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Illuminations
featuring EMMA BUTLER
written by George Moorey, Shane Young & Emma Butler
recorded on Friday 23 February 2018 at Blackfriars, Ladybellegate Street
recording engineer: Josh Petkovic-Short
film-maker: Barney Witts, Fluxx Films
I and Pangur Ban my feline friend
Busy through the night
Hunting words I write
While he hunts mice
Try to make amends with book and pen
Plying with our skills
Bearing no ill will
Till all is still
What a sight to see
How glad we are
When we sit and find
Something for our minds
Through corridors of stained glass light
The echoes of the fight
Come what may
The prayer
Defines the way
Through darkness to the cold stone day
I’ll bring the beast down,
Come what may
The prey
Defines the way
The beautiful and dutiful
Through walls the blameless seekers dig
To plumb the shadows
For a crumb to feed them
Try to make amends with book and pen
Plying with our skills
Bearing no ill will
Till all is still
The starting point for this one was Blackfriars and one of its historic purposes.
Within the Dominican Friary there is a scriptorium room where the Dominicans would spend their time illuminating religious manuscripts. I wanted to convey a picture of this in song somehow. I talked with Eloise and she got excited asking me if I knew the story of Pangur Ban. It was a favourite story of hers as a child. A 9th century Irish monk engaged as transcribing a text took a break and wrote a poem about his white cat in the margins of the parchment he was working on. The parchment survived and the poem about his cat has been translated many times and been the inspiration for the character of Pangur Ban in modern fiction.
I had invited my friend Emma to sing on this session. She is also quite a handy songwriter so I briefly told her the story of Pangur Ban and provided her with the translation by Robin Flower and a musical sketch I had recorded using the piano.
Emma set about using the poem and my music to create lyrics that scan based on the translated poem. She got as far as the first two verses and sent her efforts back and I was very pleased. I sent this to Shane and he finished things off writing the words and melody for the middle section of our song. I was able to structure both sets of lyrics and put together a team of musicians that included Lee playing bass on his analog synthesiser, myself on piano, Alice on cello, Tomas on guitar with Emma singing lead vocal and Tim singing backing vocal. I kept Shane’s backing vocals from the demo and my original piano part on the final recording.
Musician Credits
Emma Butler : vocals
Alice White : cello
Lee Phillips : synthesizers
Tomáš Kašpar : electric guitar
Tim Beck : backing vocals
George Moorey : piano
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