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A Child's Bestiary

by Valentine Wolfe

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1.
A Taxidermist’s Toybox Cleaning off the skin Scraping off the chaff Got to keep the cuts small Make the feathers last Jiggle in an eye Paint on the claws Arrange a pose And then it’s done Beauty in this death Jackdaw, magpie, rook, crow Say them all and then you’ll know What’s the secret? Never tell Bad little ones under my spell Receive the little birds In spirits of wine Got to sew the beak shut With a bit of twine Then untie the skin Head turns toward the left Twist ligament This is my design Beauty in this death What life has gotten wrong I can now correct My own interpretation My revisions to the script When a mind is fertile Ready for suggestion What to say How to move Beauty in this death Creating works of art Making something new From a lifeless dead thing Giving a new hue I work my magic only With one goal in mind To breathe new life To start afresh Beauty in this death
2.
My Black Hen 04:05
My Black Hen Hickety, pickety, my black hen, She lays eggs for gentlemen; Gentlemen come every day To see what my black hen doth lay. My black hen gives me Such black feathers Each one tied in a knot Each a rung on the ladder The blackest curse Turns the soul In a witch’s ladder With thirteen rungs Malediction With cord magick And a cross of black pins Check for it under the bed The gentlemen come They can’t stay away Though the danger beckons They follow its clarion call Gentlemen should harbor Some caution Though they are tempted this way Best to just stay away
3.
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe — Sailed on a river of crystal light, Into a sea of dew. "Where are you going, and what do you wish?" The old moon asked the three. "We have come to fish for the herring fish That live in this beautiful sea; Nets of silver and gold have we!" Said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Ghost children Playing in the dark Ghost children Living worlds apart The old moon laughed and sang a song, As they rocked in the wooden shoe, And the wind that sped them all night long Ruffled the waves of dew. The little stars were the herring fish That lived in that beautiful sea — "Now cast your nets wherever you wish — Never afraid are we"; So cried the stars to the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Ghost kisses Catch them while you can Ghost kisses Never leave my hand All night long their nets they threw To the stars in the twinkling foam — Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe, Bringing the fishermen home; 'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed As if it could not be, And some folks thought 'twas a dream they'd dreamed Of sailing that beautiful sea — But I shall name you the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Ghost wishes One by one to make Ghost wishes Dreadful the mistake Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes, And Nod is a little head, And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies Is a wee one's trundle-bed. So shut your eyes while mother sings Of wonderful sights that be, And you shall see the beautiful things As you rock in the misty sea, Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Ghost children Playing in the dark Ghost children Living worlds apart
4.
Kraken 05:05
Kraken by Tennyson Below the thunders of the upper deep Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides; above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height And far away into the sickly light From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumbered and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green There hath he lain for ages, and will lie Battening upon huge seaworms in his sleep Until the latter fire shall heat the deep Then once by man and angels to be seen In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
5.
Corvidae 03:16
Corvidae Corvidae, come after me Corvidae, I shall not flee One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold Seven for a secret never told Eight for a wish Nine for a kiss Ten for a bird You must not miss One for sorrow Two for mirth Three for a funeral Four for birth Five for heaven Six for hell Seven for the devil, his own self
6.
Silent Siren 04:31
Silent Siren IV. Dissolving into sea foam She floats among the waves The storm rolls on, the sea grows calm Her memory fades away III. The pain of slicing knives Separates her flesh The dance leads on, she hides her frown Each step to please her prince II. To a witch she sells her voice Her siren, clarion call All for the love of an unknown man And half his worthless soul I. Her first trip to the surface She saves a drowning prince He never knew of his protector Never caught her name There’s a moral to this tale A lesson to be learned Don’t trade your voice for anything Own it, don’t silence your song
7.
La Fée Verte I’m trapped in this bottle Please set me free Then I will be all yours For this night Your inspiration Your darkling muse Your Green Fairy La Fée Verte Drink, drink With me tonight Drink, drink Deep with me tonight Never has a poison Tasted so sweet Never has your nightmare Spoken this way La Fée Verte They whisper my name They long for my touch Horrific visions I bring La Fée Verte One little sip One little taste Let me show you the way La Fée Verte The night comes alive A swirling haze Dancing with you La Fée Verte Do you long for your muse Shall I visit you Open your mind to my world
8.
Peter the Wolf. Once upon a time in Russia... 1 Peter awoke from the nightmare with the taste of blood still in his mouth. He could remember fleeting images: the silver moon hanging in the darkened sky, the pale light illuminating the forest with an unworldly glow, and thick summer air, hot and stifling around him. 2 Peter sat up, and the nightmare continued. As he looked around his cottage, he could remember the shrill sounds of screaming birds. Could birds scream? As his memories grew more vivid, Peter remembered them screaming. 3 He could remember drinking with his friend Utkin. Last night, he remembered a look of terror in his eyes, and his mouth contorting into another silent scream. Odd that he remembered Utkin’s screaming silently, but not the birds. He idly tried to remember where Utkin went after he started screaming… 4 As he looked around the cottage, with debris and destruction littering the small room, he tried to banish the images of sheer terror returning to the edge of consciousness, like a recalled echo, telling himself that he and Utkin must have drank enough for their ancestors last night. Peter got out of bed, and the nightmare continued. He remembered the tiger. 5 The great siberian tiger slunk out of the forests, and towards the cottage where Peter lived alone with his grandfather. Grandfather was a mighty hunter. Peter remembered not understanding why Grandfather didn’t lift his heavy rifle from above the mantle and come for the mighty cat as he had so many times before. 6 Peter noticed the rifle wasn’t above the mantle. Nor did he see grandfather in the ransacked cottage. Grandfather’s bed was unmade, his boots gone, his chair empty. Peter remembered the heat of the tiger’s breath. Peter remembered the sharp claws going for his throat. Peter remembered swatting them away as playful as a kitten, laughing at the tiger’s frantic attacks and roars as if it were a game. Peter remembered snapping the tiger’s spine, and wondering why the tiger was so delicate. It was then Peter remembered the taste of blood in his mouth. He wondered how it got there. 7 He padded to the door of the cottage and opened the gate, shaking the rest of his sleep away from his eyes. In the light of dawn, he saw what was left of Grandfather and Utkin, their blood and bodies staining the grass, torn into shreds by the predator. Peter found his friend and his Grandfather, and the nightmare went on and on and on…
9.
Ouroboros 05:24
Ouroboros Darkness is beautiful When you can see the spark Of a tiny, little light Dancing through the shadows Darkness is terrible When the light seems far away Much too far away to reach Midnight is closing in Fear will choke down our resolve Like a serpent maw grown wide Her tail inching ever near We’re consuming our own fears Surrendering our days of bliss Precious moments in the sun One life, one chance to live That’s all we ever have “And by strange alchemy of brain Our pleasures always turn to pain Being young and dipped in folly We fall in love with melancholy.” (E.A.Poe) We are the snake We are the serpent We are eating our own tail And the circle grows ever smaller And the noose grows ever tighter We are slowly choking on our own fear

about

A Child's Bestiary: Nine tracks of macabre oddities from the imagination, an exploration of a grotesque menagerie, lurking under the guise of a child's innocent rhymes.

Enter the Bestiary with A Taxidermist's Toybox, a track inspired by surreal horror of the television show Hannibal. My Black Hen is a witches scene, our very own version of a Hexensabbat. Wynken Blynken and Nod are here, the beautiful lullaby taking on a tragic and ghostly interpretation, inspired by post-mortem photography. Then Alfred, Lord Tennyson provides the lyrics for our next creature, the mythical Kraken.

Corvidae is a sinister nursery rhyme that inspired the entire creation of this imaginary exhibition. We then return to previous inspiration with Silent Siren, a Hans Christen Andersen tale, familiar to most of you, but much more aligned with the source material. And what would our bestiary be without fairies, especially one that some say enables perception of all these wonders? La Fée Verte, or The Green Fairy, appears with promises of exotic dreams and visions…

The next tale, Peter the Wolf, features a young boy named Peter, his grandfather, and his own animal nature lurking beneath the surface.

And our final beast is the Ouroboros, circling around itself and bringing our collection of songs to a close, with some words from our favorite poet, Edgar Allan Poe.

credits

released August 26, 2016

Sarah Black: vocals and electronics
Braxton Ballew, bass and electronics

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Valentine Wolfe Greenville, South Carolina

Two morbidly fascinated musicians combining ambient solo bass, brutal distortion, electronica, and 18th century opera to tell a story of the macabre.

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