The Echoing Green: Sanctuary

The Echoing Green are banging away on a new album, slowly releasing new tracks to Myspace and occasionally pushing out production videos on their podcast feed.

The latest is Sanctuary and, I must say, it does an excellent job building their “darkwave” sound. Here are the lyrics, as posted on their Myspace.

Take naivete from me and leave me isolated
all at once I feel so free, yet so captivated
you make the endless waves of time -
seem so temporary.
you’re my missionary, emissary… Adversary!

You define the line between human and divine
in this empty place intrinsic grace, so necessary.
See the skies divide.. when hope and fear collide
from this cemetery, offer me this sanctuary.

There is violence when you move
yet I’m stationary
devastate all my design and make it arbitrary
you break my legs yet leave my knees…
my will penetrated.
I’m eviscerated…
consecrated…
Lacerated!

This heart, you break it and make it sacred
these eyes awaken, this breath is taken from you

You define the line between human and divine….

The Echoing Green released their first serious “darkwave” work on The Winter of Our Discontent with Blind and Fall Awake. As a style, I think that darkwave can be best defined as the dark, harsh, even bitter side of New Wave with modern production values. This description applies to both the sound and the lyrics. Now, that is not to say that Echoing Green is going all depressed or hatefull. Indeed not! The style is, rather, to dive into the darkest pits of despair and grab onto the faintest ray of hope, then wrench and tear your way upwards until the darkness is evicerated. The sound is dark, certainly. The lyrics can even feel dark at times. But the point is that, if you actually listen, both the music and the lyrics truly focus on hope.

Which, I believe, is the essential message.

-otto

More on Achpin

All projects other than lesson planning tend to fall far behind these days, but I am still plugging away on my insane idea: The Achpin Society.

We (or at this moment, I) now have a domain registered, and I am working on developing the website. The website is important to this project, in part because I am hacking out the details on how the Society will be organized. You don’t think of it until you actually try to organize it for yourself, but it takes a lot to put your mission into a few clear sentences, determine what benefits you will offer to members, think of how to lure in donors, and decide exactly where the (at the time non existent) money will go. On the money issue, I am currently puzzling out how much of any donations I will put directly towards sending scouts to camp, and how much will go towards a long-term camp improvement project. The good thing is that, for the forseeable future, the Society will not need to pay for anything except sending kids to camp. I am covering the website fees, the cost of any donor incentive will be built into the donation system, and we do not (yet) have any print literature or advertising.

Ok, time to stop thinking for a little while and go see Indy4.

-Otto