Cinematic art song in triptych form for Voice, Harp, Cello and Bassoon. Sounds like if Nancy Sinatra performed chamber music.
Text and Music by Audrey Harrer
Produced by Chris McLaughlin at 1867 Studio
Harp/Voice: Audrey Harrer
Cello: Catherine Bent
Bassoon: Jessica Gillespie
\\The Sunbathers\\
I stand in the shade with my mother
The sunbathers giggle and glow
I stare at their beautiful bodies
As I sweat in these dark summer clothes
I want to pour it all out like a fishbowl
and burn dry ‘til my fins turn to legs
Leave this place and pretend I’m an orphan
and start fresh somewhere oceans away
I stare in the eyes of a stranger
I see everything there I could want
They project over me like a future
Full of beautiful things I forgot
I want to stay with these birds here forever
Squeeze the moon so hard that twilight never breaks
Spend a life in that place just before we look away
And move on with our arms full of waves
Now I stand here with all of these people
All the places on all of these shores
The past is so vast and elastic
echoing words swinging doors
I want to sort through every strand like it’s a haystack
Find a needle that could stitch a straight line through
But it’s all just noise and polaroids
Of sunbathers waving at you…