Month: september 1989
THE MARTIN HALL DOCUMENT (FRAGMENTS 1981-85)
THE MARTIN HALL DOCUMENT (FRAGMENTS 1981-85)
MARTIN HALL
CD
SEPTEMBER 1989
VIRGIN RECORDS (MHCD1)
The Martin Hall Document (Fragments 1981-85) er en compilation-cd udgivet af Virgin Records i kølvandet på Presence, Halls succesrige 1988-album. Den består af et udvalg af numre, der strækker sig fra tidligt Ballet Mécanique-materiale til hele enkeltplade-udgaven af Cutting Through-albummet. Som optakt til udgivelsen udkom der også en 12″-ep med et nyt radio edit af sangen “Crush”.
1. Leathern (5:03)
2. Among (4:41)
3. Imagine Focus (5:12)
4. Free-Force Structure (6:41)
5. Network (3:56)
6. Resonance (5:55)
7. Warfare (4:36)
8. Showdown (7:50)
9. Crush (5:14)
10. Cut Off (6:03)
11. Deep Inside Me (10:42)
12. Synthesis (8:28)
LEATHERN
Edges of speaking, outlived of hatred
Could I forgive at all?
Or could sigh be further than I reached always?
Light died, -ly pregnant
Up, killed in your words
Sheet-minded loving was respect as given thought
Of hairy swinelike
Hours of nameless
Of this penetration
Could I still cry for sad?
Tell friend and leech apart?
The fall of the fallen
Unnamed or misused
Lethal hate given
Word castles built in vain
Salute nugacity
Could I feel guilty?
The leathern tenderness
Did you cry lustful?
I can now nevermore give what I wanted to
To feel so leathern
Cry of the stone tears
Kiss of the unsaid
Without these arms to stretch (died in this early grave)
Like passion for unseen (buried before dying)
I seek the guiltful
To feel so leathern
Emotional
Leprous
AMONG
Unheard, unheard
You will fall with the masculine delusion
Tasteless you, traceless you
Beyond the bloodless necessities
Somewhere lies the feel of splendour
How to fight the denial of feel
How to fight this denial of feel
Among bloodless, will I fall
A spastic appeal for unknown ideals
Frailty, your name is strength
Useless wise in all their lies
It lead into this
IMAGINE FOCUS
Just a touch of lost
Burning as always
As it was, as it is
And eventually
Just in trust, nothing more
So suddenly
From beginning to end
While this centreless present reflects itself
In inverted moves of an obsessional stage
In a stream of light from unreachable marks
Something long ago in everlasting terms
In a crossfade of untitled reasons
What it turned out to be
And occasionally
Everything in my hands
So totally
In the heat of the touch
Like the way we were
Beyond love under will
Suddenly away in these only words
By mistakes again into changing links
In this compromise of dependence then
Stage by stage, in exposure
Still so timeless in this life release
Nearness hidden in casual moves
Watch the changes and recall
Touch through another focus
Mark perfection twice
With or without purpose
Still tons against tons
Carefully mistaken in retrospective fear
Restrain it all while I imagine focus
FREE-FORCE STRUCTURE
Forever hidden in the profile
The either-or behind the both-and
Transcend and ascend in the moment that frees
All loving fucked up in tension
Without shadow and without motion
A word like heart
A word like fire
I believe with my body
Believe with my soul
Believe in the eyes before me
Approach and regain
Life repressed to myth
Changing once again
Words sealed with a kiss
Cancel all the pain in these fantasies of realities
Let the fragments shine
Feel me deep within
Let the nearness bind
Feel me skin to skin
Let your flesh and mind fuse to the same thing
Rising from decline
Get up
Reach out
Confront
Break through
Re-set reality
Programme your love
All must pass but presence remains
The basic concepts, the further lies
Of the rituals built on your ism of truth
In this chain reaction set-out
We’re born alone but still I need you
So please don’t hide in self-hate and compromises
Between a desire to be free
And passion made of confinement
NETWORK
Through the rupture to the surface
With the tissue of days laying soft over skin
As white on white
In this reverberation of love
The warmth comes in waves
Guided by nerve
Just like the air covering me
As the light reflects itself
In this change of scenery
A reunion takes its place
Transforming namelessly
Into crystal and cell
Into heaven and hell
Into all we’ve ever seen
Into all we’ve ever been
From word to matter
Silhouettes ensouled by the loss
In a vortex of skin
To the centre of the bindings
While you simulate love
The transcendence remains your trauma
As you think in 2D
Think in 3D
In this network
Words reinforced in their turn-back from the walls
And absorbing all your nearness
I breathe in every particle of you
And in memory of you
I’ll connect these worlds apart
I will find all that I need
In the mirror of your eyes
And be breathless by love
RESONANCE
Weakening over weakening
A fire that burns so brightly
Only a shadow cast by yourself
So soft and fading
Wind over body
Shaking each nerve
In curves of freedom
In the hardest care
A baptism in desire and in merciless grace
And in this fusion
Sister shadows compressed to the core
Difference on difference in every framing I make
In display on display
And again
Afterwards
In the beauty of all death
An ultimate reality
Double-lined from phase to phase
From the mother-wound to the scabelon
From one to zero in a circle of ten
Burning cities melt into sunset
The blue light
The white beds
The roaring shapes of love
From stone to skin
Forcing all life
Trapped in this outline
For you alone
This time for all we know
Like a shadow
I feel you near
In all these nights without you
Flickering
From dust to contour
Always there
From the centre to the line
Hermetically closed inside me
For you alone
This time for all we know
Shining through time
Sacred but still so raw
And all the love
Moving so motionless
And even now
As it always will be
In each overload
Affection running tenderly wild
Losing shadow in every move I make
In a flow of warmth
Like blood spreading in water
All alone
Surrounded by time
From displacement to displacement
And in the shadowplay of memory
Closing my eyes
And into the abyss of your love
Trapped inside the heavens of your touch
Felt like this a hundred times before
Still I only need it more and more
I will drink the salt stains from your skin
Kiss you clean from all the violence
Drugs, repression, fantasy and fear
All I need is just to feel you near
WARFARE
In this media of mental translation
In this handicap of alienation
I need more than your model of motion
Than aesthetics of broken hearts
Here we are again
Feeling just the same
In these separate hells
Every word’s been said
Every lie’s been fed
To define ourselves
While your balance is kept intellectual
You’re emotionally ineffectual
A hysteria so perfectly tragic
So unreachable near
I’ve just had enough of neurotic love
Of this culturecide
I don’t need your shit
It just makes me sick
Look into my eyes
‘Cause this is the face
This is the race
SHOWDOWN
As everything changes me
Exploding in start on start
It shines on so hard through you
A crystal of flesh and blood
And caught in the blue of night
In the meshes of your love
A freedom turned upside down
To this point of no return
In your face
In your eyes
In the savagery of how we love
How we die
A fever is burning
Releasing my spirit
In these European schemes
Imprisoned in mind of stone
A system so centralized
Conceptual humanity
The “Arbeit Macht Frei” parole
In rock’n’roll terms like these
You know what it’s all about
But that doesn’t change the need
Through obsession and love
Through the days and the years
And still burning inside
There’s no turning back now
The circle is broken
Feel the showdown
CRUSH
As you fill me again
I have no further questions
Condemned to be free
As I reach out for you again
Nothing is new
But something has grown
Bigger than both of us
Stronger than memory
And much stronger than defeat
I’m gonna crush the worlds we used to know
A seed is sown
I’m gonna let it grow
I’m quite aware what I’ll be going through
There’s no way back
It all depends on you
My destiny
I’ve seen it in your eyes
A love so deep
A stream that purifies
And in your arms
The nature of all death
Is nothing but a touch of timelessness
I’m gonna crush you with my love
I’m gonna be crushed up in love
CUT OFF
Living the change as night closes in
Freezing my moves in each flicker of light
We’re lying so close
Your breath burns my skin
Still feeling alone though you’re right by my side
Nothing lost
Nothing gained
So it seems
Still we’re much closer than ever
Like a child in the night
In its dreams
In its return to forever
A dream came true
A nightmare too
And we’re just two out of millions
I hold you tight
As if the night was an angel of death come to take you away
And it feels so unreal
Like there’s magic in the air
And your face in the haze
It’s reflected everywhere
And it burns as it turns
Like a sun that blinds my eyes
Sharpening everything
Through your whispers
Through your cries
We’ve seen it all
The heavens and hells
Questioned each move in the name of the game
Played every role escaping ourselves
Ending concluding we all feel the same
As we were
As we are
We will be
Emotional “Führer der Menschheit”
Time is set
The twentieth century
And everyone knows what it feels like
It seems to be point 93
So feverish a reflection
The children of rejected love
All alone in the night
Fighting shadows of need
In the wind
Dust rising
Forming figures in the air
Night and day blown away
By a memory so bare
Bridges burned
Lives have turned
Slowly growing inside out
Mirrored in origin
In the limits of all doubt
The eyes of a child
A pulse running wild
Releasing this vacuum
A balance so tense
In thought and in sense
Can’t make it alone this time
In this mystery
Of every degree
From here to eternity
So tender and raw
The flame of the core
The hardest surrendering
DEEP INSIDE ME
Like re-running each way
Every aspect of love
Every night and day placed so precisely
Every sacrifice that freed us from our patterns
Guiding us face-to-face to this consequence so essential
And the tender pain that comes with freedom
Connects me to the presence we share
Love’s like a shadowplay
Imagined through survival
We’re here all by ourselves
But nevermore lonely
Nevermore lonely
Watching the lines being carefully drawn now
I couldn’t make it if I were without you
Knowing the ages of every tomorrow
In every turn ever made just a notion
Child on child
Sustain my love
The final triumph
The thirst deep inside and the surface
From crowd to crowd
In these streams of emotions
Watching it all gather to action
And every time we connect with the basis
In the holy name of the transfer
I let you grow deep inside me
With the dignity of my life
I let you grow deep inside me
SYNTHESIS
To my love
Wherever you may be
I’m with you
United in spirit
My life lies in your hands
All power ever been
All power yet to come
Is here now
This instant
Around us
Inside us
“Alvoren i hans søgen har været uomtvistelig. Et varemærke. Eller et adelsmærke om man vil. Der har hele tiden været noget manisk i hans søgen efter renhed og perfektion, som har forlenet det forlæste sprog og musikkens rensede udtryk med en desperation, som har gjort selvhøjtideligheden til at bære. Som man kan høre på især de ældste numre præsenteret på på Document CD’en og de fem numre fra 1986’s Cutting Through, hvorfra man i øvrigt må sige at have skummet fløden korrekt.”
Det Fri Aktuelt – Kim Skotte (11. september 1989)
“Martin Hall udsendte sidste år den storstilede LP Presence, men samtidig med lanceringen af live-projektet And Then Again udgiver multikunstnerens pladeselskab nu den luksuriøst udstyrede opsamlings-CD The Martin Hall Document, der byder på optagelser med Ballet Mécanique, Under For, The Martin Hall Concept og solisten under eget navn. Et imponerende værk …”
Politiken – Anders Rou Jensen (september 1989)
“En simpel gennemgang af Halls Greatest Hits (som CD’en faktisk er) vil yde ham velfortjent ros. Den storskrydende digter, sanger og musiker har faktisk siden 81 i Ballet Mécanique og frem til solo-afskeden Cutting Through fra 86 populært sagt siddet i sin egen private loge og skabt musik af anseelig kvalitet … man bør eje en plade med ham. Det vil være det mindste, man kan gøre som en ærbødig anerkendelse af hans mod og enegang.”
Aarhus Stiftstidende – Mads Kastrup (september 1989)
“The Martin Hall Document er brudstykker af hans karriere fra den første Ballet Mécanique LP til dobbelt-LP’en Cutting Through. Fra dyster eksperimenterende rock til power-produceret, dansabel euro-rock. Storladent og selvhøjtideligt, men også indædt og ærligt. Hall er ét af de største talenter, dansk rock har fået. Fragments viser hans udvikling …”
MM – Henrik Føhns (oktober 1989)
Berit Spælling: Harpe
Flemming Nygaard: Cello
Janine Neble: Kor
Martin Hall: Vokal, instrumenter
Michael Karshøj: Trommer
Morten Versner: Bas, violin
Nicolay Krogh: Bas
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, guitar
Stine Hammarlund: Cello
Søren Frank: Saxofon
Søren Jacobsen: Guitar
Thomas Langballe: Trommer
Design: Birgitte Wester
Foto: Robin Skjoldborg
Cutting Through-albummet blev ved samme anledning genudgivet som en enkelt-lp på vinyl med titlen Cutting Through (The Re-Release). Den nye singleudgave af “Crush” blev udsendt i form af en 12″-ep ved navn Counterpoint, em udgivelse der også indeholdt Halls samtidige musik til en tv-film med titlen The Point of No Return.
Document-cd’ens tidsangivelser refererer til datoerne for de originale indspilninger som referencepunkt, ikke udgivelsesdatoerne for originalpladerne. Dette forklarer angivelsen af perioden – 1981 til 1985 – selvom Cutting Through-albummet blev udsendt i februar 1986.
1. “Leathern” er indspillet med Ballet Mécanique i april 1981
2. “Among” er indspillet med Ballet Mécanique i maj 1982
3. “Imagine” Focus” er indspillet med Under For i januar 1984
4. “Free-Force Structure” er indspillet med Under For i august 1984
5. “Network” er indspillet i januar 1985
6. “Resonance” er indspillet i januar 1985
7. “Warfare” er indspillet i juni 1985
8. “Showdown” er indspillet i august 1985
9. “Crush” er indspillet i august 1985
10. “Cut Off” er indspillet i august 1985
11. “Deep Inside Me” er indspillet i september 1985
12. “Synthesis” er indspillet i september 1985
KONTINUUM
KONTINUUM
MARTIN HALL
PROSADIGTE
SEPTEMBER 1989
BORGENS FORLAG (ISBN 87-418-5463-2)
Kontinuum er Martin Halls tredje bog, en tekstsamling der udkom fem år efter dens forgænger, Fremmedgørelsens identitet.
Udgivelsen består af en serie fortættede refleksioner, noter nedskrevet i et kontinuum på 24 dage – en rejse gennem “disse dages Europa”, som det formuleres i introduktionen. Bogen må dog ikke forveksles med en traditionel rejsebeskrivelse, den er snarere en poetisk undersøgelse af, hvad rejsen gør ved den rejsende, end en dekorativ beskrivelse af steder og seværdigheder.
Om end tonen i Kontinuum er betydelig mere afklaret end i Halls tidligere bogudgivelser, er værkets billedverden stadig meget skygget og dobbelttydig.
Genre: Prosadigte
Sideantal: 38
Design: Martin Hall
”Og de første ord faldt. Dette er lidt om meget. Fragmenter og panorama, 24 dages kontinuum i disse dages Europa.”
“Moderne mikrotavler. Smukke og skræmmende digte fra Martin Hall … meget, meget autentisk: Man tror på, at han har været der, for han kan give oplevelsen videre.”
Politiken – Thomas Bredsdorff (29. september 1989)
“En nervespændt mosaik, der i lysende øjeblikke samler sig om det væsentlige kunstneriske forhold mellem sprog, verden og identitet … Martin Halls fint slyngede ordranker bliver ”som frostglød i vinternats krystal”. Svalt poetiske kræfter, hvormed han møder livet, og det der er større end ham selv. Hans billeddannende evne er original og sproget ”blødt som blod, der spredes i vand”, ja, så ejendommeligt nærværende kan han bruge det.”
Berlingske Tidende – Henrik Wivel (26. september 1989)
“Tiden går svanger med de digte, som Martin Hall nu præsenterer offentligheden for – eller rettere: med drømme og tendenser, som på mange måder kan have glæde af hans digtes spidsformuleringer. I de sidste årtier har det ikke været god tone at skrive filosofisk og med læresætninger, der kan streges under. Virkeligheden har været under lup, er blevet dissekeret og endevendt. Nu er den moden til en gensamling, men på bevægelsens præmisser, og det er, hvad Martin Hall kredser omkring.”
Fyens Stiftstidende – Jørgen Gleerup (oktober 1989)
TRIPTYKON
Bliver opmærksom på lyden af vandet, der falder mod håndvaskens marmorflader. Et hotelværelses spejl viser mig et ansigt. Senere vasker jeg hænder – betragter vandet løbe gennem mine fingre, som tiden gør det.
Jeg går tilbage, hvor jeg kom fra – ind i scenografien af stuen; en erindring allerede mens det opleves. I dette rum har alt engang været en forestilling, en tanke i en eller andens hoved – sengen, stolene, bordet, malerierne; alt sammen af en anden verden. Det gør mig til en del af en forestilling; et teater, hvor tid er arkitektur.
For enden af rummet er værelsets vinduer arrangeret som et triptykon, en levende gengivelse af den bevægende verden uden for. Indrammet ligger havet nederst, mørket øverst. Dybden af det kender ingen, det skjuler sig selv. Bølgerne rejser sig for dernæst at falde; alt der bevæges, forandres.
Senere den nat sover jeg en drømmeløs søvn.
FELT
Over havet, under himlen, i stilheden af menneskeløsheden. Havets stenagtige flader brydes igen og igen, som bristepunkt indefra, som bevægende tyngde udefra. I disse øjeblikke hersker ingen adskillelse mellem virkelighed og mulighed; dette er havet, ophavet, dybt som mørket, og stille som det ufødte.
Dette er blevet kaldt englenes land, og jeg befinder mig ved lands ende, på en platform af forstenet jord. Klipperne udgør grænselandskabet mellem vandet og luften, mod hvilket bølgernes fald lyder som pulsslaget af disse verdener; et requiem for alt der har været, en messe for alt der endnu må komme.
I silhouetter fremstår landskabets forladte miner som ufuldstændige katedraler, rejst af mennesker, men nægtet fuldendelse af jordens og havets kræfter. Morgenlyset fremkalder langsomt tætheden af billedet, og mens alt endnu ligger indhyllet i et skær af usket, skærer vinden gennem mig som en hvisken og et råb – et skrig endnu uforløst, inderst inde.
Tanker her er ikke mere, ikke mindre, end ekkoer i tomrummet.
FROSTGLØD
Denne rejse er alene. Disse dage er ét. Som det begyndes, må det ændre sig. Alt ændrer sig i rytmen af modstand, dør eller bliver stærkere.
Metal mod metal, ton mod ton, i en hast hvor kun det der ligger på afstand kan ses. Sol blænder, brænder frost hvidglødende, mens mure af lyd resonerer i mig. Øjne omkring mig stirrer dødt ud i togkupeen, i håbet om næring.
Bevæges ind i landet, mens landskaber efterlades som en skygge kastet. I flader af tid fornemmes jordens grænser, såvel som mine egne. Mørket sænker sig udenfor, stilheden indeni; skovene står som silhouetter mod eftergløden af dagens lys, mens billedet ændrer sig fra syn til en fornemmelse af dybde.
Fragmenter af tid og sted danner verdensbilleder uden sammenligning, en mosaik af nerve, hvor enhver fornemmelse bliver en prisme for alt uset. Som frostglød i vinternats krystal overskrides punktet for tilbagevenden, i en ændring næsten for svag til at bemærke.
Mens mørket fortætter sig til nat, omskrives et tyngdepunkt. Af mørket formes modstanden, der ingen trussel kender.
Signal brænder stigma i sin transformation af spild.
ARENA
I verdensarenaen er overlevelse den stærkestes privilegium. Men at forblive intakt kræver mere end styrke.
Som styrke er det fastes kvalitet, er skønhed det bevægeliges – rummet den overordnede tilladelse. I dette jorden, vandet og luften – og som flamme tærer stof, falder skygger anderledes.
Modermærket, men ukendt i oprindelse, det er silhouetten enhver skinner, i nat mod dag.
KONTINUUM
Det siges, at det stille vand har den dybe grund. Hvor overfladen reflekterer, er dybden af en anden dimension.
Når vandet bevæges, og der opstår en bølge, taler vi om ”en bølge”. Men i sig selv findes den ikke. Der er ikke ”et stykke bølge” at gribe ud efter – der er en bevægelse i vandet, der forårsager dette fænomen, som for os præsenterer sig som ”en bølge”.
Hændelser opleves som genstande, og som stoffet hvoraf drømme skabes, bevæges vi i disse foranderligste verdener. Som et bevægende diagram udspiller verdensteatret sig i bølge på bølge – som en symfoni hvori kaskader af forskellige toner, instrumenter, rytmer og intensiteter alle sammen forbindes af pulsslagets røde tråd, hvis farve er mange.
I netværket af i hinanden indgribende processer er et menneske sin egen mediumistiske kontakt med alt, det må blive. Pulsslaget er som en rejse, retningsbestemt, men aldrig endeligt defineret, og at overgive sig til denne ”den største historie nogensinde fortalt” er bevægende, i alle ordets betydninger – ikke længere at være, men at blive, og ikke længere at lede, men at blive ledt.
Alt forgår, mens øjeblikket forbliver, i dette ”virkelighedens kontinuum”.
LIGEVÆGT
Universet er i ligevægt. Derfor kan enhver sætte sit over styr, ved at adskille sig fra det.
EUROPA
Fra guldskæret til metalstøvet. I rytmen af byernes timeløse døgn, hvileløshedens forbandelse; et ekko af Europa.
I dette skiftende lys af brændende horisonter, i disse syntetiske landskaber af det 20nde århundredes degeneration ligger jorden gold og død under mine fødder. Jordens salt føles forgiftet i denne de levende dødes civilisation, den eneste afgrøde er en hede tæt som metal, og asken af sceneriet udgør en platform af livløshed, et alter af verdens støv.
I pulsslaget af dette panorama er der en undertone, undergravende som det natteløse mørke, der forgifter både sjæl og krop i sin altætsende indadvendthed – koldt som bly, hedt som cancer; børnene af det sofistikerede mareridt balancerer mangel med den inderste vold.
En hvisken i vildnisset rejser i ekkoerne af natten, mens regnen falder som en hinde. Af mørket brydes lys, af stilheden lyd.
EFTERSKRIFT
Blødt som blod, der spredes i vand – en hvisken brydes i tusind stykker, regner gennem mig som en støv af ånd. Ethvert brudstykke af dig indeholder alt af dig.
Skarp som knivens æg; slangens æg – en flygtning krydser sit spor. Urets visere bevæger sig i cirkler, til de samme punkter i forskellige døgn. Alt der bevæges, vender tilbage; fra ét til nul i en cirkel af alle tal.
I et rum mellem himmel og jord, under kuplen af det mørke lys; billedet stilnes, mens åndedrag finder rytmen af natten. Det eneste, der er vigtigt, du ved, er at jeg ikke ønsker at være noget andet sted.
COUNTERPOINT (THE POINT OF NO RETURN SOUNDTRACK)
COUNTERPOINT (THE POINT OF NO RETURN SOUNDTRACK)
MARTIN HALL
12″
SEPTEMBER 1989
VIRGIN RECORDS (MHMX1)
Counterpoint (The Point of No Return Soundtrack) er en 12″-ep, der indeholder et radio-edit af “Crush” fra Martin Halls 1986-album Cutting Through. Counterpoint blev udsendt i forbindelse med udgivelsen af opsamlings-cd’en The Martin Hall Document (Fragments 1981–1986) samt genudgivelsen af Cutting Through på Virgin Records i september 1989.
1. Crush (1989 Edit) (3:43)
2. Point within Circle (4:00)
3. Counterpoint (1:24)
4. Dome (1:30)
5. 8 (6:26)
6. Erosion (4:33)
CRUSH
As you fill me again
I have no further questions
Condemned to be free
As I reach out for you again
Nothing is new
But something has grown
Bigger than both of us
Stronger than memory
And much stronger than defeat
I’m gonna crush the worlds we used to know
A seed is sown
I’m gonna let it grow
I’m quite aware what I’ll be going through
There’s no way back
It all depends on you
My destiny
I’ve seen it in your eyes
A love so deep
A stream that purifies
And in your arms
The nature of all death
Is nothing but a touch of timelessness
I’m gonna crush you with my love
I’m gonna be crushed up in love
Flemming Nygaard: Cello
Martin Hall: Vokal, instrumenter
Design: Birgitte Wester
Foto: Robin Skjoldborg
Counterpoint-ep’en indeholder også soundtracket til en tv-film med titlen “The Point of No Return”, fem stykker dengang nyskrevet instrumentalmusik af Hall. Videoerne til disse numre er inkluderet på VHS-udgivelsen Audio-Visual fra 1990.
Alle indspilningerne på Counterpoint er tilgængelige via box-sættet Catalogue fra 2007.
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
MARTIN HALL
MC
SEPTEMBER 1989
MIND AND MEDIA (MM888)
The Hall of Mirrors er den eneste af Martin Halls båndudgivelser, der blev udgivet via en reel distributionscentral. Udsendt i et begrænset oplag på 888 eksemplarer – alle individuelt nummererede kopier – viser båndet en på det tidspunkt ny og forfriskende side af Hall, nemlig hans samarbejder med en række forskellige vokalister. Disse gæsteindslag tilførte indspilningerne en mere levende, skitseagtig karakter end Halls tidligere produktioner, hvilket klædte både udgivelse og ophavsmand.
The Hall of Mirrors indeholder Martin Halls første indspilninger med både Irma Victoria og Aud Wilken, begge artister han kom til at producere flere udgivelser med på sit label Mind and Media. Kassettebåndet var selskabets første udgivelse.
Nummeret “Song for Someone”, som Martin Hall selv synger, er inkluderet på den senere Catalogue-boks (2007).
1. Mind (4:13)
2. Fragment (1:17)
3. Brainwash (feat. Aud Wilken) (2:44)
4. Compression (feat. Henrik Möll) (1:44)
5. Box 1 (3:20)
6. Song for Someone (3:10)
7. Intermission 1 (0:21)
8. Heyl (3:45)
9. The World (Chanson D’Amour) (feat. Ken Rivad) (3:10)
10. Memorial (feat. Irma Victoria) (3:52)
11. Box 2 (2:54)
12. Reprise (1:32)
13. Intermission 2 (0:58)
14. Tension (Focus of Unity) (6:18)
15. Box 3 (3:56)
16. Got a Feeling (4:32)
17. Finale (0:51)
MIND
”What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow; our life is the creation of our mind.”
(The Dhammapada)
Never mind = no matter
No mind = never matter
FRAGMENT
”Everything has its tides – the pendulum swing to the right is the measure of that to the left – rhythm compensates.”
(The Kybalion)
BRAINWASH
“The mirror is not to be confused with the reflections which appear in it.”
(The Cycle of Day and Night)
I can’t help this feeling
I don’t think it’s mine
I think I need cleaning of brain and of mind
Brainwash
Wash it all clean now
Brainwash
Take it away
Brainwash
The ease and the dis-ease
Some like it hot, and some not
Not at all
And I don’t need no doctor
I just need myself
The melodramatic is going to hell
COMPRESSION
”If thought precedes action, what precedes thought?”
(The Living Qabalah)
Give me your name
Give me compression
Give me your name
And give me your mind
BOX 1
Fragments of an interview:
It’s very often that people take kindness for weakness, which is a shame, because it puts you in a situation, where you need to be hard before you can be soft – you need to somehow show people the disciplines and tensions, before you can actually deal. And that’s again just a symptom of, well, the whole 20th century basically, but particularly about, well, people’s attitudes and mental arrangements, towards themselves first of all, and secondly to others.
Things are what they are, regardless of how much we disagree about them, and having emotions about something is stupid, unless it’s got a purpose – I mean, unless you can use that emotion as a fuel to change.
I mean, that’s the whole thing, that it takes one to recognize one, and what you see in others is merely a reflection of yourself.
But the question remains: What are you going to do about it – because, well, it might be that you actually are the one martyr of this world, but then if you really are, that just puts a much greater job on your shoulders than sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself. And it comes into a situation, where there’s very little escape from what is real; it comes into the scenery, where you begin to become not just responsible for your own life, but actually becoming the architect of your own, well, actually destiny, if you want to put it like that.
SONG FOR SOMEONE
”Without struggle, no progress and no result.”
(Views from the Real World)
So your cynicism is your new religion
Where your doubt allows you no devotion
It makes you feel secure ’cause they can’t say you’re wrong
And that’s right ’cause you’re close to nothing at all
So while you’re fighting blinded in your mirror land
You run against the size of your own little box
In a two-mask nightmare theatre
You live what you call your life
I call you slave of guilt
I call you sick-sick-six
You know my name but you don’t know me
In the stupidity of mass identity
Your self-fixation won’t set you free
Now analysis is very easy to offer
Help is a quite different feature
I wish you’d come down to the basics
I wish you’d begin to surrender
INTERMISSION
“Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently with much sagacity.”
(The Smaragdine Tablet)
HEYL
“That garment is made up of tales and stories; but we, we are bound to penetrate beyond.”
(The Zohar)
THE WORLD (CHANSON D’AMOUR)
“O then come hither, and lay my book, thy Head and Heart together.”
(The Pilgrim’s Progress)
Got the world in my pocket
Got the world in my hand
Got the world in my singing
But I don’t understand
What came first from the big void?
What came first, hen or egg?
It’s too strange to consider
So I love it instead
Sometimes when I think about the great buildings in this world, I feel proud – I don’t know why, but I feel proud. And when I feel proud, I also feel love. And when I feel love, I want to sing. And when I sing, I sing a “Chanson d’Amour” … And if you want to sing a “Chanson d’Amour” too, then sing along with me now:
La-la-la, la-la-la
God bless you …
MEMORIAL
“It’s a matter of observation, not learning.”
(Assume Power Focus)
Wake up children
The day is near
Wake up children
I feel so weird
I can remember
I can forget
Sometimes it all seems like a dream in my head
Wake up children
I can remember
Hey-hey, hey-hey
I can forget
Tra-la-la-la
BOX 2
Fragments of an interview:
Well, it’s easy to know about something, but to actually understand it, that’s something else. I mean, if you really understand something, it’s going to change your life – because otherwise it’s just an intellectual commodity that you carry around in your head. But, I mean, true understanding, I don’t think that that is a matter of information, or just dumping more information into your brain – I think it’s more a matter of actually getting rid of nonsense in yourself.
I’ve had enough of emotional hysteria. It’s quite stupid to produce this massive emotion about feeling not understood – because after all, when you take into account, that you’re actually dealing with something like six billion emotionally and mentally handicapped people, then the big issue about being personally misunderstood, it’s a bit grotesque.
Well, I think it’s a bit weird, that what’s most easily obtainable in this world, is what people identify themselves most heavily with – a thing like common emotion, getting angry about something, or feeling something, is what people somehow make their ultimate identity, and in the light of the fact, that, as I’ve said, it’s the most easily obtainable, it becomes a bit bizarre, that people turn it into their religion.
REPRISE
“What is now proved, was once only imagined.”
(The Marriage of Heaven and Hell)
INTERMISSION
”You do not question or worry about your wisdom. You just do whatever is required. The situation you are facing is itself profound enough to be regarded as knowledge. You do not need secondary resources of information. You do not need reinforcement or guidelines for action. Reinforcement is provided by the situation automatically. When things must be conducted in a tough manner, you just do it because the situation demands your response. You do not impose toughness; you are instrument of the situation.”
(Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism)
TENSION (FOCUS OF UNITY)
“Opposition is the source of all growth.”
(Tao Teh King)
Tyranny of ignorance
You will know who you are
As the mask of identity falls and breaks on the floor
Tension grows in the focus of unity
Tension grows in the still of the night
See the pain and the pantomime
20th century erosion
In the blood print of stimulus
It takes more than a dream
BOX 3
Fragments of an interview:
Personally, there’s a lot of things that I’d like to rewrite in myself, and there’s a lot of things that I’ve done that, well, I’d do it differently today. It’s very difficult for me to forget things, and, well, that’s been quite a struggle in a way, to overcome this weight of the past. But the strength to actually change comes very much, I think, from a superior viewing – because a thing like all the time bringing your past into your present is wrongful according to, really what a life is. And, well, let’s take an example like bitterness, I mean, it’s a thing that most people would find quite easy, to actually surrender to the feeling of bitterness, because there’s so much evidence in a 20th century life of, well, pain and resistances. So it, unless you actually take a stance against it, it’s a bit like a ghost that tries to take you into the shadowplay of self-solemn martyrdom, and really, the only way to avoid all these aspects that are so dominant features in, I think, every person’s inner life, you really need to add up up what you’re in, what you’re doing – because in the end, you’re stuck with you.
In the end, you’re going to die alone, so what you’re doing is really between you and you, all the time. And in that context, it’s, well, it’s different to live, because what you do is between you and you, and you need no justification or “forgiveness” from any outer world.
GOT A FEELING
“The standard of the physical plane is strength; the standard of the astral plane is beauty; the standard of the mental plane is truth; and the standard of the spiritual plane is that of right and wrong as we understand the terms; therefore there is no ethic except in terms of spiritual value; all else is at best expediency.”
(The Mystical Qabalah)
Got a feeling in my heart
And it makes me wonder why
Wake up in the morning and it’s there
I feel it inside me
Everywhere
FINALE
“The nature of reality is to liberate.”
(The Book of Tokens)
Stronger than thousand suns
Zero equals one
Two reveals unity
As all things to be
“Det nyeste og mest interessante udspil fra Hall er kassettebåndet The Hall of Mirrors med gæstesangerne Irma Victoria, Ken Rivad, Henrik Möll og Aud Wilken … Musikalsk er det en omfattende rejse gennem mellemøstlige klange, djævlelignende sang, soul og frankofile chansons. Nærlytter man, dukker små overraskelser op; som f. eks. i ”Brainwash” hvor Aud Wilken pludselig afløses af Charles Manson. The Hall of Mirrors er Martin Halls mest varierede, men også mest obskure udgivelse i lang tid. Som altid trodser han janteloven og sætter den på plads med ordene “it takes one to recognize one, and what you see in others is merely a reflection of yourself”. Velkommen i spejlsalen.”
MM – Henrik Føhns (oktober 1989)
“På The Hall of Mirrors er Halls selvhøjtidelighed atter i velgørende rette rammer. 12 nye kompositioner og interviews. Et luset kassettebånd med plads til både skitser, krumspring og denne forrygende monumentale jeg-bevidsthed forklædt som ydmyghed … både mere spændende, underholdende og udfordrende end Presence.”
Det Fri Aktuelt – Kim Skotte (11. september 1989)
“Den mest spændende nyhed er The Hall of Mirrors, der består af nye numre og interviews. Halls musik er herpå langt mere varieret end på hans tidligere udgivelser, og står alligevel frem på en sær homogen måde. Musikken spænder således lige fra fjerlet pop, med Halls og Aud Wilkens stemmer i forgrunden, til tung og fascinerende industrisampler-musik. De numre, der er mest fremtrædende, er “Brainwash”, en velklingende popsang, “Song for Someone”, hvor Halls stemme svinger fra blidt kontrolleret til hysterisk vild, og “Memorial” med Irma Victorias søvngængeragtige stemme foran en dunkel dragende baggrund.”
Record News – Jesper Hansen og Christian Rosén (oktober 1989)
Aud Wilken: Vokal
Henrik Möll: Vokal
Irma Victoria: Vokal
Ken Rivad: Vokal
Martin Hall: Vokal, instrumenter
Design: John L. Christensen
Foto: Ken Rivad