RANDOM HOLD (SPECIAL EDITION)
MARTIN HALL
CD
FEBRUARY 2009 (ORIGINAL RELEASE FEBRUARY 1996)
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 14)
Originally released in 1996 Random Hold was instantly regarded as one of Martin Hall’s finest works by an unanimous Scandinavian press. In 1997 the album was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland where it also received a massive amount of breathtaking reviews.
Since then it has been included on the list over the 50 most important releases in Danish rock music in the illustrious Danish rock encyclopedia Politikens Rockleksikon and the album still gains growing attention from music connoisseurs all over the world.
1. Cradlemoon (5:44)2. Performance (5:12)3. Another Heart Laid Bare (4:54)4. Interim (1:47)5. Cue (3:24)6. She’s Eternal (6:00)7. Golden Day Longing (4:37)8. Skinline (11:03) 9. Catching the Dust (Part 1) (1:59)10. Catching the Dust (Part 2) (6:38)11. Another Heart in Transit (8:39)12. Cradlemoon (Chamber Version) (4:24)13. Images in Water (Instrumental Version) (7:52)
CRADLEMOON
The fire and the water keep mixing in my blood
The sons and the daughters seemed to give it all up
They got too tired of the waiting
Too tired to believe
In the promises that nobody keeps
I’ve seen a generation coming
I’ve seen a generation go
And the more I see, the less I know
I want to go to sleep
I want to drown in the deep of the cradlemoon
I want to touch the sky
I want to lie down and die
In the cradlemoon of the night
So I followed the shadows by the trail of the waste
And it led me into the heart, to the heart of these days
I never wanted to remember
Never wanted to believe
But you don’t ask why when the thunderheart beats
All I wanted was a reason
What I got was so much more
Couldn’t turn my back on the things that I saw
I want to go to sleep
I want to drown in the deep of the cradlemoon
I want to touch the sky
I want to lie down and die
In the cradlemoon of the night
In a world full of stories
There’s a time in the night
When the sky seems to break by the blink of the eye
PERFORMANCE
Fields of living fire
You’ll see me reaching into the air
The shadow of a survivor
I turn around but there’s no one there
I’ve been looking for reason
Some poisons taste like the sweetest wine
But all I ever believed in
Was all the things that I couldn’t find
The fires burn, erasing all the traces
And I spread the ashes all across the sky
Watching it all fall like rain through empty spaces
To the darkest corners of my heart and mind
Hear the cries and the whispers
The touch-and-go of another night
The afterglow of desire
Shines with the flame of a lesser light
A line of nameless faces
Fading away in a sea of time
Another time and place is
The last belief of performing mind
The fires burn, erasing all the traces
And I spread the ashes all across the sky
Watching it all fall like rain through empty spaces
To the darkest corners of my heart and mind
In a room without a view
There’s a story without end
Every time an answer shows
Then another hides away
ANOTHER HEART LAID BARE
Another heart laid bare on the doorstep to my exile
Another pantomime to disbelieve
I see your bended head, always humble in the daylight
Playing the servant’s role to never see
Of all the images that you left for my keeping
The one I like the most is the world outside
I never thought I would but the distance seems so perfect
I can’t deny the fact that I’m pleasantly surprised
Another victim cries, pointing fingers at the heavens
Declaring me the crime of centuries
The traces on my skin, they keep shining in the nighttime
A fingerprint on every memory
CUE
The cities of light, the mirrors beneath the stars
In all of my life I’ve followed my untamed heart
It burns like a fever in the sleepless nights
Behind closed doors and behind closed eyes
The sea of the sky keeps shining a world of gold
The sweeter the song, the sadder the tale that’s told
Like a secret that I’ll never know
There’s a feeling that will follow me anywhere I go
I’ll walk on waters
I’ll quiet the storms
With you as my reason
With you as my calm
SHE’S ETERNAL
I never wanted her to see
The world inside me
The world was turning round and round
Like something running out of time
She whispered “listen to the wind” and her breath burned my skin
I didn’t understand but it made me feel so still
There’s a tale of the night, there’s an unspoken word
And the story that she told couldn’t be explained in words
‘Cause she
She’s eternal
With her the world dies
And she
She’s eternal
With her the world dies
Let it die
A stone that falls into the sea
It falls inside me
These winterlands, they never change
They’re covered in this quiet grey
Voices calling in the night from the corners of my mind
From the desolated worlds I was trying to leave behind
Never thought I’d be returning to the place it all began
To the tainted heart of longing, till she took me by the hand
GOLDEN DAY LONGING
Sweet
Golden day longing
I feel it inside
Each breath that I take
High
High as the empty
It falls on my skin
To cover the burns
Turning silver
See the writing that runs down the wall
Book of reason
I don’t need it anymore
Sweet
Golden day longing
No words can explain
The feelings I have
SKINLINE
Days are burning like the rainbow
In a corner of the world
Your forever is a nevermore
And it turns the sky and the earth
The moon and the stars
The skin and the scars
Keeping your eyes on closing doors
Counting the shadows on the walls
Pieces of eight still fill your mind
Burning your skinline
Break the silence into stories
Tell them like a children’s tale
Always staying at a distance
As you bleed the light of the day
You’re lying awake
You lie there and wait
CATCHING THE DUST
The eyes on the ceiling
The eyes on the walls
There’s always a riddle unsolved
A question to store
Candles burning in the night to remind you
That no matter where you’re hiding
It will find you
Get inside of you
All of this time
Watching the lines
Slowly run out into the blue
Catching the dust
Staying untouched
Hiding the world within your hand
All of this time
Just catching the dust
Hiding the world
The longest of stories
The thinnest of air
The something you always wanted
Untouchable near
“Hertzlich willkommen. Mit Martin Hall’s Random Hold liegt das erste Produkt vor, das Public Propaganda als Label auf den Markt schmeissen… und was für eines! Martin Hall, eine der wichtigsten Persönlichkeiten in Dänemarks Musik- und Kunstscene, verbindet electronisches und klassische Sounds zu einer perfekten Untermalung seiner düsteren Gesange, die einen sofort in ihren Bann ziehen. Das ganze klingt ausserdem extrem ruhig und atmosphärisch, dabei aber nicht immer kuschelweich, sondern oft auch nachdenklich machend. Mal wirken die Songs als solche, mal experimentiert Martin Hall mit Stimme und Klängen. Verdammt entspannende und starke 43 minuten, die uns Public Propaganda da ins Nest legen. Unbedingt reinhören. ”
( 5/5 )
Bodystyler (December 1997)
“Die perfekte Musik …”
Gothic (December 1997)
“Einfach eine grossartige CD!!!”
Dark Mind (November 1997)
“Musik, die einfach schön ist … Denn Kunst kommt von Können. Und das ist Kunst in Reinkultur! Atmosphärische Klänge, wie sie die heutige schnellebige Zeit dringend nötig hat, um einen Ruhepunkt zu finden.”
Orkus (November 1997)
“Random Hold ist ein bewegendes, ein ausgereiftes Kunstwerk. Gut, dass endlich die Musik unserer Nachbarn im Norden mehr und mehr in unser Bewusstsein rückt …”
Notes (November 1997)
“Hall’s Musik so ganz anders ist.”
( 8/10 )
Neurostyle (December 1997)
“Der Däne Martin Hall blickt mit seinen 34 Jahren bereits auf stattliche 31 Veröffentlichungen zurück. Einem breiten Publikum ist er hierzulande allerdings noch nicht bekannt. Random Hold könnte das ändern. Hall schafft ein unspektakuläres, zurückhaltendes Album voller Emotionen. Er versichtet auf klanggewaltige Arrangements, entfaltet sich lieber im Detail. Stilprägend wirkt dabei die Kombination elektronischer Musik und klassischer Instrumentierung, die gleichberechtigt nebeneinander stehen und die gefühlvollen Texte unterstreichen. Zeitlos schön und ubedingt hörenswert.”
T5 (November 1997)
“Da haben wir ja ein richtiges Multitalent.”
( 9/10 )
Feedback (December 1997)
“Musik für den Herbst. Musik für Schwärmer, Romantiker, für die melankolischen Stunden allein, für Stunden zu zweit. Musik wie für mich komponiert.”
Astan (November 1997)
“Bleibt zu hoffen, dass Martin Hall mit diesem atmosphärisches aussergewönlichen Album auch hierzulande auf offene Ohren stösst.”
Entry (December 1997)
“Dänemarks Vorzeige Multimedia-Künstler vor Durchbruch in Deutschland.”
Zillo (November 1997)
Henrik Marstal: Cello
Iben Teilmann: Viola
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, bass, guitar, tape material
Ole Hansen: Keyboards, piano, trumpet, french horn
Sara Wallevik: Violin
Signe Kjærsgaard: Bass
Thomas Li: Networks, treatments, logic, percussion
Design: Birgitte Wester/Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg
In February 2009 Random Hold was re-released in a remastered special edition featuring several bonus recordings from the original sessions. In relation to Record Store Day 2017 it was released on vinyl in a new version remastered by Thomas Li.
For a more specified storyline concerning these versions, please see the following links:
The album was recorded on mobile equipment at Regent House and Holbaek Art School via Satellite Recording Facilities, summer 1995. It was mixed at Soundtrack and then edited at Mainstream.
“The grandiose and beautiful, dusty album Random Hold from 1996. It is the hermetic Hall’s most flawless pop work ever.”
( * * * * * )
Politiken (the Danish equivalent to The Guardian)“Martin Hall has rarely appeared more precise, serene and focused than on his latest release.”
Berlingske Tidende (the Danish equivalent to The Times)”A damned good release from Martin Hall.”
Information (the Danish equivalent to The Independent)“Martin Hall’s best record so far. A little miracle.”
( * * * * * )
Nat & Dag (the Danish equivalent to The Face)“Martin Hall’s peak as an artist.”
Zoo Magazine (the Danish equivalent to Q Magazine at the time)“Random Hold is Martin Hall’s most beautiful and flawless record up until this point.”
Det Fri Aktuelt (major Danish newspaper at the time)”An uncompromising and naked expression … intimate and attentive deliveries.”
( * * * * * )
Undertoner (Danish site for independent music)“Beautiful music … art at its purest.”
Orkus (major German music magazine)“The perfect music!”
Gothic (major German music magazine)