Get all 9 m | d | w releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of The Muezzins of Mali (2020 Remaster), Mercator, Futurama [20th Anniversary Expanded Edition], Socotra Soundscapes: Field Recordings from the Archipelago, Field Recordings from the Sespe Wilderness (Maricopa, CA), At The Tone: A Little History of NIST Radio Stations WWV & WWVH, Disinformation [15th Anniversary Expanded Edition], Field Recordings from Mississippi Palisades State Park (Savanna, IL), and 1 more.
1. |
Dot of America
03:26
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(41°52’43.10”N, -87°38’24.90”W)
Mid-America by steam line / Union underneath the skylight
Baltic engine heaves a hot sigh / Minneapolis before night
And with the signal, our wheels they roll away
Open the throttle, the city recedes in the gray
And the conductor will cry out her name, hooray:
“O Hiawatha, the queen of Milwaukee way!”
Picking up at Caledonia / Laying back into Ixonia
Every tower, every new town / Silhouetted by the sundown
Oh in the Tip Top, they’re pouring out the laughs
I’m high enough with my face against the glass
I close my eyes when I hear the whistle blast:
Woo-ooo, woo-ooo.
Okauchee, all aboard. West Salem, all aboard.
Winona, all aboard. Lake City, all aboard.
From the junction, it’s a short ride / City crossing in the moonlight
Hear the clacking of the coach door / Seven hours from the lake shore
Out in the station, the winds are three below
And the conductor is counting down to go
But in my heart there’s a signal box that glows:
“O Hiawatha!”
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2. |
Sespe Love Song
03:19
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(34°35’29.56”N, 118°59’46.83”W)
Sespe River wandering
(Lonely walker, I want you, baby)
Thirty miles from Lion in
(You’ve come a long way along me, baby)
Seen ‘em shooting at the Spring
(From the Matilija flowing, baby)
Mountain boys in winter rain
(But do they know where they’re going, baby?)
And it seemed
Through miles and miles of chaparral
That the river rose again
Reaching for the mountain wall
Ditch the car and hike it back
(You’re in for troubling weather, baby)
Taking shelter on the Flat
(Why don’t you want us together, baby?)
Stoke the fire, wait out the night
(I wanna water and wave you, baby)
Heard the sound before the sight
(You know they’re not gonna save you, baby)
And they came
To guide us with a great machine
Marching in the freezing dark
Hitched a ride across the stream
And then the river meets the men
Pulls them down to shake
Her lonely hand
A tiny voice breaks through the din
And is swept into the night again:
“I love you dearly”
And I only am escaped alone…
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3. |
Salt Lake Song
04:07
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(41.1158°N, 112.4768°W)
Midnight salt-light glows over
Black Bluff, Flat Rock, stone’s throw
Clustered shorebirds doze low
Quilt of nocturne’s bed, sewn
In my autumn coat, under starshine
Instruments align in a bone-straight line
We alight at eventide
With Nox on her throne
And the last of evening’s light
Rolls over the globe
And we rise
Cruise the causeway, skirt of stone
Haunted Saltair’s ghost moans
Promontory fog rolls
Thick air triggers the glide slope
Then the systems choke on the decline
Nose and lake align in a bone-straight line
And the isles begin to climb
And the shoals bring no hope
In a blast of salt and brine
We’re home with St. Phorcys
For the night
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4. |
Over the Georgian
05:09
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(44.7723°N, 79.9373°W)
When the angry hand threw a fist of land
When the wanted woman forsook him
The great tomb north of Penetanguishene
His fingers washed away in the harbors
Lay him down
“Raise the lamps around me
And let them dance
Around, ‘round, ‘round, ‘round
The nameless brides are swaying
To them I’ll call”
Sentinel Kitchikewana
Steely watcher over the Georgian
His angry hands shake in the sunset
Clothes his loneliness in his ire
Lay him down
“Raise the lamps around me
And let them dance
Around, ‘round, ‘round, ‘round
The nameless brides are swaying”
And then she comes
And he bends on big knee
And tells her of his plans
But she says that that won’t do
She can’t love two
“I’ll raze the lamps around me
And quake the land
With sound, sound, sound, sound
I’ll fling your heart, so earthen
I’ll make you crawl
I’ll bend my life to breaking
And lay my body
Down, down, down, down
This bay, my bride, my prison,
My sandy crown”
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5. |
Anaxagoras
00:56
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(40°21’50.66”N, 26°37’51”E)
Saw a comet in the shape of a girl
Shaking dust from a starry himation that she wore
Knit the night with an Athenian purl
The Boeotian sky in the firmament with her sister
Will you raise Orion’s eyes?
Will he recognize your light?
Will he lose you?
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6. |
Sleep Test
05:47
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The vessel lines that map my eyes ... somnolent
The dot of sky, the crimson light ... sanguine
Telegram the flight, through conjured night, to the waiting
Who chart the climb, control the time of our dreaming
Paralyzed and nightbound
In this R&D town
Deep beneath the snow
I’ve been getting bed rest
Once I pass this sleep test
I’ll be coming home
With their machines, they flood the screens of our vision
Encode the plot on microdots ... intravenous
We look so small, can’t rise at all. What’s the difference
Between the womb or a lightless room, once you’re in it?
Paralyzed and nightbound etc
At night we sit with the silent director
But he’s just a dream of the moonlight collector
‘neath the watchful eye of the color corrector
Who adjusts the Y and the CMK
Making day slide away
Paralyzed and nightbound etc
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7. |
An Aleutian Letter
04:11
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(53°58’28.87”N, 166°54’18.51”W)
I guess you saw me right away: 6’2”
Sargent dock worker, summer freight
So new
AN ALEUTIAN LETTER.
.- -. / .- .-.. . ..- - .. .- -. / .-.. . - - . .-. .-.-.•
AN EARLY WARNING.
.- -. / . .- .-. .-.. -.-- / .-- .- .-. -. .. -. --. .-.-.•
Nine years, they sent me North to stay: COB-2
Deep freeze, skywatching, night and day
Long DEW
AN ALEUTIAN LETTER.
.- -. / .- .-.. . ..- - .. .- -. / .-.. . - - . .-. .-.-.•
A LONG DEW LINE
.- / .-.. --- -. --. / -.. . .-- / .-.. .. -. .
And you lie to save your skin
And I lie to save our world
And this eye will scan the strait
As the silent winter moon blooms
I guess there’s not much more to say or do
But lie back and dream of far-away blue
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8. |
1381GSS
04:00
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(35°16’22.9”N, 117°30’42.9”W)
Mojave, come in
Blackbird bearing 35°16’
Over the alluvial
Traveling at recon speed
Can you see me, 3x3, here?
I’ll wait another year
On the same route again
Flyover one more
With your secret eye again
High desert summer
Geodetic winds blow Cuddeback
Over your tracks
Dry lake devils swirl
Camera, calibrate to me
‘til you see “1381GSS”
On the same route again
Flyover one more
With your secret eye again
(Blue valentine, blue valentine)
On the same route again (etc)
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9. |
Speaking in Tongues
03:32
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(40°45’32.08"N, 73°59’06.48”W)
We have come in this car
To trap some light from this square
Because our hearts have failed on this night
So we drive to the edge of our pain
She, our pilot, faithful
And a guide to this underworld
We alight at dusk and return
Smuggling sparks in our mouths
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10. |
The Final Dream
02:29
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(52°06’21.69°N, 4°41’44.71”W)
Before he died, the Fisher King sat down to dream
He laid his head beneath the arch and watched the sky
“It’s not my world, it’s not my space”
And in his dream, he lost his way among the waves
500 years of shooting stars spelled out his name
“My crumbled land, my sinking face
My only hope, so far away”
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11. |
[Appendix]
06:31
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12. |
Dot of America
02:57
|
|||
|
Mid-America by steam line / Union underneath the skylight
Baltic engine heaves a hot sigh / Minneapolis before night
And with the signal, our wheels they roll away
Open the throttle, the city recedes in the gray
And the conductor will cry out her name, hooray:
“O Hiawatha, the queen of Milwaukee way!”
Picking up at Caledonia / Laying back into Ixonia
Every tower, every new town / Silhouetted by the sundown
Oh in the Tip Top, they’re pouring out the laughs
I’m high enough with my face against the glass
I close my eyes when I hear the whistle blast:
Woo-ooo, woo-ooo.
Okauchee, all aboard. West Salem, all aboard.
Winona, all aboard. Lake City, all aboard.
From the junction, it’s a short ride / City crossing in the moonlight
Hear the clacking of the coach door / Seven hours from the lake shore
Out in the station, the winds are three below
And the conductor is counting down to go
But in my heart there’s a signal box that glows:
“O Hiawatha!”
|
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13. |
1381GSS
04:00
|
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|
Mojave, come in
Blackbird bearing 35°16’
Over the alluvial
Traveling at recon speed
Can you see me, 3x3, here?
I’ll wait another year
On the same route again
Flyover one more
With your secret eye again
High desert summer
Geodetic winds blow Cuddeback
Over your tracks
Dry lake devils swirl
Camera, calibrate to me
‘til you see “1381GSS”
On the same route again
Flyover one more
With your secret eye again
(Blue valentine, blue valentine)
Precision visual photography is used to produce detailed topographic maps and charts of extensive areas by the science of photogrammetry. Maintaining a constant altitude, the aircraft flies along a series of parallel lines laid out on existing maps or charts, taking pictures of the terrain. These photographs provide complete coverage of all natural and cultural details on the ground.
On the same route again (etc)
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m | d | w Austin, Texas
Myke Dodge Weiskopf is a songwriter, radio producer, and field recordist who divides his time between Los Angeles and Austin, TX.
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