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S. Williamson
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S. Williamson This album is so rich. It is subtle at times, grand at others, sad and hopeful. Allschwang is an elemental singer and talent, a real force in the tracks. The Visitations provide generous, compelling, nuanced instrumentation and vocals. For me, this work is feelings fuel. Inciting inspiration, ambition and curiosity within me when I listen to it. It also enters subconscious thought and plays in rhythms in in my head when I’m not listening. These songs stick. Forever excited about what comes nex Favorite track: Be The Dirt.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    VISITATIONS IV is pressed in sumptuous 140-gram purple-and-black galaxy vinyl. Includes digital download card for album + bonus tracks "Marcus & Ramona/Married." Released May 8th, 2019, in a limited edition of 250. Recorded and mixed by Jaime Hansen at the Chair Company (Milwaukee, WI), Hansen residence, and Allschwang residence, summer 2017. Mastered by Todd Rittmann. LP design by Shawn Stephany. Cover photo by Kyle La Mere (w/ additional edits by Stephany).

    Includes unlimited streaming of VISITATIONS IV via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Every Name 06:05
Playing jacks like George Ivanovtich Heavy things will always want to fall What will rise into your hands if you reach them? Grab what you can right now In between your thoughts there is a space Where you meet your power and your grace If it doesn’t have a form they can’t steal this Emptiness, a sacred place Masters are created by the week/weak Cantilevering our words to preach From the splinter, from the heart To a faraway end waiting for the start It will all return to the center, it will all return, It will all return to the center, everything returns. Guarding each direction of the earth A burning star protects you like a church Every name invokes another face of form To a ritual birth It will all return to the center, it will all return, It will all return to the center, everything returns. No one’s born a fool They were teaching you, now you’re a teacher too. No one’s born a fool They were teaching you, now you’re a teacher too
2.
Be The Dirt 03:17
I wanna be the dirt, I wanna be the dirt I wanna make it grow, I wanna make it grow I wanna be the air, I wanna be the air I wanna pull the water, I wanna face the bare I wanna be the sun, I wanna be the sun I wanna have it all, I wanna rule the world And now you’re in a dream, and now you’re in a dream, And now you’re waking up, and now you’re waking up
3.
Riches 04:02
Ode to the riches Ode to the hay bales And the crone scarabs that Turn them in Their exoskeletal wombs O, the stampeding blankness! O, the swallowed sword! A cough of fire, sunset Tearing forth Like blades that collapse the wheat, Collapse the wheat, Collapse the wheat. Pulled in slumber, Ancient weight. What stands in the city, What stands this state Is an eyeless giant straining to reach Sleep, reach-- With a frightening gait. Dear God, delight in me! Delight in me! Delight in me!
4.
Though you build a tall and mighty ark They might steal your nerve, you won’t sail off. If there is some reason for your doubt, My friends, they can hypnotize it out. But matters of freedom Cannot be explained by them, They have the power to make you or bury you Underneath all the muck, Those dirty apologies-- Their eyes will never meet yours Up in the mountains reflected in fountains I know that the sky is a-skyin’ All through the fields where the honey is yielded I know that the bees are a-bein’ In my bed, where they buried my head I know that the light is a-lyin’
5.
We always took what’s left We always threw what’s next Hold to the second-last Chanting cuts in the massive Ocean Animal We Acted so strong and felt so free I operated and pulled, I saw the biggest eyes in the world We wanted the wound So we could name an invisible Pull of the body to light Know the vampire that stalks in the night We’ll miss the shadow that keeps All of his hopes in a sorrowful heap Year of the optical fire Substance illusive but unified Pulse of the stars in their dust Blood tastes the same as industrial rust To tongues that speak and consume Unrelenting as bodies in bloom We always took what’s left We always threw what’s next Hold to the second-last Chanting cuts in the massive Ocean Animal We Acted so strong and felt so free I operated and pulled, I saw the biggest eyes in the world
6.
Snowhive 02:30
Who will return to the snow from the shattered hive? Innocent meal Caught Coming on a plate for you Who will unfold all the veils from the face of the bride? Innocent hunter Running Catching All he can steal for you I will go where no one knows I will go where no one knows I hear them behind me Who will return to the snow from the shattered hive? Innocent need, Shamefully shaking the fields for you
7.
Ototha 06:51
Stain the glass, it’s spring Carve the door for a little glass ring Perfume this black hair sewn up with worry, I’ve never been a minder Ototha felt her throat brimming with ghosts Torero, no match for a sorceress host Ototha felt her throat brimming with ghosts, Torero, no match for a sorceress coast I’ve never been a minder I’ll never be found caught Behind their cold backs With my fingers crossed And my roses embossed In a chain, In a collared crowd
8.
5...4...3...2...1... Preserve the innocence of children Preserve the purity of life Make money only if you need it Make money your servant, your wife When I first pressed a flower When I first made a mark on my arm When I first beaded Michigan Lake with stones in the night When I first heard a voice that had no body When I first worshipped a silent room When I first feasted on an immaculate birth When I first left the world and returned again Open your gifts Empty your arms Walk away slowly You’ve done your harm The man on the throne Is rotting and dead We’ll follow much better When we’re not led Open your gifts Lay down your arms Return the gifts The world’s not ours
9.
How can I defend you if you're not there? A walking cloud, a bruising sound How can you solve a problem with no punishment, No twisted men, No timbers bent Or broken? I speak to my sisters and my fledgling states My wounded mates My unclean slates Taking up each other’s arms and chalices, We reminisce: Who founded this? Who hid it?

about

VISITATIONS IV is haunted by hungry ghosts. An eyeless giant sleepwalks through a tumultuous landscape amongst routinely- appointed masters, desirous earth-cullers, and hope-hoarding vampires. These ghosts, and the agrarian world surrounding them, have traveled over from Allschwang’s 2015 debut, Dead Not Done (“Monsters,” “Farmer,” "Your Mother"), emerged into view, and multiplied to appear as ubiquitous in the album as they are in life. But haloed around these adversaries are odes and chants, hypnotic regressions and guided meditations, prayers and invocations.

It is unclear throughout the record whether the speaker is one of these nefarious specters, Allschwang herself, or another quoted source. For instance, “Open Your Gifts” (the original working title for the album) nods to a historical tug-o-war over images, words, and ideologies: Allschwang borrows and imitates quotes from a Maoist handbook, and collages them with a discarded song by Visitations member Adam Krause and Allschwang’s intimate reflections on her own remembered experiences.

During the course of writing this collection of songs, Allschwang played a fundraiser for water protectors in the Standing Rock High School auditorium and attended two Social Ecology conferences in Oslo, immersed herself in countless collaborations with such artists as Klassik and Chris Rosenau (Collections of Colonies of Bees, Volcano Choir), executed vocals and instrumentation in projects led by Jon Mueller (Death Blues, Volcano Choir) and Joe Westerlund (Megafaun), recorded a new album with Hello Death, created new material with Collections of Colonies of Bees, and, with the then-19-piece Group of the Altos (who enlisted her at a solo show in Milwaukee in 2010), recorded R U Person or Not and co-wrote/performed in an original live score to Alexandr Dovzhenko's Zemlya (Earth) before that formative and much-loved project came to a close.

It was only after Dead Not Done was complete that a band ever performed those songs in their finished form. But the band she put together to perform them, consisting of Kavi Laud (drums, vocals), Ken Palme (guitar), Nathaniel Heuer (bass, guitar, vocals), and Adam Krause (guitar, musical saw, vocals), quickly grew into a formidable live unit. In fact, the band became such a band that Allschwang dedicated an entirely new approach to VISITATIONS IV. The band learned the songs, played them live, played them loud, and came to know the material backward and forward before ever stepping into the studio with engineer Jaime Hansen. And when they recorded, it was together in one room, with their microphones bleeding into each other and not a metronome in sight.

In VISITATIONS IV, Allschwang channels her ecological concerns, celebration of camaraderie, and growing sense of personal agency into an album that ranges from pummeling to diaphanous, foreboding to triumphant. It is woven with Allschwang’s formative influences and exemplars: Led Zeppelin, Fugazi, George Gurdjieff, Kate Bush’s The Dreaming, Alvin Lucier, and most of all, her fellow band mates with whom she’s been making music for over a decade and who join her from their own musical backgrounds in warding off the hungry ghosts.

Allschwang’s “Marcus & Ramona/Married” ep, released in June 2018, was recorded in the same session at Milwaukee’s Chair Company with Jaime Hansen. That single (included in the digital download for the LP of VISITATIONS IV) and this full-length document a songwriter and her band honing their focus and collaborative powers.

Copyright Bitter Sea Recordings 2019.

credits

released May 8, 2019

Marielle Allschwang: music, lyrics, guitar, violin, vocals
Adam Michael Krause: guitar, musical saw, vocals
Kavinath Laud: percussion, vocals
Ken Palme: guitar
Nathaniel Heuer: upright & electric bass, guitar, vocals

Songs written by Marielle Allschwang; "Open Your Gifts" written by Allschwang & Krause. Arrangements by Marielle Allschwang & The Visitations.
Engineered & Mixed by Jaime Hansen.
Mastered by Todd Rittmann.

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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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