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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    10" vinyl features photography by Milwaukee-based artist Maeve Jackson. Independently recorded, designed, and released by Marielle Allschwang / Bitter Sea Productions. Expected to be available early 2023.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Somewhere to Swim via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $16 USD or more 

     

1.
From the depths, familiar Core which formed us: Blue fire, serrated, bittersweet song-cry Riding unseen, Spinning out of control. Feels like death, Thinking the worst is over Finally lying in the sun. Learning acceptance And dragged again by the undertow Merciless grind Bring forth beauty-- Torn from me, worn from me. This galaxy within mosaic of places People I’ve been Love I’ve won Tears that felt Like prayers Reminding us to celebrate our Journeys
2.
What It Is 04:58
The cedar stung his nostril As he rose with an ember. Bonfire like starshine. A quarter moon sunk Into his toes, his toes sunk Into his sand, his sand dripped onto the stars Floated on indigo water with his shadow. He rose out of the shadow, past the thorn of the past to speak at the mountain top, to peak At a place far from Cupid, far from The spear that pierced his heart. spoken: The notes flew lonely from Wonder to despair, from feet in quicksand to thoughts that sing spectacular. The light dripped off the tip Of each leaf The light gathered like dew On the top of each blade of grass Each needle bundled light As the barren branch exhaled feet That walked as light. Where did you Stand? When all the wind garnered all your light? Did you hear the light sing? I holed Up in the cave I straddled the mountain Top of melancholy. I straddled a gale. Oh lover come bed with me Together we will glimmer In the leaves of grass and the needles Of barren branches. On dew feet. And sweat. Melancholy. What it is.
3.
The Ride 04:03
She’s mine, all mine This jet black rag top convertible Some days we cruise Smooth and easy Her steering wheel Perfect for my fingers and palms. Her bucket seat holds me Keeps me snug and tight Every time. Playing tunes to oblivion to drown out that nasty tasting jibe lodged deep in my brain If stars are cars I’m shining bright Fuel my flight With ancient light At 72... She knows me, she’s my co-pilot, I’m her chauffer only back roads will do Top down Tall trees Like giants watching our slow parade to anywhere watching our slow parade to anywhere...
4.
Where do I find my peace? Where do I find my peace? In those damp mossy parts of the woods In the roots and the branches of the trees In those moments when stagnant humidity Is blown away by a fresh welcome breeze One that tickles the hairs on the backs of my knees. When I’m outside, in nature, I can be, I can breathe. I feel like my real self-- grounded but free Every cell in my body trusts my breath- they trust me. And I wonder: is everyone this enamored of trees? Does everyone love them? It isn’t just me. And this feeling I feel? It isn’t just peace. It’s surrender. It’s being humbled by the beauty that this planet engenders. I see the towering trees, the smiling clouds, and the serene river And my heart starts to beat faster and my spine is all shivers And I want to breathe this memory in So it can travel through my bloodstream like oxygen Because this is what keeps me all-the-way alive This is what I need to be free, to fully thrive. I need sunshine and rain on my skin I need to embody the body I’m in. I need forests for ease I need water for peace I need long walks and somewhere to swim.

about

In spring 2021, Austin Reece invited me to be the inaugural artist in residence for Rise & Thrive, a free survivor empowerment service offered by LOTUS Legal Clinic. LOTUS is a Milwaukee-based nonprofit organization that serves survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking, both sex and labor. Valuing a wholistic approach to empowering survivors, LOTUS Legal has developed two sister art programs, Untold Stories and Rise & Thrive, that aim to engage, enrich, and connect survivors through literary art and unique collaborations with professional artists. As a resident artist for Rise & Thrive, I collaborated with four survivor-writers who created poems that explore their experiences of joy, resilience, and renewal in the aftermath of sexual trauma. In summer 2021, I began to work with the Rise & Thrive participants—Jeanne Suarez Del Real, Pita, Donna Jenson, and Hannah Lenzo—who are prolific artists and warriors in their own right. From intimate conversations and close readings, I created one song for each of them in response to/ inspired by their poetry, implementing their words as lyrics, and composing melodies and arrangements that I thought could hold and honor those words and voices. The bones for songs came as fledgling skeletons and Adam and I spent long days seeing what creatures they could become--each came bounding into this world with its own personality, from its own terrain. The Visitations--Ken, Nathaniel, Tom, and Adam--entered the process to give the songs the full vital force you hear on this recording, “Somewhere to Swim". Jaime Hansen drove down to record us in Milwaukee, heralded by negative COVID tests and a dream. Our good friend, Kelly Bolter, joined to capture the moment in photos. Todd Rittman mastered the record. Maeve Jackson, a photo/video artist I've been meaning to work with for years now, and I had evolving conversations about album artwork, about what this project wants to translate. I am grateful for the breadth of minds & hearts that have shaped this project thus far.

**40% of digital sales will go to LOTUS Legal Clinic.** A vinyl 10" is on the way and can be preordered today.

Thank you for listening, and for your support.

xx Marielle

credits

released May 10, 2022

Arrangements by Marielle Allschwang and Adam M. Krause
Music by: Marielle Allschwang, Adam Krause, Ken Palme, Nathaniel Heuer, Thomas Duffey
Lyrics by: Jeanne Suarez Del Real, Peter Daniels, Donna Jenson, Hannah Lenzo, with additional lyrics by Marielle Allschwang, Nathaniel Heuer.

Mixed and Engineered by Jaime Hansen at The Chair Company in Bay View, WI, October 23, 2021.
Mastered by Todd Rittman.
Cover Art/Photography by Maeve Jackson.
Produced by Austin Reece and Marielle Allschwang as part of the Rise & Thrive Artist Residency at LOTUS Legal Clinic. For more, visit www.lotuslegal.org

Marielle Allschwang: guitar, violin, vocals
Adam M. Krause: guitar, singing bowl, vocals
Nathaniel Heuer: bass, vocals
Ken Palme: guitar
Tom Duffey: drums
Pita: Poetry reading on "What It Is"

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Marielle Allschwang Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and member of Milwaukee-based ensembles Collections of Colonies of Bees and Hello Death, Marielle Allschwang sits at the center of the band she has named The Visitations. At times gentle and beautiful, at others brutal and terrifying. ... more

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