I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
I HAVE SEEN YOU THROUGH THE YEARS, WORN BY DIFFERENT FACES
PESTEG DRED/SS-SAY
CD/LP
SEPTEMBER 2010
PANOPTIKON/DARK ENTRIES (OPTIK 24)
A long awaited hole in the Martin Hall back catalogue was filled when the obscure art rock project Pesteg Dred and now internationally renowned group SS-Say (both bands featuring the singer Inge Shannon in the vocal front) were re-released as one cd with the album I Have Seen You through the Years, Worn by Different Faces in September 2010.
1. Salt (Pesteg Dred) (3:42)
2. Postcards and Reasons (Pesteg Dred) (3:56)
3. 20th Century Superior (Pesteg Dred) (4:08)
4. Cold Impressions of Perhaps (Pesteg Dred) (4:21)
5. Light, More Light (Pesteg Dred) (12:51)
6. Untitled (Pesteg Dred) (4:05)
7. Almost (Pesteg Dred) (2:30)
8. Transaction (SS-Say) (7:45)
9. Care (SS-Say) (4:48)
10. Fanfare (SS-Say) (4:19)
TRANSACTION
You say you’ve tried
Well try harder
Change it
Re-arrange it
The turning point’s getting closer
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
Without delay
Take a chance now
Take it
Reinforce it
So make a move, make it happen
I’m gonna take it where it comes from
I’m gonna give it to whom it belongs
You say you’re sorry
Well you’d better learn to forgive yourself
‘Cause there’s no one here who can do it for you
In this twentieth century
Emotional sell-out
Be what you wanna be
Get out
Shout it out loud
You talk about a truth
Well it’s all an illusion
So what you have to do is to make your own fusion
Do what you wanna do
Be what you wanna be
Take what you wanna have
Just remember to give
I’m gonna take it
Moving slowly
Master planning of the means
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
Burning fire
Feel it as a part of you
Make it happen
Fight the limits you obey
You say it’s like all words are used up
Well I’m not
I’m standing right here
Look into my eyes
Take me by the hand
I will never let you down again
All together and no excuses
Turning every weakness to strength
CARE
Moments of love
Distant from darkness
Overturning the balance with the power of doubt
Caring for the first time
See you for the first time
Feel you for the first time
Need you for the first time
Don’t you recognize yourself in the mirror?
Far too involved to cancel the care
The nameless games and the real thing
The final solution and emotional stunts
Viewing for the first time
Value for the second
I have seen you through the years worn by different faces
FANFARE
Come on
Come on
Come on
Let it shine on you
Knowing what I feel
Knowing I’m able to give
Knowing what I need
Willing to risk all my love
The Wire: ”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
Boomkat: “Uncompromising seriousness and unfettered urgency … It’s kinda easy to become blasé with so many ****wave reissues around, but this is simply one of the most essential we’ve stumbled upon.“
Igloo Magazine: “Industrial solitude pours forth in a haunted Kirlian Camera style work of lonesome isolation. The album progresses along sepulchral darkwave lines. Desperation cascades over angst … I don’t know where Dark Entries scare up these obscurities, I only know I’m glad that they do.“
Aquarius: “Martin Hall appears to be the figure who defined the Danish New Wave scene. We’ve never heard of any of Hall’s other projects, but if any were half as good as Pesteg Dred, they’d be worth the price of admission. Death disco? You bet! Dark Entries scores yet again with a really great re-discovery on Pested Dred.“
Sideline Music Magazine: “Immerses you into another world immediately.”
Henrik Möll: Bass
Inge Shannon: Vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, piano, bass, cello, violin, guitar, tapes, percussion, trumpet, balalaika, autoharp
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, guitar, synthesizers
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Artwork: Christian Skeel
The original Pesteg Dred album Years of Struggle against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice was recorded by an 18-year-old Hall with vocalist Inge Shannon and guitarist/noisemaker Per Hendrichsen (later Under For) in December 1981. The album stayed unreleased until the summer of 1985 where it featured as a bonus cassette tape with the Danish art magazine Atlas.
In comparison to Pesteg Dred the later SS-Say project (and particularly the group’s 12″ single Fusion) received much more attention. The first constellation of the band made its debut at William S. Burroughs’ legendary visit in Denmark in October 1983 and ever since the reputation of the group has grown, both in Europe and in the United States – apparently because a French DJ kept playing the Fusion tracks at the New York club The Batcave.
Apart from the Scandinavian re-release in September 2010 the Pesteg Dred album was also released in America in a limited vinyl edition by the San Francisco based label Dark Entries (late October 2010). This edition received an abundance of international praise … such as when the illustrious English music magazine The Wire wrote the following about the record in their January 2011 issue (#323):
”Years of Struggle is a hitherto rarely heard album that exemplified the black-hole nihilism and hostile theatrics found in the abstractionist fractions of the post-punk movement. After this sole Pesteg Dred recording Hall formed a number of darkwave projects in Denmark with considerable aplomb, but the innovation coupled with the claustrophobia of Years of Struggle is so strong that I have to wonder where Pesteg Dred might have gone if they had had the opportunity back in the day.“
LIVE AT ST. PAUL'S
LIVE AT ST. PAUL’S
MARTIN HALL
DVD
SEPTEMBER 2010
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 23)
In September 2010 Panoptikon released Martin Hall’s critically acclaimed live performance at St. Paul’s in Aarhus as a dvd.
Originally filmed and transmitted by the Danish television network DK4 at the event in October 30, 2009, the dvd release has been added English subtitles in respect of Hall’s European audiences.
The repertoire of the night stretches from Hall’s early Ballet Mécanique period all the way up to his at the time current album Hospital Cafeterias.
Among the highlights of the night is ”Images in Water” as well as Hall’s acoustic version of ”Treatment”, a song he originally recorded with Martin Krogh (deceased 1988) under the band name Front and Fantasy in 1985.
1. P.O. (2:36)
2. Other Rooms (4:19)
3. Plaza Flesh (2:31)
4. 40 Versions of the Time Before (2:38)
5. An Attempt of Interruption (7:45)
6. Treatment (6:17)
7. Ash and Lemon Water (3:10)
8. Images in Water (8:03)
9. Crush (5:14)
10. Imagine Focus (5:12)
11. To Be Continued (5:33)
12. Torn Envelope (8:03)
13. Eyes and Hands (5:11)
14. Avenues of Oblivion (3:45)
15. The Mark (4:49)
P.O.
I’ve seen your face a thousand times
I’ve seen you hide within the crowd
I feel you run within my blood
But dreams are never quite enough
Not enough
All I want to believe in
Is the look in your eyes
All I want to believe in
Is your sigh
Let me stay here forever
Let me stay here tonight
Let us stay here together
For a while
No one knows you better than me
No one knows you better than me
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
PLAZA FLESH
Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect no more
I don’t really give as much as a toss anymore
I just want to hide away, never beg anymore
I don’t really count the days or the hours anymore
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone, gone, gone
‘Cause she’s gone, gone, gone
Come now
Inject the daylight
Come here
Each little girl
At first I just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh
40 VERSIONS OF THE TIME BEFORE
Falling asleep on a long distance flight
The images in the still of the night
A scent of waste
The sight of your face
A flicker of uneasiness
Will I be able to forget now?
Nurses and young girls in a row
How can I ever let you go now?
Like 40 versions of the time before
The ballerinas at my feet
The connoisseurs out in the street
Oh you mean nothing to me
Just try to tell yourself the tale again
You tell yourself it’s all the same again
The city lights that came alive
The stars that fell down from the sky
You turned around within the light
Your skin so frail and lily-white
The centre of the Western world
A glamorous confusion zipped
Upon the parting of your lips
Intangible as every breath
As inescapable as death
Oh it means nothing to me
AN ATTEMPT OF INTERRUPTION
The nurseling and the tendon
The naked responsibility
Unexisting possibilities
Like long gone friends
Infectious ideas
I kept your sins
Sincere to the end
And I concentrate on remembering your face, your eyes
But the noise from the second day’s party wipes it out
Sentimental warfare
Days of life
Seconds of love
Hours of sin
This could be as heart-known
Lust dead in deed
Vulgar to feed
Holding me down
You could be forgiven
‘Cause I’ll lie for you
I’ll die for you
I’ll do anything
To be forgiven
TREATMENT
Treat me hard
Treat me with heart
Show me no mercy
Show me no sign of weakness
Retreat me right
Remain in light
Through every night and day
So cruelly
I know you’ll be my destiny
In all
Surrender completely
Fade into me
I need you this close
I want you to be
The purpose itself
To every extent
In method and need
Beginning and end
Treat me right
Treat me with right
Show me no mercy
Show me no sign of weakness
In cover of all of your love
I’ll make this dream come through
In every trace of every face
I feel a stream of you
So tender we treat each other with fear
The root of our need will constantly tear
Our fiction apart
Revealing the bone
Behind walls of love
We’re still all alone
Be my Judas
Be my destiny
I’ll forgive you in eternity
Be my Jesus
Be my sacrifice
I’ll betray you with a kiss of ice
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
IMAGES IN WATER
The sound of the room
The sound of your breathing
See the night rain that falls
Hear it run down the walls
There’s a scent in the air
There’s a trace in the water
And you’re stretched like the sky
On these carnival nights
That you carry inside
And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face
The thinnest of air
Was all that you needed
Now the glittering stars
Shine a light far too hard
On the tip of your tongue
There’s a word never spoken
Like a vanishing gaze
Choreographed games
That you try to rename
And the image you see
Such a weight on your eyelids
It never dried on your eyes
Never silenced the cries
Like a needle you find
That injects light inside you
See the ribbons of rain
Draw the lines of a face
The scenes of a night cut in marble
The sound of the rain’s getting harder
A hand mirror line turning flesh for a while
You’re so tired now
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
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
As I lie down
As I lie
TO BE CONTINUED
My-my
Here’s a drummer
All melodramatic
I wonder who invited him in
But I’m amused as always
By the glamorous stupidity
It’s the puff and the posh of the way that you are
Sugar coating any word
When it all begins to hurt
A little too Babylonian
Now you’re breaking into tears
Though you know I can’t be near
Such an effortless act
It’s shining through your skin
A skin so paper thin
A living memory
It’s just a breath away
All drawn in pale and grey
So tense and self-aware
I can’t breathe in the absence of beauty
Come sustain my arrogance
With a sigh that never ends
A little falling from the sky
Ain’t gonna make the day worthwhile
Not exactly unpredictable
I love the feeling
The nervous shivering
A skin show of dreams
Olympian ideals undefeated
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
EYES AND HANDS
As I am
Changing in these filters of light
Without difference between the symbol and the force that is symbolized
Just like you
Scanning the shadows
I see you through nothing but eyes
Depending on eyes
As the sphere of wound strengthens the love
Earthbound to heaven but trapped in the mirrors
If self-made conditions rule perfectly blind
So selfish bourgeois
So vulgar pretentious in your attempted martyrdom
From sacrifice to power release
The strain keeps the balance of love
While it shines like a diamond
So dustless and unseen
Beyond tension and form
Feel it
Skinless
Take it in
In whirls of love
Through eyes and hands
A voice surrounds me
A touch reminds me
Equalizing every change
Again I lie down to die in your arms
Surrounded by the rings in the water
Beyond dividing life into senses in intellectual self-mutilation
In every circle knowing the centre
In every touch a signal so tender
All on the outside
All on the inside
Without distinction
From request to request
Hiding in the mirrors
In these laws of pain
In the identity of the pain
Drawing the lines between love and hatred
Based on code and revenge
Where’s your respect for love?
Where’s your respect for life?
Acting out neurotic non-appearance
Stimulating some denied desire by simulating a heart on fire
In worlds on location
In wordless betrayal
In the illusion of security
But there will be no restrictions
Nor any limits
For body and spirit
When love transcends
In both sense and symbol
Beyond good and evil
Beyond you and me
AVENUES OF OBLIVION
Electric music is ripping the air
Streets lit up by electricity
Coins of death call through the haze
Disparating conditions of minds
The avenues of oblivion touch your mind
Its sick fingers seek your energy
Shades of submission printed in the air
The corps of the silent army slowly move
Arms of death crawl the highs
Dancers of destruction scream
The preludes of tomorrow
Another rebellious transmission
The avenues of oblivion
The dancers of destruction
THE MARK
Haven’t learned my lesson
I won’t excuse when I say I
Please do not beg me
Please do not beg me
Senseless responsible as I hold this knife
Guilt is heavier than any weapon
Unprovoked as I testified
The burden of therapeutic lied gave me the right to judge
The fear has reached a limit
Where armless have no helping hands
Please do not beg me
Please do not beg me
And with the feverish light as guide
I was given the mark of the beast
I as you this close
Held of to believe
Searching for the gift of life
“An absolutely outstanding evening … you couldn’t ask for much more.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine)
“Beautiful and experimental … he let the highlights of his first 30 years of his impressive career speak.”
( * * * * * )
Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest daily newspaper)
“You have to admit that Martin Hall is able to stage himself and his songs in a way that always turns a Hall concert into a special event … an impressive walk through the career as a whole”.
Geiger (Danish equivalent to Wire Magazine)
Carla Kuotila: Cello
Henriette Groth: Keyboards, piano, clarinet
Ida Bach Jensen: Double bass
Johnny Stage: Guitar, backing vocals, sitar, mandolin
Karoliina Koivisto: Violin
Martin Hall: Vocals, acoustic guitar
Mikkel Meyer: Electronics, modulators
Sisse Selina Larsen: Drums, backing vocals, percussion
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Mie Brinkmann
Martin Hall’s concerts during October and November 2009 in Denmark and Germany were his first live performances as a singer for more than three years. The reviews succeeding all events were fantastic. Hall was reported to be at his peak as both a singer and a performer and the St. Paul’s concert was given five star ratings and reviews in both Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine) and Jyllands-Posten (Denmark’s biggest newspaper). The concert was also awarded “best Danish concert 2009” by the users of the Danish Recession festival.
The opening concert in Flensburg, Germany, was reviewed with proclamations like these:
Grenzwellen: “A touching and impressive evening! Totally overwhelming.”
Medienkonverter: “Für mich das bewegendste und emotionalste Konzert seit langer Zeit. Ganz, ganz groß!.”
Geiger: “Phenomenal: Martin Hall and his group weren’t just good; there were moments that can only be described as sublime.”
Transmission: “I’m about to give the event the concert of the year sticker.”
Recorded at The St. Paul’s Church (Denmark) on October 30, 2009, by DK4. Live sound by Thomas Li, light design by Per Daumiller. Sound remix made by Johnny Stage.
KINOPLEX (AUDIOBOOK)
KINOPLEX
MARTIN HALL
DVD (MP3 AUDIOBOOK)
SEPTEMBER 2010
LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF (9-788711-428030)
Concurrently with the release of Martin Hall’s first piece of fiction since his literary breakthrough with The Last Romantic in 2005, his novel Kinoplex from 2010 was also made available as an audiobook.
This version of the book features a line of new, original music written and produced by Hall in collaboration with Danish artist Christian Skeel.
The audiobook consists of 65 chapters divided into 81 tracks with a total duration of 5,3 hours (319 minutes). It’s read up by the Danish journalist Jan Poulsen.
For further information about the novel, please see this notice:
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
VARIOUS ARTISTS
DVD
JUNE 2010
ANOTHER WORLD ENTERTAINMENT (AWE0227)
The two legendary Danish films about respectively the poetry scene and musical underground of the start-80’s, Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) and Totem (1984), were released as one dvd by Another World Entertainment in June 2010. Both films are directed by Claus Bohm.
Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) has its focus on the new poets of the period, particularly Danish poet Michael Strunge, 1958–1986. Martin Hall has written and recorded the music for the film.
Totem from 1984 focuses on the dawning music scene of the period and contains both an interview with a 20-year-old Martin Hall as well as two live performances with his group Under For (both tracks are also featured on the Catalogue box released in 2007). You’ll also find performances with Sort Sol, Ads and Alive with Worms in the film.
1. Totem (36.11)
2. Nattens Engel (34.07)
”A fine and visually stimulating portrait of an epoch and a group of people who it’s hard not to admire. Also many years later.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine) – Ras Bolding (June 7, 2010)
”Totem and Nattens Engel are two fantastic films and tales of time …”
( * * * * * )
Cinema Online (Denmark’s biggest film site) – Helle Perrier (June 14, 2010)
KINOPLEX
KINOPLEX
MARTIN HALL
NOVEL
SEPTEMBER 2010
LINDHARDT OG RINGHOF (ISBN 978-87-1142650-0)
Kinoplex was Martin Hall’s first piece of fiction since his literary breakthrough with The Last Romantic released in August 2005. The title was also made available as an audiobook, a recording featuring a line of new music written by Hall and Danish visual artist Christian Skeel.
In comparison to its predecessor Kinoplex is a darker, more plot-driven novel. The scenes in the book take place at two levels, the first being told from the narrator’s present point of view (24 hours on location in a foreign land), the second enacted as a set of flashbacks shedding light on a story that goes back more 20 years in time.
The book is a tale about the disintegration of identity. It’s a story of voyeurism and modern visual culture – how the constant flux of visuals and excessive image manipulation of everyday life affect us. The question throughout the book remains: What are the consequences of this epidemic spread of visuals in relation to our ability to navigate sanely through our lives?
Genre: Novel
Pages: 203
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Territorium
"Not even when I stepped out of the cool shadows of the airport could I say with certainty what it was I had traveled so many miles after."
“In many ways the most important book in his literary career.”
Berlingske Tidende (the Danish equivalent to The Times)
“Martin Hall’s new novel is an intelligent analysis of modern voyeurism and its consequences. The story is psychologically interesting because it enacts the void that’s left when all excesses have been staged and experienced.“
( * * * * * )
Nordjyske (major regional newspaper)
“It is in all ways an intoxicating book Martin Hall has written … a sensuous language combined with a string of pearls of good, original observations.“
( * * * * )
Fyens Stiftstidende (major regional newspaper)
”Martin Hall has a quite fantastic sense of turning the written language into harmony and you can only surrender to Hall’s linguistic shrewdness and mystical travels into the various intoxications and splendours about all and everything.”
( * * * * )
MetroXpress (Denmark’s biggest free newspaper)
“A novel about a depraved, depressed and disillusioned environment delivered in the most beautiful language … my God, this is good!“
The Literature Site
The novel is supposedly said to have been inspired by an authentic video footage that Martin Hall found on the internet during his research on the subject matter. During the process of writing the book Martin Hall was awarded a grant from The Danish Arts Council.
As already stated the title was also released as an audiobook with its own original soundtrack. Parts of the manuscript also served as basis for an audiovisual stage play that was performed during the autumn of 2010. In November the book was chosen as ”book of the month” at the Main Library of Copenhagen.
- See the reconstructed video footage from the original trailer at www.kinoplex.org
- See recitation from the theatre performance
Herbert Zeichner at the “Kinoplex” theatrical performance at Københavns Musikteater (Copenhagen’s Music Theatre).
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
TOTEM / NATTENS ENGEL
VARIOUS ARTISTS
DVD
JUNE 2010
ANOTHER WORLD ENTERTAINMENT (AWE0227)
The two legendary Danish films about respectively the poetry scene and musical underground of the start-80’s, Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) and Totem (1984), were released as one dvd by Another World Entertainment in June 2010. Both films are directed by Claus Bohm.
Nattens Engel (“Angel of the Night”, 1981) has its focus on the new poets of the period, particularly Danish poet Michael Strunge, 1958–1986. Martin Hall has written and recorded the music for the film.
Totem from 1984 focuses on the dawning music scene of the period and contains both an interview with a 20-year-old Martin Hall as well as two live performances with his group Under For (both tracks are also featured on the Catalogue box released in 2007). You’ll also find performances with Sort Sol, Ads and Alive with Worms in the film.
1. Totem (36.11)
2. Nattens Engel (34.07)
”A fine and visually stimulating portrait of an epoch and a group of people who it’s hard not to admire. Also many years later.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa (Denmark’s biggest music magazine) – Ras Bolding (June 7, 2010)
”Totem and Nattens Engel are two fantastic films and tales of time …”
( * * * * * )
Cinema Online (Denmark’s biggest film site) – Helle Perrier (June 14, 2010)
FIVE YEARS OF LITERATURE
FIVE YEARS OF LITERATURE: 2005–2009
ANTHOLOGY
MARCH 2010
SYSTIME (ISBN 9788761625328)
Five Years of Literature: 2005-2009 is an anthology featuring a line of significant writings released in Danish literature in the given time interval. The editors of the book are Stefan Emkjær, Sanne Fredsted and Sine Dalsgaard Kristensen and its extent is 160 pages.
The contributors to the book are Peter Adolphsen, Ejler Nyhavn, Naja Marie Aidt, Solvej Balle, Jens Blendstrup, Klavs Bondebjerg, Das Beckwerk, Jakob Ejersbo, Maja Elverkilde, Christian Yde Frostholm, Kristina Nya Glaffey, Katrine Marie Guldager, Martin Hall, Hallgrímur Helgason, Lars Husum, Lone Hørslev, Ida Jessen, Pia Juul, Hans Otto Jørgensen, Jesper Knallhatt, Martin Kongstad, Maja Lee Langvad, Peter Laugesen, Jørgen Leth, Pablo Llambías, Niels Lyngsø, Mette Moestrup, Rasmus Nikolajsen, Dy Plambeck, Abo Rasul, Knud Romer, Charlotte Weitze and Christel Wiinblad.
MIRRORBALL
MIRRORBALL
MARTIN HALL
CD-SINGLE
SEPTEMBER 2009
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 22)
As a prelude to his first concerts in three years Martin Hall released the new download single and ep Mirrorball in September 2009, a release on which he collaborates with three very different producers.
The opening track on the ep is a radio version of the title song, a grandiose pop version produced and recorded by Andreas Sommer (a.k.a. Maskinen). After this follows “Patterns of Waiting” featuring producer Mikkel Meyer, then “Forgetting the Details” produced by Christian Skeel – both artists who contributed to Martin Hall’s critically acclaimed album Hospital Cafeterias released earlier 2009.
1. Mirrorball (3:46)
2. Patterns of Waiting (5:37)
3. Forgetting the Details (5:28)
4. D-Box Version (4:50)
5. / / / / / (0:06)
MIRRORBALL
Cheekbones made of light
Somewhere it’s morning
The languid grey of night
Leaving the fragrance of a cry
Guess you’re sliding back into your life
The pressure on your eyelids
Patterns of waiting
Of suffocating
Replaying the same scene
Recalling the same dream
Cover any feeling
Cover any reason now
You’re breathing the same air
The same hysteria
Like a mirrorball that shines
Just another flash of light
Deteriorating
Forgetting the details
Rewriting the scene in your mind
The shimmer of the dawn
Bleeding its beauty
How many times before?
Inhaling the sacred air of youth
Trying to guide me
To shield and to hide me
Guess she’s sliding back into her life
The pressure on her eyelids
The time that it’s taking
Before she wakens
It feels like a lifetime
A memory rewind
Christian Skeel: Piano
Johnny Stage: Bass, guitar
Martin Hall: Vocals, piano
Andreas Sommer: Drums, keyboards, bass, guitar
Mikkel Meyer: Treatments
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Territorium
In Mikkel Meyer’s version the song is viewed through a set of almost clinically detached, electronically based optics, whereas Christian Skeel examines the composition in collaboration with the orchestra The Vista Dome Ensemble. The last version on the ep is Hall’s own original demo of the song, a recording on which guitarist Johnny Stage also performs.
The title song was released as a part on the download ep as well as a single-track mp3. A special collector’s version of the ep was also made available in 100 numbered copies.
RELIEF / CUTTING THROUGH (SPECIAL EDITION)
RELIEF / CUTTING THROUGH (SPECIAL EDITION)
MARTIN HALL
CD
SEPTEMBER 2009
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 17)
The most requested album from Hall’s eighties catalogue has always been Relief, his first lp-release as a solo artist – an album on which he plays all instruments himself, from drums to string sections. The lp was originally released in the spring of 1985 and has topped most fan polls as the singer’s best album ever.
In digital form Relief didn’t appear on cd before this special edition was released in September 2009, remastered and issued alongside Hall’s other grand electropop/rock record from the same period, Cutting Through (1986). This edition featured a new cover.
1. Eyes and Hands (5:11)
2. An Overture (4:58)
3. A Description of Patterns (4:49)
4. Network (3:56)
5. Resonance (5:55)
6. Word on Word (5:00)
7. Spiral (3:27)
8. As It Begins (5:45)
9. Showdown (7:50)
10. Crush (5:14)
11. Cut Off (6:03)
12. Deep Inside Me (10:42)
13. Synthesis (8:28)
EYES AND HANDS
As I am
Changing in these filters of light
Without difference between the symbol and the force that is symbolized
Just like you
Scanning the shadows
I see you through nothing but eyes
Depending on eyes
As the sphere of wound strengthens the love
Earthbound to heaven but trapped in the mirrors
If self-made conditions rule perfectly blind
So selfish bourgeois
So vulgar pretentious in your attempted martyrdom
From sacrifice to power release
The strain keeps the balance of love
While it shines like a diamond
So dustless and unseen
Beyond tension and form
Feel it
Skinless
Take it in
In whirls of love
Through eyes and hands
A voice surrounds me
A touch reminds me
Equalizing every change
Again I lie down to die in your arms
Surrounded by the rings in the water
Beyond dividing life into senses in intellectual self-mutilation
In every circle knowing the centre
In every touch a signal so tender
All on the outside
All on the inside
Without distinction
From request to request
Hiding in the mirrors
In these laws of pain
In the identity of the pain
Drawing the lines between love and hatred
Based on code and revenge
Where’s your respect for love?
Where’s your respect for life?
Acting out neurotic non-appearance
Stimulating some denied desire by simulating a heart on fire
In worlds on location
In wordless betrayal
In the illusion of security
But there will be no restrictions
Nor any limits
For body and spirit
When love transcends
In both sense and symbol
Beyond good and evil
Beyond you and me
Cover me with your eyes
AN OVERTURE
There are no such concepts as “for” or “against”. Love is centreless, limitless, beyond any man-made black-versus-white terminology. Of course there has to be a reality based on the “love under will” principle but to regard this discipline as the final point could easily become just another counterphobia. There’s no truth to hide in, no lie to prosecute. We’re here all alone and every individual judges itself.
Pictures melting
Covering all senses
Marks the outline of your presence
And your whisper hits me like a scream
Of affection
Savage as death
As I lie by your side in the still of the night
The oblivion of all that’s ever been left behind me
Cut on cut
Lines on lines
The return from each bow
In a triangle move
From the nucleus to the final break
In this vacuum between how we think two-dimensional but sense three-dimensional, emotion and intellect are often considered as two ends in themselves. However, it seems to me that they’re just the two ground pillars over which the web of the spiritual reality can be woven. It’s like a black-and-white photography. You don’t see the black colour isolated from the white. You instantly perceive the colours united as the motive of the picture.
As I sense you in delayed impressions
Set in time by zigzag patterns
All relations synchronized with nearness
As the nature of fulfilment
And from stretch to relief
All I’ve seen
All I’ve done
Blow on blow
All untouched
Closer and closer in every turn
The eternity of every moment we share
And the perfect decay
Of the mornings
Of the waves of time
A DESCRIPTION OF PATTERNS
The claustrophobia
The haze of a thousand cigarettes
You talk about magic
But you can’t even change yourself
The self-destruction we used to worship
The perfect setting
If good it turned me on
If bad it tore me up
In mind made of steel
In value and sharing
Repressing your need
Feel it out
Get it out
Don’t you feel the lie?
The drug-confirmed doubt
An all-hate obedience in this aftertaste of impossible dreams
And every keyword
Every war fought for independence
Remember the details
Spread in circles to cover the wound
Structures of reality
Overtures of defeat
In love it brought you near
In fear it brought you to hell
Neanderthal ways and left behind dreams
A thousand more words just to emphasize another skin-deep announcement
The love that we shared
So brutally wasted
In line-ups of doubt and delusion
And question marks much too easily set
As we never gave ourselves completely
As questions defeated all answers too perfectly
Surrounded by walls
From level to level
From words to silence
From hate to love
I don’t regret anything that I’ve done
I just want to become what I am
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
WORD ON WORD
I took every advantage
As I questioned your love
And took every precaution
In remembrance of my own ways
And the crush-up of time
Mirrored in question marks
So insensible real
Surrounded in drugs and wasted love
And again
As the dogma of death constitutes every movement I make
In a liberation too “fascist” for you
In a declaration understood by too few
Word on word
In this classic replay
In my face
All the limits of time
The pathology of the warfare we live
All the consequences of what we couldn’t give
Still you’ve given me everything you could
In each line thousand points
In each move thousand turns
Never ending
Nor beginning
No pretending
No regretting
Just a change too weak to notice
In these well-known patterns of the cause and effect
In these crimes of extension
Every loss still reflects the love
Ever-changing design hides the transparency
Of the presence we share
The transition in which we live
All the life, all the Golgotha moves
Burning proud
In the end burning out
I demand nothing
But I still need it all
In reversed arrangements of the rise and fall
And of course love is marked by the etch
But the core is revealed in the stretch
In robbed mind
Raped body
In the bloo it flows
All the life
All the light
In the ash it glows
All the light
Burning deep inside
And the pure brilliance in a tired glance
Clearing on clearing and life re-appearing
The free flow and the breakthrough
To dare the all-care
The matrix of every sense of “God”
SPIRAL
Time passes time
In the shadow of action
In its most pure form
From moment to moment
Changing all the time
Release me with the strongest bond
Eyes on eyes
Keeping me near
Taking me in
Just like a membrane all around me
Shine out
Release
Heal inside out
Let it pour directly
You made me forget
In shape, sound and figure
A retreat so perfect in every way
From death to resurrection
And the conditions reborn
Everything had to be this way
What we gave
What we shared
What we are
In emanation on emanation
Always in me
Kept in my heart for eternal time
You made me forget
AS IT BEGINS
How should I ever forget the moments?
The nights without sleep
The days of fever
And from genesis to this glimpse
Movement all flecked with horizon
Passing every line again
And nevermore the same
Walking into the light
And I remember each shadow set cast upon our bodies
Cooling burning skin in the colour slide of night
Force locked up in strain
A balance containing it all
The still waters run so deep
And nothing was denied us
In all-disappearance
Without any after image
I took what I needed and gave what I could
The never-ness we surrounded ourselves with
The reasons alone and the ways we took
Shapes left behind
Reflecting survival
Degrading and fading in endless perfection
How should I ever forget the ages?
The testaments of the masses out there
In this legend that we all live
Clothed in space and placed in time
But nevermore alone or distant
In these mandalas
In the freedom of love
An immemorial origin burning deep inside me
Once upon a time in a timelessness called now
And I wanted everything
Believed in every word
In love and sweat
In face and memory
And nothing was denied me
Into pyramid shape
Light on light in reflection
From essence to reality
Element to element
Light strokes flowing like a stream of gold
Breathing the air in this all-abundance
And while the sky breaks into sight
Revealing bones and metal
How should I ever …
All my life I’ve lived for one thing
I’ve been given everything
And while I move towards the centre
I recall it all
And nothing is denied me
And nothing will be denied me
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
Flemming Nygaard: Cello
Janine Neble: Harmony vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, drums, keyboards, piano, bass, violin, guitar, marimba, tapes, programming
Søren Frank: Saxophone
Søren Jacobsen: Guitar
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Territorium
Both records were originally released in Germany as well as Scandinavia. For further details, please see the posts concerning the original releases of Relief and Cutting Through.
Written and produced by Martin Hall.
All tracks recorded during 1985 at Custom Sound, engineered by Peter Grønbæk and mixed by Martin Hall and Peter Grønbæk. Track 1-8 were originally released as the album Relief in May 1985 and track 9-13 as the album Cutting Through in February 1986. Remastering in 2009 made by Johnny Stage.
AUTHENTICITY
AUTHENTICITY
INTERVIEWS
SEPTEMBER 2009
JYLLANDS-POSTENS FORLAG (ISBN 978-87-567-9337-7)
Among a line of Danish top executives and MP’s Martin Hall was invited to participate in the book Authenticity on the matter of modern business management and ethics. During his contribution – the longest chapter in the book – Hall presents a series of sharp and precise analyses of the general “wage earner mentality of the Danish society” compared to the more nomadic state of working as an artist.
Martin Hall’s background to figure alongside the book’s long list of prominent Danish businessmen/women – people such as Christian Stadil (owner of Hummel), Flemming Østergaard (chairman of the board of directors in Parken Sport & Entertainment A/S), Margrethe Vestager (Member of Parliament and chairman of Det Radikale Venstre) as well as Peter Mogensen (political commentator and chief sub-editor on the newspaper Politiken) – was Hall’s increasing work with the industry in general. As a frequent guest in business establishments such as Maersk, Grundfos, Rambøll as well as Novo Nordisk he had shown himself capable of communicating great idealism as well as to exercise the needed critical approach to the basic concept of business as a whole.
Charlotte Mandrup, author of Authenticity: “As the highly respected and critically acclaimed artist Martin Hall is, he simply embodies the moral and personal authenticity that basically everyone in the business world seeks.”