About Torlan
Genre: Ethereal ambient folk-pop
Torlan is Welsh for ‘from the riverbank’. Celebrating water magic – nymphs, nixies, nereids, mermaids, island witches – we’ve gathered songs of seas, lakes and streams from many of our albums. Between each song is a recording of water. Listen for waterbirds, discover wetlands, dream of voyages beyond the estuary, rest by a stream, trace a forest lane in the rain.
Tracks & Lyrics
-
Duration: 1:15
Wurundjeri for ‘river of mists and shadows’, Yarra Yarra River
A shadow burns on the water
— (a line in Sabda, The Bijak of Kabir)
-
Duration: 5:10
Lakes around Melbourne (Blue Stone Lake, Moondarra…), shine with translucent light.
From my 4th CD, Alabaster
Lyrics
I
You have traded places with the water
You have traded places with the air
You have carried sorrow to the fire!
Watched it turn to ashes in the rain…
II
Drift through fields of your sand
to where birds sing of their troubles –
And the burdens of the denizens
of cities washed in green flame,
step onto the rainbow and fly!
to where an ancient ship waits moored to your pain:
Chorus
Time will drift inside you… Turn your dream to grey
Love will take you over… Lay you like a bay
Stone Lake! (shimmering to fade!) Stone Lake!
II
The anchor flung at last on board, his eyes ablaze with love
for your lost soul hidden in your hair…
You’re the one! You’re the one we’ve been looking for!
Without your mind the prism couldn’t find its lost design –
Why do you hide? Why?
When you stumble you look inside, over regions of the sky!
-
Duration: 0:17
Sanskrit for ‘small brook’
Alas, what is the filigree life
In this poor animal’s frame,
Beside the admantine rain
— Kālidāsa, The Recognition of Śākuntalā
-
Duration: 5:01
…the peace of this day will shine like light on the face of the waters
— Gwen Harwood
From my 3rd CD Ariel
Lyrics
‘Beads of Rain’
Dawn the bare infusion
Dawn of wooden hill
Dawn the tomb of fear
Climb the flight of birds
Cling on to beads of rain
Go if it’s gone, fly from here
I don’t have no money but I have that distant tree
You don’t have no money but you have your hidden key
Hum the home of freedom
Hum the mountain ring
Hum the forest leeway
Hum the shadow stream
I don’t have no money but I have that distant tree
You don’t have no money but you have your hidden key
Cling on to beads of rain
Go if it’s gone, fly from here
-
Duration: 0:20
Persian for ‘angel of rain’
Mamnun, Zeinab Yazdanfar, Motshakeram.
-
Duration: 4:25
Choices are the hinges of destiny
— Pythagoras
From my 5th CD, Apple Pentacle
Lyrics
I
The Yarra of Warburton
clashing cocoons ripping through the
Mirrors of what we see
glancing upon the screen of promise
Chorus
Which one is your world?
Which one are you sure about?
II
Take all your favourite dreams
arrange them in patterns plenty
No matter how deep you dive
into wells of circumstances
Chorus
Windrow, Windrow,
Drift like a curtain – Speak like thunder!
III
Teapots at Yarraglen
masking mountains leaping clover
Caravans in the dawn
carting musk and sandalwood
Chorus
Which one will you choose?
Which one knows and questions you?
IV
Hazelnuts in the breeze
carrying embers of delusion
Why don’t take your drum
and unleash the memory of you?
Chorus
Windrow, Windrow,
Drift like a curtain – Speak like thunder!
-
Duration: 0:27
Old Welsh for ‘river’, and an epithet for William Shakespeare
-
Duration: 3:27
The Singing Fountains of Elderbrook, the Land Below the River in my unfurling Elderbrook Chronicles & new double-album Elderbrook.
-
Duration: 0:48
Polish for ‘waves’
Life on one shore, death on the other.
— Wislawa Szymborska
-
Duration: 3:28
From collaborative album Ghost Fish with Daemonia Nymphe & Nikodemos Triaridis
Lyrics
Ocean… Ocean…
And their blue eyes glimmering, shimmering
Onward, climbing our shining Tangaroa
And the Wave Box opening, opening
Sun Locks, slaking and breaking Pandora.
-
Duration: 0:58
Javanese for ‘sea’
-
Duration: 5:25
For the poets Cavafy and Milton.
Title-track of my 2nd CD, Alexandria.
Lyrics
I
One more day away from Alexandria
And night is long to sail –
Rolling in a slow procession moved a place,
A city fair and strange.
II
Send the felon winds and every gust of wings
Toward Bayona’s Hold
Over tides of dark I’ll ever know your love
An uncrowned whitethorn blown:
Chorus
“Fame isn’t mortal,
nor does it lie in rumour, nor in your pride
But in the Laurel you’ll reign afar
And in the Silence of you
in your rain, in your garden
in the sun on the rill
in Alexandria.”
III
As one so long prepared you’ll hear the midnight voices,
Don’t you mourn them now!
Don’t betray your hope,
And say goodbye to her –
Your Alexandria.
-
Duration: 1:28
Latin for ‘Daughter of Poseidon’
-
Duration: 4:21
Quest for the Golden Fleece… passion of Medea; legendary voyage of the Argonauts
Title-track of my first CD, Argo.
Lyrics
I
Oh, I know him well, I tell myself….
I’ll show what destinies are made of
And grow the Oak of Dodona in this hero,
Yea so the Argonauts will all sing
“Come to your Medea…”
Bridge
We’ve loved we’ve killed we’ve stolen,
We’ve laughed, we’ve grieved, we’ve fallen,
We’ve dreamed that all the gods were ours – for just one moment –
You’ll drive your ego Argo, You’ll crucify your Creusa,
You’ll find a flame as Ino! Oh…
Chorus
Argo, Argonauts
Our Dream’s off the shore
I know what we’re for
Augur new ways of thought
Argo, Argonauts
Centaur – get off the floor
Argo, fifty oars
Our cold kisses are in store
II
Oh, you’ll know them well, I tell myself…
What drew you here was only a phantom!
– Like Nephele! – Or the hunger for the Voyage on the
Seven, Seven, Seven, Seven, Seven, Seven, Seven Seas.
So! Come to your Medea…
Bridge
We’ve loved we’ve killed we’ve stolen,
We’ve laughed, we’ve grieved, we’ve fallen,
We’ve dreamed that all the gods were ours – for just one moment –
You’ll drive your ego Argo, You’ll crucify your Creusa,
You’ll find a flame as Ino! Oh…
Chorus
Argo, Argonauts
Our Dream’s off the shore
I know what we’re for
Augur new ways of thought
Argo, Argonauts
Centaur – get off the floor
Argo, fifty oars
Our cold kisses are in store
Argo – Come to your Medea! Come to your Medea!
I know, what we’re for, Augur new ways of thought,
New ways of thought,
Argo, Argonauts, come to your Medea, oh!
Argo, fifty oars, our cold kisses are in store,
Argo, fifty oars
Argo…
Fifty oars… to your Medea
-
Duration: 1:05
Hebrew for ‘water / waters’
-
Duration: 2:12
Water and wild, and woods, and flowers
— Tolkien’s translation of Sir Orfeo
For my niece Lucy, after she had an operation on her eyes.
I was thinking of how in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’,
Puck sprinkles magic dew into the eyes of mortals.
Can we see the world through the eyes of a child, with wonder?
From my 4th CD Alabaster
Lyrics
I
Way over the windtorn wainscotting waterwood
I saw a butterfly on a bicycle –
Way over the windtorn wainscotting waterwood
I heard a dragonfly brush your pie.
Chorus
Who loves a life too much to die?
Who would make enchanted drops for human eyes?
To see the world through magic eyes:
Wind and water and sun and rain and moon alight!
III
Way over the windtorn wainscotting waterwood
I saw a little girl dancing in a tree –
Way over the windtorn wainscotting waterwood
I heard a tambourine in the sea.
-
Duration: 0:23
Wiradjuri for ‘black swan’
In the Rivers of the Dreaming there are many islands, and many people…
— Minmia, Under the Quandong Tree, Quandong Dreaming Publishing p. 17
-
Duration: 4:54
Dedicated to the gardener Nobelius of Emerald Lake Park, Dandenongs, Australia
From my 3rd CD, Ariel
-
Duration: 0:47
Catalan for ‘wave’
-
Duration: 3:42
Theme song from my new double-album Elderbrook & unfurling Elderbrook Chronicles
Lyrics
Once upon a time in a land beneath a dream
Fountains learned the Song of a Faery sea
Echoing laughter glimmering in their gleam
Run, run an’ row to the City of Alderbee!
Would you be an imp on the barge of a water-street?
Sail into a shell with the memory of a leaf?
Listen down, listen long, to the Lorelei of the Deep,
Shimmer oh shingle, nymph an’ nixie ‘neath…
From the waterfall to the lake of Antiquity
Songpool flow, awaken Lemurian trees,
Come, come along with the paladin of the free
Can, can you hear the fountains of Alderbee?
-
Duration: 0:44
Basque for ‘wave’
-
Duration: 4:53
Alternative title: ‘Elderbrook’, title-track of double-album Elderbrook & river by that name.
Lyrics
River in our blood, river all our people
River through our dance into dreams rolling down from the sky
How do I know you?
River in your eyes, river of your memory
River over the wall between your fate and mine across time,
How do I know you?
River in my hair, river in your longing, river into our arms
Elderbrook, Elderbrook! River of our knowing,
River over our feet, river onto your future
River of our minds, river ever searching,
River out of the dark in the Dreaming where we become One
How do I know you?
River to my heart, river from our ancestors,
River to our souls, river always whispering,
River under our hands in the bark of the eucalypt now:
How do I know you?
Elderbrook, Elderbrook!
Land under the River under the River under the River
-
Duration: 1:48
Scandinavian for ‘a spring’
and the sea gives store of fish, and all out of his good
guidance, and the people prosper
— Homer, The Odyssey, XIX
-
Alternative title: ‘The Golden Cottage’.
Duration: 3:09
In a Norwegian tale retold by Idries Shah, a seawitch builds a Golden Cottage of exile: like the Golden Fleece, a birthright.
From my first CD, Argo
Lyrics
I
No more man, than a talkative nymph
Was it planned, you would break the silence?
In your hands is no trace of my kiss
Still the love that we bore
Was a mere wave in the storm morning…
Chorus
But in my Golden Cottage –
My Cottage of Gold
I can be my own Sea-Enchantress!
By the rocks –
By the stony shore:
House of Legend, you stand tall.
II
In the square, in the village market
Trade your wares for the latest gossip
Now the mayor seems to think he likes it –
Still the love that we bore
Was a mere wave in the storm morning…
-
Duration: 0:28
Galician for ‘sea’
The voice of the river grows louder…The plumes of the reed thickets
sway by the riverside. The current rushes down
as though keeping time with the hoofbeats of horses,
of great wild horses.
— José María Arguedas, Deep Rivers
-
Duration: 5:21
I suffered grief not to be spoken of… But now
The Earth-Holder has granted me
Calm after the storm…
I shall fasten the garlands on my hair and sing
— Pindar, Isthmian VII
From my 3rd CD Ariel
Lyrics
I
Sleep oh darling our Storm has passed,
dream of it all your life
though our dreams might only come briefly true
they last long after we die
II
Sleep, my Ocean my River my Rain,
safe in the Earth that loves you
rest my Hunger, down on the seafloor
till I return to wake you
I will return…
Chorus
Oh look you’re so peaceful,
just like some man who dreams on the seafloor…
Oh! my Seagiant was beautiful,
you won’t forget me.
-
Duration: 6:13
Lyrical adaptation by Louisa John-Krol & Mark Krol of these lines:
Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! Now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.
— Act I, Scene II, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
From my 3rd CD Ariel
[No inserted water track between these songs,
as waves already join them.]
Lyrics
I
Come into these yellow sands,
And take these hands
When you fall onto your knees,
Wild waves talk like bees –
Full Fathom Five your father lies,
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him there remains
But whispers…
Chorus:
The sun flees your eyes
Moonshadows play with flies
Carry your soul to the fray
A seachange in May!
Cats scatter past your gate
Sounds of traffic will not wait
New words born each day
A seachange in May, a seachange in May!
-
Duration: 1:27
Reprise: Of bunyips, billabongs and birds
-
Passages in celebration of magical waters:
“She sang of the nautilus who has a boat of her own
that is carved out of an opal and steered with a silken sail…
of the sea-lions with their curved tusks,
and the sea-horses with their floating manes…”
— Oscar Wilde, 'The Fisherman and his Soul'
“…the peace of this day will shine
like light on the face of the waters
that bear me away forever”
— Gwen Harwood
“O fontaine Bellerie,
Belle fontaine chérie
De nos Nymphes, quand ton eau
Les cache au creux de ta source,
Fuyantes le Satyreau
Qui les pourchasse à la course
Jusqu’au bord de tpm ruisseau,
Tu es la Nymphe éternelle
De ma terre paternelle”
— old French poem cited in Witch Wood by John Buchan
‘Ahava, beloved Aquifer’
The following poem is adapted from my Australian Faery realm
of Elderbrook (chronicles, music, illustration & other arts).
It celebrates the enchanted Fountains of Alderbee,
within an underground water city that springs from an aquifer.
Hebrew translation by Dr Yaron Zinger, whom I met while working with Monash University’s Water Group 2010-2016:
“המעיין הקסום”
לפני הרבה הרבה שנים, בארץ שמתחת לחלום
המעיינות למדו את שירתה של פיית הים
צחוק מהדהד מנצנץ בבוהק
של אקוויפר וזכרון עתיק
Long, long ago, in a land beneath a dream
Fountains learned the song of a faery sea
Echoing laughter glimmering in the gleam
Of an aquifer and an ancient memory:
ממפלי מים לאגם קדום
צמחי מרווה כחול הים וצמחי תבלין של אלכימאי
עבור סודות של הטחב כאולם בתוך העץ
שועט את סיפורו על גבי הנהר של החופש
From waterfalls to the lake of antiquity
Sages of sand, herbs of alchemy…
For the secret of moss, a hall within a tree
Ride your story on the river of the free.
עם שדון האגן הירוק ובתולת הים המעמיקה בעומק
צינורות נוקשים, הפייה ורוח המים מזנקות
בשמחה קני הסוף שורקים ומנדנדים קירות של ירוק
בוא, בוא תצטרף למסע מתחת לזרם!
With a wetland imp and a mermaid delving deep,
Pummelling pipes, a nymph and nixie leap –
By merry blowing reeds, and swaying walls of green
Come, come along, on a journey under the stream!
More from the river bank: poetry by Louisa John-Krol, translated into Hindi by Harpreet Kandra, a hydrologist at Federation University, formerly Monash University
Green light, frost on the seedling,
Kloh weaves his legend again;
Slip away, listen, the sand-grains are shifting –
None of you ever the same:
Rise up, wee goblins and sing,
Come dancing,
Soon we’re all going to fly!
Hari roshni, patton pe oos,
Kloh likh raha hai kahani dubara,
Kaam chodo aur suno ret ki halchal,
Har baar alag hi si halchal,
Udho nanhe goblins aur hum gaate hain,
Nachte hain, jhomte hain,
Aur phir ud chalet hain!
And the sand holds fast where the elves are,
Down where the old waves roar!
Frost rides, high on the firefly,
Over the bright star-lore;
Rise up, ye faerie and dance,
We’re waiting,
Up on the stealing shore!
Majboot pakar se bethe hain elves,
Jahan beh rahi hain samoondra ki dharen,
Oos ki dharen, Jugnooan ki goonj,
Chamchamte taaron ke upar,
Udho hum jhoomen aur gaayen,
Hum intazaar kar rahen hain,
Samoondra ke kinare pe!
Hebrew and Hindu translations emanate from my ancient Faery river Elderbrook at the time of Torlan.
-
1 “Birrarung”
Wurundjeri for ‘river of mists and shadows’, Yarra Yarra River
2 “Stone Lake”
Lakes around Melbourne (Blue Stone Lake, Moondarra…)
shine with translucent light.
From the album Alabaster
2002 Prikosnovenie, France
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor (majority) & Harry Williamson.
This song was produced with Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies: Mark Krol & Louisa John-Krol
vocals, acoustic guitar (played with knotted fishnet): Louisa John-Krol
male vocal harmonies, piano, synths, percussion,
bass, classical guitar: Brett Taylor
arranging, engineering, mixing: Brett Taylor.
3 “Jharna”
Sanskrit for ‘small brook’
4 “Beads of Rain”
From the album Ariel
1st edition 2000 Blue Tree, Australia;
2nd edition 2001 Prikosnovenie, France.
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor (majority) & Harry Williamson.
This song was produced with Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies: Mark Krol
main guitar riff composed by Andrew Persi
vocals: Louisa John-Krol
flute: Samantha Taylor
bass, chapman stick, rickenbacker, keyboards, percussion: Brett Taylor
arranging, engineering, mixing: Brett Taylor.
5 “Tishtar”
Persian for ‘angel of rain’
Mamnun, Zeinab Yazdanfar, Motshakeram.
6 “The Windrow”
“Choices are the hinges of destiny”, Pythagoras
From the album Apple Pentacle
2005 Prikosnovenie, France
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor & Harry Williamson.
This song was produced with Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies: Mark Krol (main songwriter) & Louisa John-Krol
leading vocals, chiming fruit, flagpole, acoustic guitar: Louisa John-Krol
male vocal harmony, percussion, bass, wurlitzer, second acoustic guitar: Brett Taylor
arranging, engineering, mixing: Brett Taylor.
7 “Swan of Afon”
old Welsh for ‘river’
…and an epithet for William Shakespeare
8 “Fountainsong”
From Elderbrook
still in production 2014, Australia
This album has multiple producers.
This song was produced with Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
melodies by Louisa John-Krol
lead vocals, sansula, mandolin: Louisa John-Krol
harp: Kelly Miller-Lopez (Woodland, Treguenda), USA
bansouri, chameleau: Priscilla Hernandez (Yidneth), Spain
backing vocals: Kelly Miller-Lopez & Priscilla Hernandez
Spanish translation / adaptation & recital: Priscilla Hernandez
arranging, engineering, mixing: Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts
Coromandel Valley, South Australia.
9 “Fale”
Polish for ‘waves’
“Life on one shore, death on the other.”, Wislawa Szymborska
10 “Tangaroa”
From the album Ghost Fish
2005, Prikosnovenie, Franc
Recorded, programmed, mixed by Nikodemos Triaridis
Produced & mastered at ‘Q’ Studio, Thessaloniki, Greece
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melody, vocals, mandolin: Louisa John-Krol
backing vocals: Louisa John-Krol & Evi Stergiou
flute, guitar (avant-garde): Spyros Giasafakis
violin: Thodoris Gotsis
contrabass: Maria Stergiou
percussion: Christos Koukaras
Special thanks to the neo-classical band Daemonia Nymphe
for inviting me to Thessaloniki, where this song found the reel.
11 “Segara”
Javanese for ‘sea’
12 “Alexandria”
for Cavafy and Milton
Title-track of the album Alexandria
1st edition 1998 Blue Tree, Australia;
2nd edition 1999 Hyperium, Germany;
10-year anniversary edition 2009, Forest of the Fae,
Division of Dark Symphonies, USA.
Produced with Harry Williamson in Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies: Mark Krol & Louisa John-Krol
direction on arrangement by Mark Krol
vocals: Louisa John-Krol
keyboard: riffs by Louisa John-Krol
synth soundscaping by Harry Williamson.
After Cavafy’s poem, 'The God Abandons Antony'
(Collected Poems translated by Edmund Keeley & Philip Sherrard)
and Milton’s poem, 'Lycidas'
music based loosely on 'Baixa dansa Barcelona'
from a 15th century manuscript de Bruxelles
heard on a CD entitled Le Moyen Age Catalan, Ars Musicae de Barcelone.
13 “Lamia”
Latin for ‘daughter of Poseidon’
14 “Argo”
Quest for the Golden Fleece… passion of Medea;
legendary Voyage of the Argonauts
Title-track of the album Argo
1996 Evolving Discs, Australia
Produced with Harry Williamson in Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics & melodies: Louisa John-Krol & Mark Krol
leading vocals, acoustic guitar: Louisa John-Krol
guest backing vocals: Elizabeth Van Dort
shouts of the Argonauts, oceanic effects: Harry Williamson
classical orchestration (via midi): Louisa John-Krol
with polishing & embellishment by Harry Williamson
engineering, mixing: Harry Williamson.
15 “Mayim”
Hebrew for ‘water’ / ‘waters’
16 “Waterwood”
“Water and wild, and woods, and flowers”
(Tolkien’s translation of Sir Orfeo)
For my niece Lucy, after she had an operation on her eyes.
I was thinking of how in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Puck sprinkles magic dew into the eyes of mortals.
Can we see the world through the eyes of a child, with wonder?
From the album Alabaster
2002 Prikosnovenie, France
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor (majority) & Harry Williamson.
This song was mainly produced by Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melody, vocals, mandolin, ocarina, windchime forest: Louisa John-Krol
initial tracks laid down by Frederic Chaplain at Clisson, France, 2001
treble recorders, flutes: Samantha Taylor
tambourine, other percussion, editing, mixing: Brett Taylor.
17 “Dhuundhuu”
Wiradjuri for ‘black swan’
“In the Rivers of the Dreaming there are many islands, and many people…”
(Minmia, Under the Quandong Tree, Quandong Dreaming Publishing p. 17)
18 “Nobelius’ Garden”
Instrumental, no lyrics
Dedicated to the gardener Nobelius of Emerald Lake Park,
Dandenong Ranges, Australia
From the album Ariel
1st edition 2000 Blue Tree, Australia;
2nd edition 2001 Prikosnovenie, France
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor (majority) & Harry Williamson.
This song was produced with Harry Williamson, Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
melodies, conceptualisation: Mark Krol (main songwriter)
voiceovers, vocals, acoustic guitar: Louisa John-Krol
treated with effects by Harry Williamson
bird: on the window of Spring Studio, recorded by Harry Williamson.
19 “Onada”
Catalan for ‘wave’
20 “The Fountains of Alderbee”
From Elderbrook
still in production 2014, Australia
This album has multiple producers.
This song was produced with Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts.
lyrics & melody by Louisa John-Krol
lead vocals, sansula, mandolin: Louisa John-Krol
harp: Kelly Miller-Lopez (Woodland, Treguenda), USA
bansouri, chameleau: Priscilla Hernandez (Yidneth), Spain
backing vocals: Kelly Miller-Lopez & Priscilla Hernandez
arranging, engineering, mixing: Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts
(except for Louisa’s lyric-vocal, recorded by Jack Setton
at Mad Cat sound, Oakleigh, Victoria).
21 “Olatu”
Basque for ‘wave’
22 “River Knowing”
(alternative title: ‘Elderbrook’)
From Elderbrook
still in production 2014, Australia
This album has multiple producers.
This song was recorded by Harry Williamson at Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies, main vocals: Louisa John-Krol
backing vocals: LJK, Harry Williamson (riverman),
Catherine Goss, Lucy Jane Goss
clarinet (1 & 2): Millie Heinrich (who assisted LJK in scoring clarinet melody)
keyboard riff / underlying piano theme: Louisa John-Krol
piano embellishment: Richard Allison
synthesizer / midi, 12-string guitar, triangle: Harry Williamson
engineering, mixing: Harry Williamson, Spring Studio, Prahran, Australia
additional clarinet bounced onto the above mix:
Nicholas Albanis, Crustacean Creations, Melbourne, Australia.
23 “Kelde”
Scandinavian for ‘a spring’
“and the sea gives store of fish, and all out of his good
guidance, and the people prosper”
(Homer, The Odyssey, XIX)
24 “House of Legend”
(The Golden Cottage)
In a Norwegian tale retold by Idries Shah,
a seawitch builds a Golden Cottage of exile:
like the Golden Fleece, a birthright
From the album Argo
1996 Evolving Discs, Australia
Produced with Harry Williamson, Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies, vocals, acoustic guitar: Louisa John-Krol
12-string guitar, soundscape, engineering, mixing: Harry Williamson.
25 “Mar”
Galician for ‘sea’
“The voice of the river grows louder…The plumes of the reed thickets
sway by the riverside. The current rushes down
as though keeping time with the hoofbeats of horses,
of great wild horses.”
(José María Arguedas, Deep Rivers)
26 “The Seagiant”
“I suffered grief not to be spoken of… But now
The Earth-Holder has granted me
Calm after the storm…
I shall fasten the garlands on my hair and sing”
(Pindar, Isthmian VII)
From the album Ariel
1st edition 2000 Blue Tree, Australia;
2nd edition 2001 Prikosnovenie, France
Produced with Brett Taylor (main body of song)
& Harry Williamson (harp in the sea / intro & tail)
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyric, melody, vocals, acoustic guitar: Louisa John-Krol
‘cello melody composed by Mark Krol;
‘cello performed by Caerwen Martin, conducted & recorded by Brett Taylor
angel harp played by Louisa, crafted & recorded by Harry Williamson
main body of song recorded by Brett Taylor
at the home of Sean Bowley, Siamese Studio.
27 “Ariel”
No inserted water track between these songs,
as waves already join them.
Lyrical adaptation by Louisa John-Krol & Mark Krol of these lines:
“Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Hark! Now I hear them, ding-dong, bell.”
(Act I, Scene II, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare)
From the album Ariel
1st edition 2000 Blue Tree, Australia;
2nd edition 2001 Prikosnovenie, France
This album was co-produced by Brett Taylor (majority) & Harry Williamson.
This song was produced with Harry Williamson, Spring Studio.
Composition, Arrangement, Instrumentation:
lyrics, melodies, guitar motif idea: Mark Krol (main songwriter)
with reference to The Tempest by William Shakespeare
vocals, acoustic guitar, glockenspiel / chiming: Louisa John-Krol
glissando, soundscape, male sea-voice, Leviathan: Harry Williamson
arranging, engineering, mixing: Harry Williamson.
28 “Birrarung”
reprise: of bunyips, billabongs and birds
Overall credits for this compilation:
Cover painting: ‘Water Bird’ by my mother, Belinda John
Photography of Louisa & Junortoun, Bendigo by Olaf Parusel 2012
Graphic Design: Jack Setton, Mad Cat Sound 2014
Thanks to Mark Krol for co-songwriting as cited, conceptual development
and coaching in expression, arrangement or direction;
Thanks to Harry & Brett for co-arrangement, instrumentation & production as cited;
Jack Setton for recording lyric-vocals in ‘The Fountains of Alderbee’;
also for preparing water effects,
and integrating this compilation into the aquatic realm.
Thanks Karl Delandsheere for presenting Lyrics & Credits to our LJK website.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Elders,
past and present, of Australian habitations
in which this music originated and grew to fruition.
The Yarra River was both a border and meeting place for tribes.
Paradoxically, our lyrics embrace lore
that might seem geographically or temporally remote,
yet abides alongside the Dreaming.