep sleep. Cyclamen are associated with the Ancient Greek goddess Hecate, who is often depicted holding torches. Hecate in turn, is associated with knowledge of poisonous and medicinal plants, a mediator between mortal and divine realms, a goddess of the crossroads.

“We love bossa nova, and the cyclamen flower”, explain Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan (The Orbweavers). “Last winter we had a row of coloured cyclamen across the backsteps. They glowed like little torches against the grey weather of decay and transition. We listened to a lot of Stan Getz, Joao and Astrud Gilberto that winter, and looked out at the scarlet, purple, crimson and white cyclamen torches as night approached.”

“Cyclamen” springs from Deep Leads, the eagerly awaited new album by The Orbweavers following 2011’s Loom.

“Deep Leads is about buried and hidden things. Mining the land, the body and mind. Old rivers of feeling. Poison/panacea. Extraction/preservation. Escapism/courage. Deep sleep. Cycles of decay and return.

“Geologically, deep leads are buried ancient river beds which sometimes contain alluvial gold. In Victoria, they usually lie beneath basalt lava flows which hold younger waterways on the surface above. Deep lead gold mining required cutting deep, dangerous shafts through hardened volcanic rock. The shafts were at risk of cave ins and flooding from aquifers, and often did not contain the gold hoped for.

“To use this geology as a metaphor, Deep Leads is the underlying layer to our previous album Loom. Where Loom explored the basalt bed and surrounds of the younger Merri Creek waterway, Deep Leads heads underground and within, exploring industrial, agricultural and personal histories (Blue Lake, The Dry, A Very Long Time), heavy and precious metals (Radium Girls, Mine), internal realms of escape and quest (Poison Garden, Cyclamen, Nitrates). We recorded and produced Deep Leads at home in the Merri Creek water catchment area. There are many accretions of history along this waterway, and it always seems to find a way in to our work and life. The street we live in is a storm water course to the Merri. The album was mixed by the banks of the Merri in East Brunswick by James Cecil at Super Melody World, and mastered just uphill to the west, on Brunswick high ground, by Adam Dempsey at Deluxe Mastering Melbourne.” 

Cyclamen Lyrics

I will stay these winter days,
With cyclamen as torches,
Beacons against the grey weathering in my head.
Clay feet,
Sink close,
Sleep deeply.

Evening falls,
Unfamiliar ways;
With cyclamen as torches,
Lead me back to where it was I first heard your name.
Clay feet Proceed,
Fearlessly.

Scarlet, purple, crimson and white,
Give me a vision to take through the night,
Where you return is where we are heading,
Earth is a bed,
And sleep is remembering.

Scarlet, purple, crimson and white,
Dormant receiver storing the light,
Who is a thief and who’s a collector?
I invoke you:
Be my protector.
Remembering.