FACSIMILE
MARTIN HALL
CD
FEBRUARY 2006
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 06)
On Monday the 13th of February 2006 Martin Hall released Facsimile, his first solo album as a singer in seven years. Apart from ten new tracks the two first editions of the title were released with a bonus dvd featuring a visual setting for the album as a whole.
Having avoided the role as singer and autobiographical songwriter for years, Facsimile features a collection of songs that still represent some of his most personal ever. The impressively orchestrated album is built up around a set of fairly simple ballads, tracks with an emotional span that runs from the subdued and quiet to the highly dramatic.
1. Neglect (2:29)
2. Mimic (4:48)
3. Other Rooms (4:19)
4. Ash and Lemon Water (3:10)
5. April 4 (2:00)
6. A.S.A.P. (1:54)
7. Glistening on the Surface of the World (6:27)
8. … (2:10)
9. Torn Envelope (8:03)
10. Tu Es Mon Image (7:01)
NEGLECT
Habits that I just couldn’t break
Caught within the frame of my ways
Living with the stories and tales
That surrounded my every move
Turning living into a game
Changes made it all stay the same
Paranoid delusions remained
Such an elegant way to run free
But no eye shall absorb any tear that it cries
And no heart ever drown in its beat
Guess I needed to see just how pointless it is
To be right when it’s not what you feel
Shaken by words never meant to be said
Breaking the silence of lost innocence
I just couldn’t see
How you carried the weight of it all
Starving desires, extravagant needs
Caught in the dark of my fading beliefs
I just couldn’t see
How you shielded my every move
I just couldn’t see
MIMIC
The midnight music from a distant room
The morning light, it always comes too soon
Lick your tongue now
Against my desires
Late at night
Even the sounds, they shine
Winter tales that last forever
Summer rites that taste so sweet
Just another chance encounter
Of lines that meet
Of mimic needs
OTHER ROOMS
The cigarette smoke in the air
The smouldering waves everywhere
Full of eyes
Prune coloured eyes
In Moscow and St. Petersburg
The places turn into a blur
In your mind
A violent sigh
The salt water traces that burn on your skin
The words that you hid in letters never sent
Your heartbeat’s a rage never tamed, never shown
Wherever you go, you’re never alone
The alcohol glows for a while
It’s shining like gold in the light
Like a trace
Of halcyon days
Like ghosts in their circuits of loss
You carry your own little cross
As a shield
Against any need
Wherever you go, you leave something behind
The parts of yourself you’ve been trying to find
The smell of the night seems to stick to your skin
All locked in a cage, the journey begins
ASH AND LEMON WATER
Ash and lemon water
Shining on your lips
Whatever you do
Don’t try to resist
It’s the kind of understanding that makes you feel uncomfortable
It’s the kind of circumstances that make you feel so old
You’re all immune
To crowded rooms
Your heart’s made of air
It’s easy to share
You’re sliding down
The open sky
A handle that breaks
Excitement’s a rage
A.S.A.P.
She’s turning away to lie still for a while
Just watching the clouds drifting by on the night sky
The skin of a girl and the face of a child
She touches my hand and suggests that we go out
She’s checking her face in the mirror
Adjusting her hair endlessly
The hard light of the elevator
Follows her out in the street
It’s too hot to sleep
GLISTENING ON THE SURFACE OF THE WORLD
Faces swirling about me
Perfumes and cigarettes
A generation grown up to find all gods dead
All faith in man shaken
All certainty let loose
A world of your desires,
It’s so hard to choose
The tainted belief that runs in our blood
It feeds on the needs that hide in the mud
The soft rush of cars,
The nebulous sky
The look in her eyes
A star cluster shines
Is there any way out of this glittering maze?
Glistening on the surface of the world like oil on water
Drowning in another phantom chase of vain disorder
Exaggerated measures
All faces without names
A neat prosaic figure disappearing once again
Along the sound of distant taxis there’s laughter in the air
You disagree with someone
But no one seems to care
Is there any way back across this desert of scars?
A way to survive the frozen warp of the heart
The late afternoons, the sweet autumn days
The satellite hearts, they’re drifting away
Still you try to believe her every whisper and word
You’re carried by air, the cool diamond wind
But time’s running out and the craving begins
Is there any way out of this contagious ideal?
Glistening on the surface of the world like oil on water
Drowning in another phantom chase of vain disorder
Her warm and passionate breath pouring out into the night
She’s an artificial torrent of cold blooded desire
Just another wild excitement all prone to self destruct
A glamorous confusion addicted to her luck
So tantalizingly elusive, the bells are ringing out
While the lights keep getting brighter, they vaporize the clouds
It’s the sound of souls that splinter, too weak to recognize
If it wasn’t for the glimpse within her eyes
Is there any release from this one disregard?
A way to survive the frozen warp of the heart
Is there any way back across this desert of scars?
A way to believe the distant cry of the heart
TORN ENVELOPE
With lips bleeding red
A flicker of skin
Her one silk caress
It’s a breath just about to begin
She believes
What she feels
The white of her eyes
A glow in the dark
Wherever she is
She’s a silence that shelters my heart
She believes
What she is
And I wish she could see
What she’s doing to me
In spite of the past
In spite of the present
She’s the air I breathe
She’s the trail of the days
My guide and my trace
The world never sleeps
It feeds on her dreaming
As I close my eyes
A taste in my mouth
Of sugary sand
The world seems so small
As it glitters in her open hand
She believes
What she needs
And I wish she could see
What she’s doing to me
In spite of the past
In spite of the present
She’s the air I breathe
She’s the trail of the days
My guide and my trace
The world never sleeps
It feeds on her dreaming
As I close my eyes
In the still of the night, the dim desires
In the faint afterglow of heated cries
On the moon flooded roofs and in her eyes
It all comes alive, it all seems to hide
And the words seem to fall like whispers that drip
Her voice’s like a fog on her moist soft lips
Like a torn envelope that’s sealed with a kiss
How it all seems to break, all seems to shake
In a single embrace
TU ES MON IMAGE
Les rails de la nuit noire
Ils brillent comme lumière
Le monde ne dort jamais
Nourrit nos rêves
Mon image de toi
Est tombée du ciel
Les rêves paraissent continuer
Les chants intérieurs
Murmure des mots inouïs
Tu es mon image
Enfourche la lumière comme une vague
Les yeux d’océan, d’amant ne mentent jamais
Détournons nous comme des étrangers
Tout ce que je veux, c’est tout
Tout ce que je veux, c’est toi
Tu es mon image, c’est toi
Les rails de la nuit noire
Ils brillent comme lumière
Le monde ne dort jamais
Nourrit nos rêves
Mon image de toi
Est tombée du ciel
Tombée du ciel
Tu es mon image
Plus bleus que toute raison
Timides comme tout mensonge
Des yeux d’amants jamais secs
Tu es mon image
“Martin Hall at his peak.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
”The perfectionist Martin Hall once again emphasizes his unique talent.”
( * * * * * )
Ekstra Bladet (The Danish equivalent to The Sun)
“A feat of strength, a tour de force.”
( * * * * * )
Gear (Denmark’s leading gadget magazine)
“A music that sounds like a dream.”
( * * * * )
Politiken (The Danish equivalent to The Guardian)
“Frail as crystal that explodes like nitroglycerine in melodramas of melody.”
( * * * * )
Soundvenue (The Danish equivalent to Q Magazine)
”After a break lasting almost seven years Martin Hall is yet again wonderfully present.”
( * * * * )
Citadel (The Danish equivalent to i-D Magazine)
”A unwavering passion, a stylized seduction.”
Information (The Danish equivalent to The Independent)
“The man is in a class of his own.”
Geiger (Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
“A minimalistic masterpiece.”
( 10/10 )
Diskant
”Facsimile ist ein Meisterwerk.”
Grenzwellen
Biljana Stojkoska: Vocals
Dan Hemmer: Hammond
Efterklang: Instruments
Hélianne Blais: Violin
Ida Bach Jensen: String bass
Johnny Stage: Bass, guitar, backing vocals, arp, farfisa, sitar
Kenny Andy: Drums
Konsort: Choir
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, piano, guitar, tapes, percussion, electronics
Ole Hansen: Flugelhorn
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: hansen-hansen.com
Among the guests on the album you will find the internationally acclaimed Danish act Efterklang (signed to the British 4AD label) who performs on the last song on the album, ”Tu Es Mon Image” – a track on which Biljana Stojkoska from another Danish group, the Steve Albini produced Amber, also appears. The orchestral sequences are recorded with The Vista Dome Ensemble which Hall has worked with on several occasions, among other titles on his instrumental score to the Camille album from 2002.
Facsimile was met with a bouquet of overwhelmingly positive reviews and announced as Martin Hall’s best ever by several leading music journalists.
After playing two major concerts at the theatre hall of Aarhus Teater and Store Vega in March 2006, Martin Hall performed one of his most remarkable concerts at the Glyptotek in Copenhagen in October. On this occasion he played live with both his own live band as well as The Danish Chamber Players, a 9-piece chamber orchestra. The concert performance was given a 6 out of 6 star review in leading Danish music magazine Gaffa (the box set Catalogue from 2007 contains a series of recordings from the event).
As a prelude to the concert a radio remix of “Torn Envelope” was released in September 2006. The original 8-minute album version was remixed by The Aeroflot Machine who accentuated the pop qualities of the song in the units remix.
Recorded and mixed in the summer and autumn of 2005 by Martin Hall, Johnny Stage and Efterklang at The Music Room, The Box, Efterklang’s studio and various mobile locations. Biljana Stojkoskas vocals were recorded at Grizzly Bear’s studio, New York City. All tracks produced by Martin Hall except “Torn Envelope” which is produced by Johnny Stage and “Tu Es Mon Image” that is played, arranged and produced by Efterklang. Dvd and visuals produced by hansen hansen.com.