MC
A BRIEF SUMMARY
A BRIEF SUMMARY
MARTIN HALL
LP/CD/MC
MAY 2018
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 50)
In relation to his 40th anniversary as a musician Martin Hall released the double album A Brief Summary on the 4th of May 2018, a retrospective release featuring several new recordings such as the digital single and video track ”Lesser Gods”. Another newly recorded track is ”Semi”.
Quite surprisingly the album went directly in as #2 on the official Danish vinyl hitlist in week 19 (2018), giving Hall his highest chart ranking ever.
1. P.O. (2:36)
2. St. Petersburg Notes (4:04)
3. Lesser Gods (4:11)
4. A.S.A.P. (1:51)
5. 40 Versions Of The Time Before (2:41)
6. Semi (3:46)
7. Minor Frame (2:42)
8. Ash And Lemon Water (3:09)
9. Tu Es Mon Image (7:00)
10. Tout Le Monde (1:32)
11. Plaza Flesh (2:33)
12. Muted Cries (4:17)
13. Interim (1.46)
14. Cue (3:20)
15. Emblematic (2:21)
16. Exit Signs (4:55)
17. Sob Story (3: 39)
18. Pantomime (3:38)
19. Schwund (1:46)
20. Meth (8:20)
21. Mimic (4:28)
22. Replicator (2:46)
P.O.
I’ve seen your face a thousand times
I’ve seen you hide in 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
ST. PETERSBURG NOTES
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
LESSER GODS
Suddenly
Came to see
Everything so differently
Children of lesser gods
Haunt my mind
All the time
Strangers inside of me
All distant memories
Turning another page
In the book of days
Rain falling in the night
Like teardrops from the sky
Falls like my imagery
Falling inside of me
Seemingly endless
Pauses inside of me
Empty of memory
All of the whys and hows
Coming full circle now
Rain falling in the night
Falls from an empty sky
Seemingly
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
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
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
It means nothing to me
SEMI
Hey baby
Let’s go out tonight
I don’t want to feel this way
Forget all your troubles
Forget them tonight
MINOR FRAME
Crowded Saturdays
Guest among ghosts
A girl made of shivers
Girls on their own
Rolled down shades
Sweet, harsh sweat
It’s the choked laughter
The unmade bed
All the things you might remember
Things you might forget
Looking young and old
In the same glance
Nervous tenderness
But steady at hand
Curly hair
And vinyl sounds
Guess it’s carved in the faces
Carved and painted down
A cigarette that’s burning
Along the line
I guess that she’s the one you won’t forget
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
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
TOUT LE MONDE
April 4 turning 9.25
Writing words in the air
Lovers left with a cool rainy day
Places no longer there
Cardboard letters and manners that fail
Paris Odéon girls
Doors are closing
Lights still glowing with a weak innocence
PLAZA FLESH
Show me your true desires
Show me your plaza flesh
Pictures of people dying
Seem to have no effect anymore
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
Come now
Inject the daylight
Come here
Each little girl
At first
Just want to kiss you
But then I want it all
I want excess
Your plaza flesh
MUTED CRIES
The clouds in her eyes
A whispering need
Shedding her light all over me
Try recall the cities in twilight
The clubbing
The cigarette sky
As you notice the silence
The carvings
The memory lines
The muted cries
A jaded desire
A comforting need
Walls coming down
On callous beliefs
Try recall the cities in twilight
The clubbing
The cigarette sky
As you notice the silence
The carvings
The memory lines
The muted cries
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 the waters
I’ll quiet the storms
With you as my reason
With you as my calm
EMBLEMATIC
I felt a sigh pass your lips
I saw the weight on your eyelids
Yet there you swagger and there you go
The mise-en-scène of your mercy drome
Too many images at play
Too many faces in a day’s work
Your sweet incentive, it’s so relentless
My grief’s been waiting for this day
No easy answers, only hard choices
I guess we came to the end of the road
Your random gender, my desolate needs
The splintered voices of lost beliefs
Trading commodities with no fixed presets
No traces left of a long gone starlet
Pornographers and secondhand consumer rights
All sons and lovers of 70’s delight
EXIT SIGNS
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 exit signs of light
She’s lying beside me
She’s hidden in a sigh
In the changes of a room
Guess she’s sliding back into her life
The pressure on her eyelids
The time that it’s taking
Before she awakens
It feels like a lifetime
A memory rewind
SOB STORY
Hide away
With somebody else by my side
It could have been anyone
It could have been you
A moment ago
Whatever you do
Whatever you say
It won’t be the same
Just won’t be the same
For someone like you
It’s all just a game
I guess it’s always the same
Whatever the stakes
It’s a reason to fail
A reason to hate
PANTOMIME
Feeling like Berlin 1929
So many feelings all caught up inside
Falling like cities seen through lovers’ eyes
Shaking with fever as they say goodbye
Each time you look
Somebody hides
All of the world
Up in the clouds
Feeling so stupid in this pantomime
All that I need is a pair of starry eyes
SCHWUND
Metaphysische Diskussionen in einer Bierstube: nichts ist, nichts wird, nichts ist nicht. Wir fassen uns selbst als rationale Wesen auf, die Tatsachen akzeptieren und Argumente respektieren, in Wirklichkeit jedoch glauben wir nur an das, an das zu glauben wir gelernt haben. Unsere Spiritualität ist eine mechanische Konstruktion.
Niemand kann gegen Vermutungen aufbegehren, die nicht formuliert worden sind. Weder sie noch ich. Wir sind an unsere Vermutungen gebunden. Gebunden an das gegenseitige fehlende Verständnis von uns selbst. Mutige Feiglinge sind wir, Gespenster aus dem Spanischen Bürgerkrieg, Fetzen von Erinnerungen an etwas, das einst geschah.
Wir sind das Geschehene. Wir sind Schwund.
METH
Wide eyes, swollen lips
She examines herself like she’s about to fade
Into air
Into all she disbelieves
Skin engraved with burns
Like a jaded belief about to disappear
There’s no need
To enact this line of ways
Trace the fading needs
The ebbing desirability
You’re turning away
Still hiding your face
Don’t you know your name?
Through all of these years it stayed the same
It’s always been you
I just couldn’t choose
Lines
She wets her lips
Leaning back with her arms wrapped around her knees
To adjust
To recalibrate the need
Words in pantomime
Eyes like shimmering marble
Pressure veiled by grace
Once again
Seems to settle for reserves
Don’t you feel the weight?
The slight hesitation, the delay
Aesthetic beliefs
Won’t cover this need
Don’t you know your name?
Through all of these years it stayed the same
Whatever I do
It’s always been you
Try to hold back the dawn
Try to hold back the morning
Hold back the night
If just for a while
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
“Once again Martin Hall proves that he belongs in the same realm as mythological figures such as Brian Eno and David Bowie … With A Brief Summary Martin Hall molds the foundation of his own mausoleum, a place where you can come to recall fallen musical legends, but where there’s obviously also plenty of room for future generations to have a party.”
Information – Sophia Handler (May 18, 2018)
(Danish equivalent to The Independent)
Martin Hall: Vocals and instruments
The Vista Dome Ensemble: Orchestra
Else Marie Pade: Electronics
Efterklang: Instruments
Konsort: Choir
Claus Beck-Nielsen Memorial: Choir
Herbert Zeichner: Voice
Katja Andersson: Vocals
Biljana Stojkoska: Vocals
Marcel de Sade: Piano
Mikkel Meyer: Electronics
Miss Fish: Vocals
Othon: Piano
Linus Carlsen: Piano
Johnny Stage: Guitar, mandolin and glockenspiel
Henriette Groth: Piano
Ida Bach Jensen: String bass
Eskild Winding: Harmonium
Christian Skeel: Keyboards and string arrangements
Sara Wallevik: Violin
Iben Teilmann: Viola
Henrik Marstal: Cello
Ole Hansen: Keyboards, trumpet and french horn
Jens Albrectsen: Piano
Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen: Double bass
Jonas Johansen: Drums
Karoliina Koivisto: Violin
Hélianne Blais: Violin
Anette Slaatto: Viola
Gry Vester-Andersen: Cello
James Crabb: Accordion
Mimi Kjær: Piano
Dennis Jørgensen: Timpani
Mads Strandgaard: Piano
Thomas Li: Networks and treatments
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Photo: Maiken Kildegaard
A Brief Summary features remakes and alternative versions of material mainly selected from Hall’s 21st century catalogue.
The title was released as a double vinyl album, a digipak-cd and a music cassette – all formats in limited editions. Although the design and colour code remains the same on all three versions of the album, the front cover image varies, forming its own visual entirety when compiled as a whole.
Among the guests on the album you’ll find the Danish electronica pioneer Else Marie Pade (1924–2016), the 4AD band Efterklang, the British pianist Othon and the world famous jazz musician Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (1946-2005). The latter performs on the partly re-recorded track ”Lesser Gods” that was released as a digital single on March 30th 2018.
The record is released with support from The Danish Arts Foundation, Koda, Danish Artist Union (DAF), DJBFA (Composer and Songwriters’ Production Pool and Koda’s Cultural Funds) and Danish Actors’ Association (DSF).
A MARTIN HALL INDEX
A MARTIN HALL INDEX
MARTIN HALL
MC
SEPTEMBER 1991
MIND AND MEDIA
A Martin Hall Index is a music cassette released on mail order basis. It was only made available in 100 copies and remains very rare.
The contents feature demos and other available recordings made in the period.
The opening song “New Force Rising”, however, is a song recorded in the run-up for the recording of the Presence album released in 1988. It was considered a single at some point, but never made it to the album.
“Untitled (Autumn 1985)” is a selection recorded just before Hall’s temporary retreat from the music business in early 1986.
Mind and Media was a company ran by Martin Hall and John L. Christensen in the period 1989–1994. Christensen designed the cassettes and handled the mail order service of the business.
1. New Force Rising (5:36)
2. Untitled (4:07)
3. Stigma (4:53)
4. 20th Century Love Theme (7:14)
5. Child Of Europe (7:10)
6. Dividing Line (6:24)
7. Untitled (Autumn 1985) (6:57)
8. Melt Away (4:36)
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: John L. Christensen
A MIND AND MEDIA INDEX
A MIND AND MEDIA INDEX
MARTIN HALL
MC
APRIL 1991
MIND AND MEDIA
A Mind and Media Index is a Martin Hall music cassette released on mail order basis. It was only made available in 100 copies and remains very rare.
The contents feature contributions from Mind and Media artists such as Irma Victoria, And Then Again, Read Only Memory and Aud Wilken. Henrik Möll also appears as the voice of Rota.
The tracks “European Need” and “The Vortex” by Irma Victoria are both remixes of the original versions of the songs featured on her debut album The Rainbow Theatre from 1990.
Mind and Media was a company ran by Martin Hall and John L. Christensen in the period 1989–1994. Christensen designed the cassettes and handled the mail order service of the business. He is also rumoured to feature on synthesizer on some of the label’s releases though no one knows which.
1. Mind and Media Theme (Mind and Media) (0:43)
2. Stimulus (Martin Hall) (1:15)
3. European Need (Irma Victoria) (3:48)
4. European Need (And Then Again) (2:56)
5. Composure (Mind and Media) (0:41)
6. Reference 1 (Mind and Media) (1:50)
7. On the Line (Martin Hall) (2:53)
8. Luna Tick-Tock (Irma Victoria) (2:59)
9. Thing (Rota) (4:12)
10. Re-Verse (Martin Hall) (3:38)
11. Tear Down the Walls (Aud Wilken) (3:29)
12. The Vortex (Irma Victoria) (2:15)
13. Nocturne Reprise (Martin Hall) (3:02)
14. Configuration (Mind and Media) (4:42)
15. Reference 2 (Mind and Media) (1:51)
16. Loop (Read Only Memory) (9:08)
And Then Again: Band
Aud Wilken: Vocals
Henrik Möll: Vocals
Irma Victoria: Vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: John L. Christensen
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
THE HALL OF MIRRORS
MARTIN HALL
MC
SEPTEMBER 1989
MIND AND MEDIA (MM888)
The Hall of Mirrors is the only one of Martin Hall’s music cassettes that was released through an actual distribution. Issued in a limited edition of 888 – all individually numbered copies – the tape offered a refreshing new way of working as far as Hall was concerned: Using a line of guest vocalists on the various tracks, the tape had a more sketch-like production to it, something that suited both the project and its main artist.
The Hall of Mirrors also features Hall’s first collaborations with both Irma Victoria and Aud Wilken, two performers that would later be highly featured on his Mind and Media label. The cassette was the label’s first release.
The track “Song for Someone” – one of the recordings on the tape that Martin Hall sings himself – is included on the Catalogue compilation box (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
Aud Wilken: Vocals
Henrik Möll: Vocals
Irma Victoria: Vocals
Ken Rivad: Vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: John L. Christensen
Photo: Ken Rivad
PRESENCE
PRESENCE
MARTIN HALL
LP/CD/MC
SEPTEMBER 1988
VIRGIN RECORDS (259309)
Presence was Martin Hall’s hugely successful comeback album after a two and a half year long retreat from the music industry. It features a fairlight production, recorded and assisted by co-producer Flemming Nygaard.
The release created a massive media hype and featured the hit single “Beat of the Drum”, a track that would become the most played Danish single on the leading radio station The Voice in 1988 (then and now the biggest commercial radio in Denmark).
1. Real Thing (5:37)
2. Beat of the Drum (4:54)
3. Penetration (4:31)
4. Intermezzo (6:00)
5. Magnum Opus (9:17)
6. Presence (12:20)
REAL THING
I return
In the light of the sun
A shadow is cast of a moment in time
Like turns of the tide
In the still of the night it begins
What is is to be
While all things must pass, a presence remains
A fire will burn, purify – never change
It’s seen in the sky, it’s felt deep inside
As there’s so much more to this than meets the eye
It’s something within, it’s something without
The longing inside is the drive that allows
The work to be done
River deep, mountain high
A shadow inside
In the light of a greatness from which none can hide
Out of the blue, into the fire
And I’m stronger than ever in my one surrender
A red storm arising
Now I know what I want and I know how to get it
It’s calling within and without
As pure as the real thing
The state and the feeling
It leaves me no doubt of what needs to be done
A thunder’s been raging
A choice has been taken
To never look back
To be one of the few
I know it ’cause I feel it
I don’t need no further proof to believe it
There’s a guiding light
Burning inside out
As pure as the real thing
In this forum of time and of place
There’s a rainbow arising after the rain
As the sun melts the snow
The ice and the fire
Mountain streams overflow
Run down from the higher
And the water, it glitters like diamond
As pure as the light
BEAT OF THE DRUM
Now one day I woke up to some rules of life
That a serious heart needs a light mind to survive
That if you only hope you won’t get very far
‘Cause dreams call for action
No matter what you want the way is to begin
‘Cause knowing all about it is not the living thing
And those who sit and ask for great things all the time
Well I hope they’ve sorted out the many small things on the line
A focus inside out
The still of the centre
You must live by demand
But also surrender
As the beat of the drum beats the ghosts on the run
So the beat of my heart keeps me wondering
Now it’s been said this world is a stage
Well then if that is true
It’s an unwritten play
That makes being a becoming
It’s so easy seen when it’s someone else
But are you any better when you’re by yourself
‘Cause in this hall of mirrors you’re in a counterpoint
Where it takes one to recognize one
Now there are those who say that life is hard and then you die
Well petty leads to pity if you do not wonder why
‘Cause the way to solve a problem is to get a bigger one
So to those who cry for freedom
Well there’s working to be done
PENETRATION
The cooler the game, the more it will run hot
The sharper the knife, the deeper it will cut
The more you hold on to, the more you will lose
The more you let go, the more you constitute
It’s so easy to criticize someone else
But if you’re superior why don’t you help
‘Cause knowing the truth in your head is a lie
If you aren’t in practice of it in your life
Solar plexus charge
Guided by the heart
As the silence rules
Before the storm
You’d better know what you’re into
You’d better know how to get out
What’s easy said’s always harder done
So rather small tries than big shouts
Cut down to black and white
Put all your views aside
And face the main thing
We’re in the same thing
There’s too much luxury
Too much hypocrisy
From penetration to revelation
Surviving the 20th century drain
Requires control of emotions and brain
So don’t have a drama but try to make sense
Of what’s going on in this world consequence
The rules of the game are as solid as rock
There are millions out there living in culture shock
Now one thing’s to see it, another to change
To know where you’re going, not just fight against
INTERMEZZO
Changeless
Beyond the point of return
Nameless
Written to whom it may concern
Fineness
Cast like a shadow of life
Timeless
Moment by moment, always now
The nearer the source, the purer the stream
The stronger the will, the more real is the dream
The truer the flame, the brighter it burns
The harder the fall, the stronger the return
For all as for none, for you as for me
You may feel alone but you never will be
All life is a wave that rises and falls
A part of the great sea in which it dissolves
All things
Rise in the light of the sun
Being
Meanings are many, reasons one
For years
Searching but too close to see
We’re here
And this is where we’re meant to be
The nearer the source, the purer the stream
The stronger the will, the more real is the dream
The truer the flame, the brighter it burns
The harder the fall, the stronger the return
For all as for none, for you as for me
You may feel alone but you never will be
All life is a wave that rises and falls
A part of the great sea in which it dissolves
And born under stars, in eternity
In all that has been, all that is, all to be
A feeling within still to be fulfilled
Of something inside that can never be killed
MAGNUM OPUS
River of life, salt of the Earth
We are the children of unseen worlds
In this arena the strongest survives
But only intact if they stay true to life
And touched by a sparkle, a cool fire burns
The flame is a guest but it has to return
To its kingdom
Its arising
To its source
The mystery lives in crystal and cell
Untouchable real as the heartbeat itself
The immanent life, an eminent line
A journey more directional than defined
A resonance ringing, a midnight sun burns
What’s said by the words is what silence confirms
The media of senses, of heart and of mind
In worlds of the moment, the past left behind
It leaves me all breathless, it feels so complete
The heavens so still and the Earth so concrete
And it calls me
In a whisper
In a scream
Like a shadow that’s cast from above
In this kingdom of flesh and of blood
A superior allowance rules
The Magnum Opus of life
Calling for some, knowing you’re there
Hiding away in own worlds, unaware
Living in darkness, living without
The beauty of life, of demand inside out
Now stop the self-torture of doubt and of fear
The fact that you are says you’re meant to be here
To feel weak costs nothing, to rise above does
A future is calling for each one of us
And if you don’t want it, then die on your own
I’m gonna proceed even if I’m alone
‘Cause I want it
More than ever
For us all
Reasons known, reasons still to be found
Where there’s will, there are ways, none without
A superior allowance rules
The Magnum Opus of life
And it calls me
In a whisper
And it calls me
In a scream
When all is said and when all is done
A moment alone will come to everyone
To make you consider, to make you see clear
What you have caused in the time you’ve been here
It’s beginning
So may each find what each seeks
PRESENCE
A diamond is shining but it’s empty in its inside
A crystallization providing a home for the light
Purified by the flame, only core remains
In the face of mass ignorance you can’t change the world
But you’re responsible at least for your own
The sound of children crying
The words of leaders lying
In this nightmare theatre of shock insensitivity
So everyone loves the talking
But when it comes to the working
I see an empty stage and everyone returned to fantasy
Now I’m not getting heavy, I’m just pointing out some facts
If a gun was put against your head, I think you would react
There’s an instinct to survive, a will to live
And don’t you think there’s a reason for such technology
Or do you take it all for nothing in your self-view luxury
‘Cause if you do, well really
Who do you think you are?
The rising sun drives back the darkness
The morning light exposes Earth
And here I stand within the realms of all to come
A tension inside
A feeling arising
Like a charge in the sky
The pressure before it bursts
The lightness when it has been released
A shadow is cast from clouds slowly passing
While summer rain’s falling
The sky opens up
And as I walk upon the face of Earth
Deep in my heart, a stillness undisturbed
In open fields, the wind carries the words
Within, without – a flame burns on this Earth
I’ve got the spirit, I’ve got the feeling
And I’ll be true to what I believe in
An inner greatness is my conviction
And it’s the sparkle of my resistance
I feel the promise within the longing
I’ve gone from being into becoming
And in this journey of my existence
My only statement is my persistence
From circle to spiral
From charge to release
From feeling to knowing
From the inside into the outside
A life is what it becomes as it goes through this world
Its appearance is its allowance, its kingdom the Earth
It’s a matter of seeing what it’s in the middle of
It’s a question of below before a question of above
A cool flame burning inside, it’s embodied in flesh
A radiation of divinity
I feel a fullness inside, I see the richness of life
I see the wounds slowly heal and it’s amazing to me
I see a newborn child, I see integrity
The small intensity in the enormity
I see a single flame give birth to thousand lights
I see the principle in its simplicity
A tension inside
A feeling arising
Like a charge in the sky
The pressure before it bursts
The lightness when it has been released
A shadow is cast from clouds slowly passing
While summer rain’s falling
The sky opens up
And as I walk upon the face of Earth
Deep in my heart, a stillness undisturbed
In open fields, the wind carries the words
Within, without – a flame burns on this Earth
I’ve got the spirit, I’ve got the feeling
And I’ll be true to what I believe in
An inner greatness is my conviction
And it’s the sparkle of my resistance
I feel the promise within the longing
I’ve gone from being into becoming
And in this journey of my existence
My only statement is my persistence
In the river of life, in the light of each day
Purified by the stream, purified by the flame
Inescapable
And unchangeable
From the fountain of life, from above to below
As the river runs down so the cup overflows
And you are what you are
All that you may become
Flemming Nygaard: Keyboards, cello
Lotte Grundlev: Backing vocals
Martin Hall: Vocals, keyboards, guitar
Tina Schæfer: Backing vocals
Design: Birgitte Wester
Photo: Robin Skjoldborg
Presence received excellent reviews. It was also the first Hall record to ever to enter the official top 20. The album is a crystalline pop production featuring catchy songs with grand-scale arrangements and epic, highly charged lyrics. The record was subsequently released throughout Scandinavia and Northern Europe where it also generated a line of great reviews.
As already stated, the album’s first single “Beat of the Drum” became a massive hit in Denmark and the song also attracted international attention. The album’s second single “Real Thing” became a minor radio hit in the first months of 1989.
The recording of Presence were made using a Fairlight CMI music computer. The album is co-produced with Flemming Nygaard, former member of Under For as well as musician on Hall’s previous record, Cutting Through.
Nygaard was both a classically trained cellist and a highly gifted technician – all in all an invaluable aid to Hall in the making of Presence. When Nygaard tragically died in the late summer of 1989, Hall dedicated his newly written Requiem‘ to him, an organ concert performed at Taksigelseskirken (a church in Copenhagen) in December.
YEARS OF STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LIES, THE STUPIDITY AND THE COWARDICE
YEARS OF STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LIES, THE STUPIDITY AND THE COWARDICE
PESTEG DRED
MC
AUGUST 1985
ATLAS (#1)
The Pesteg Dred album Years of Struggle against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice was recorded by an 18-year-old Martin Hall alongside vocalist Inge Shannon and guitarist, noisemaker and co-producer Per Hendrichsen in December 1981. Due to economical hardship the title wasn’t released until the summer of 1985 where it featured as a bonus music cassette included in the first edition of the Danish art magazine Atlas.
In the autumn of 2010 a limited vinyl edition of Years of Struggle against the Lies, the Stupidity and the Cowardice was released in the United States, receiving great international acclaim. At the same time the album was released as a cd with the SS-Say 12”-single Fusion from 1985 added as bonus material under the title I Have Seen You through the Years, Worn by Different Faces (SS-Say also featured Inge Shannon on vocals).
1. Salt (4:14)
2. Untitled (Postcards and Reasons) (3:54)
3. Superior (4:21)
4. Impressions (5:01)
5. Light, More Light (11:23)
6. Untitled (5:51)
7. Almost (2:59)
“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.“
Aquarius (November 2010)
“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, with vocals of Inge Shannon eclipsing all … I don’t know where Dark Entries scare up these obscurities, I only know I’m glad that they do.“
Igloo Magazine – Robbie Geoghegan (November 2010)
”Years of Struggleis 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.“
The Wire – Jim Haynes (January 2011)
“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.“
Boomkat (January 2011)
“Immerses you into another world immediately.”
Sideline Music Magazine (February 2011)
Inge Shannon: Vocals
Martin Hall: Drums, keyboards, piano, bass, cello, violin, percussion, autoharp
Per Hendrichsen: Treatments, keyboards, guitar
Design: Martin Hall
The original Pesteg Dred album was recorded at Karma, December 1981.
INSKRIPTION
INSKRIPTION
MARTIN HALL
MC
OCTOBER 1983
KONG (KONG1)
Transmitted live on National Danish Radio on the 5th of September 1983, Inskription was a scandalous, soon to become legendary event performed by a 20-year-old Martin Hall.
A month after the event the transmission was released as a music cassette in relation to the first edition of KONG, a Danish art magazine. 20 years later the concert was released in a remastered cd edition.
1. Introduction by Ingolf Gabold (3:25)
2. Inskription (A) (4:55)
3. Inskription (B) (4:48)
4. Inskription (C) (2:44)
5. Inskription (D) (4:06)
6. Inskription (E) (6:33)
7. Inskription (F) (1:20)
8. Inskription (G) (2:56)
9. Inskription (H) (7:35)
10. Inskription (I) (4:31)
11. Applaus (0:40)
Martin Hall: Vocals, modular systems, echo machines, violin, tapes
Design: K Grafik
The performance took place in the concert hall of the National Danish Radio in relation to the National Fund for the Endowment of The Arts’ yearly grants to new Danish talents. Martin Hall was as one of the four recipients invited to perform at the occasion. Being given the grant for his work in the field of experimental electro-acoustic music, the young composer shocked the audience completely by generating a noise level never before heard on the premises. When the Danish newspaper Information (The Danish equivalent to The Independent) reviewed the concert a few days later, the headline simply ran: “Sound spanking”.
In 2003 – 20 years after the night of the concert – the recording was released in a remastered cd-version receiving much critical appraisal. This edition of Inskription was released by Panoptikon in cooperation with the National Danish Radio and contains several essays and articles about the event. Henrik Marstal, author of an acclaimed Danish book on the development of electronic music, Filtreringer (2001), writes about the work in relation to its classical connections, whereas Steffen B. Pedersen from the Danish electronic music magazine Geiger writes about its relation to the rock and industrial genres. You can read a translation of the latter article here:
VIETATO AI MINORI
VIETATO AI MINORI
VARIOUS ARTISTS
MC
OCTOBER 1981
TRAX (TRAX1081)
Vietato Ai Minori is a 52 minute long audio cassette release including a 28 page booklet with pornographic content. At the time of the intended release in England the product was confiscated by U.K. customs.
Martin Hall contributed to track 6, “Untitled Montage”, which occupies the entire second side of the tape.
1. OIO – Telematic – 001
2. Era Già Giovedi
3. You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling
4. Duro
5. I Like Your Elbows
6. Untitled Montage
Cancer, Spirocheta Pergoli, M.A.P., Naif Orchestra, Colin Potter, Vittore Baroni, 2233232, Amok (4), B-Sides, La Nuova Altea, Martin Hall, M.B., Mecanique Vegetale, Metallic Avau, Nocturnal Emissions, Philip Johnson and Sylvia James.
Design: Vittore Baroni
The Trax label (1981–1987) was founded by Piermario Ciani, Vittore Baroni and Massimo Giacon from Spirocheta Pergoli. It was an open, networking project that connected over 500 artists and musicians from different countries, producing records, audio magazines, xerographies, comics, T-shirts and exhibitions.
UDEN TITEL
UDEN TITEL
MARTIN HALL
MC
MAY 1981
OWN RELEASE (MH3)
Uden Titel (“Untitled”) is recorded at home on a two-track Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The tape was released in 40 copies that could be purchased in two shops at Copenhagen, Gry and Haase.
1. Uden Titel (1) (5:25)
2. Uden Titel (2) (1:37)
3. Uden Titel (3) (2:53)
4. Uden Titel (4) (3:16)
5. Uden Titel (5) (3:51)
6. Uden Titel (6) (1:17)
7. Uden Titel (7) (0:40)
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: Martin Hall
As a new feature, compared to Hall’s two earlier tapes, Uden Titel features a rhythm box. Drums were recorded at the rehearsal facilities of the Danish punk group Sods/Sort Sol during a Ballet Mécanique rehearsal.
The photo is taken from a Bagtropper event at Christianshavns Beboerhus where Martin Hall played the guitar selections featured on the tape live.
DEN TRIUMFERENDE AMOR
DEN TRIUMFERENDE AMOR
MARTIN HALL
MC
OCTOBER 1980
OWN RELEASE (MH2)
Den Triumferende Amor (“The Triumphant Cupid”) is recorded at home on a two-track Grundig reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The tape was released in 40 copies that could be purchased in two shops at Copenhagen, Gry and Haase.
1. Soil (1) (1:20)
2. Bravo, Petit Charles (2:05)
3. These Surgical Emotions (2:36)
4. Voiciate (Opus 1) (0:52)
5. Motherless Priest (2:21)
6. Bricks and Blood (0:57)
7. The Shoulder of Their Laughing (2:50)
8. Crucifixion of an Unbeliever (1:31)
9. Den Ødeste (Original Version) (5:48)
10. The First Sign of Ice (1:31)
11. In Verse (2:05)
12. Voiciate (Opus 2) (1:23)
13. Det Lille à (1:41)
14. Soil (2) (1:31)
Martin Hall: Vocals, instruments
Design: Martin Hall
Drums were recorded at the rehearsal facilities of the Danish punk group Sods in Copenhagen.
To gain access to further layers of sound than the limitation of the orginal Grundig tape recorder tracks, the initial recordings were copied onto a standard cassette deck and then recorded back as a new mono track on the Grundig machine while adding a new instrument. This process, however, could only be repeated once or twice due to the amount of tape noise being produced.