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the end (also ends) of (the) earth and variants

by Amy Cutler

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earth-relic 04:35
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earth-dimmed 01:36
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earth-sprung 01:15
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about

Earthen lullabies, with guest tracks by Layla Legard/ Hawthonn, Ceylan Hay/ Bell Lungs, Mark S. Williamson/ Spaceship, Ecka Mordecai, and Drew Mulholland.

Sounds include: 78 rpm hiss, voice, guitar, field recording, kodak slide carousel, and lullabies. Also: dulcitone (ceylan hay / bell lungs), synth and whisper (mark williamson / spaceship), evening walk hum (ecka mordecai), synth drone (layla legard), hob moor birds (drew mulhulland).

This 18-track tape release springs from a strange medieval English riddle, the Harley lyric Erthe toc of erthe (Ms. Harley 2553). The tiny lament or puzzle is impossible to translate, since in its four short lines the word earth appears twelve times. Like ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’, these identical words have different meanings – transitioning between soil, world, burial, cultivation, decay, earthly possessions, and our own bodies. The device of repeating earth so many times in such a short space creates an unsolvable lyric which, riddle-like, ‘only makes sense when we are prepared to hold several meanings of the word in our minds simultaneously’. How does one sing this tiny piece, or give it a tune?

This is an album of sonic variants, settings, and radio covers of Erthe toc of erthe, including by invited guest artists and friends. The modified field recordings, chants, twilight hums, nonsense riddles and layered repetitions are each inspired by the variant meanings of ‘earth’, in the ultimate group sonic field trip.

Cutler’s recordings were made in Lud’s Church, a naturally resonant mossy chasm in Staffordshire where Lollard ceremonies were held, including their alternative death chants. Combining guitar, voice, processed electronics, record hiss, and field recordings, these tracks (and the album as a whole) are each titled with phrases from the dictionary definitions of ‘earth’. Some of these meanings are undigestible by each other, whether scientific, metaphorical, or allegorical: e.g., the ground as a surface on which humans and animals move; the inhabitants of the world collectively; ‘earthing’ a conductive electrical circuit or terminal; to ‘go to earth’ meaning to take refuge as in an animal’s lair or burrow. Combining this mix of opposites – doom and refuge, sin and innocence – and playing on the end of the world-ness of elegy, this camper-van tape release becomes a sort of muted lullaby for earth itself.

credits

released May 14, 2021

Artwork by Crow Versus Crow. Photographs of Lud's Chapel by Amy Cutler.

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Amy Cutler London, UK

B-movies for humans & nonhumans / creepy pastorals for fieldwork

@amycutler1985

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