Summer again already We weren't even waiting Summer again already Roll up your sleeves Show me your brawn and beauty
Take this promise apart Let's get carried away Un-stop your heart
Calling it so you know right now Calling out till you know me now
Future promise Settle it up right now
It's always been summer Even when we weren't looking Can we finally learn? Roll up our sleeves See how we're thirsty and yearning
Take this promise apart Let's get carried away Un-stop your heart
Calling it so you know right now Calling out till you know me now
Can't hear what you're trying to say (trying to say) You're breaking up I'm breaking away Are we breaking up? Are we making up?
A w a k e
A w a k e
Summer will circle it's coming undone August and after you won't feel the sun I see you see me from up on the heights You tell me everything's gonna to be right We wind it in circles the questions entwine What you would give me I'd give it in kind The trees are still ringing I'm ringing your phone All of these boys have to go it alone
You're lost I'm lost we're all the same You say I say we say his name Alight a light a life is made He's here he's gone don't let it fade The salt dissolves your eyes are clear My hands your hands a single sphere Awake awake the light has come An ache an ache the past is numb
We scatter your ashes on out at the break Gather up all that you left in your wake It's hard to just live in the air and the sea With nowhere to land you got nowhere to be It's like you ain't left but what's left is right here How come what's so far away is so near You told me to tell you to wait for your call Been waiting on you ever since we were small
(chorus)
Fly west Change skies Out on the western isles Slow heal Try wait Cry seven hundred miles Clear seer (steer clear) Slow learn A thousand join this choir
(chorus)
M o u t h
t h e
W o r d s
River bends Taste the silt and make amends Mouth the words you couldn't say You'll be cured of all the things you forgot to pray
First reverse Change your course cast the curse There your eyes tumble low Now you rise out your bed under Chiron's glow
Your sail is full The harbor's past you feel the pull It's 10 below you hardly speak Tombolo the islands swim out past the creek
Do you feel it all? Can you see it all? Are you free at all? Gonna feel it all
Strike a spark Wrap your arms around the dark Stars align Saturn turns Redesign everything you ever learned
Keep it pinned To your back and feel the wind Mind the hurt I couldn't stay Fever burns all the things you didn't say
Do you feel it all? Can you see it all? Are you free at all? Gonna feel it all
Mouth the words you couldn't say You'll be cured of all the things you forgot to pray
W a i t
F o r
H e a v e n
Bright morning your blinds are drawn You think about her off and on Brick by brick you're still woebegone Your tower never reached Babylon
You settle up and you settle down This ain't a bend you can see around You walk on water and almost drowned Now watch yourself with that thorny crown
Out it in the distance it's plain as song You wait for heaven you wait too long
Imma plant nothing this season Bone tired no reason No one said this ground was laid even Some forests ain't got no trees in
A city's never completed Every garden can be reseeded Don't worry if you're feeling mistreated This time it won't be repeated
(chorus)
I know how hard you tried But heaven's on the inside
Generations keep on repeating We're all trying to find a house to believe in A hand's there to lift every ceiling A ladder back to this feeling
(chorus)
M y
W o m a n ' s
A
N a t i o n
Here take my hand So this wedding band will ring If we ladder up our voices The crowd will all rejoice and sing You know my hiding places I see your many faces too Time can't erase Even trace of you
My woman's a nation My civilization
You know it means the most To see you on your native coast so free The ocean meets the land We run into the sand and sea All the things that could've been This wild sea you're swimming in with me Someone turned the hourglass The world is moving way too fast to see
My woman's a nation My civilization
This Baltimore morning I'm on the wrong coast I'm always touring I miss you the most Just follow the sounds Look up at the stars Apollo's a healer His story is ours In Cleveland this evening I want to be home The room's full of people I'm still sleeping alone This Japanese maple Is blocking the moon Now Artemis' twin Is coming home soon
My idol my altar My sister my maker My heiress my daughter My circuit my breaker My keep it together My measure of hours My mirror my seer My magical power My back in the day when you Whispered "come stay" and we Kissed until morning I Never turned over we Fell into photographs Double exposure Now twenty years later A home and two labors A garden of plenty A love that won't waver
B r o t h e r l e s s
Trouble made your troubled mind Trouble catches you every time Suddenly you're gone too soon Poems fill your empty room
You ain't sure, it's a working cure Astral salt from far offshore Burning bush, signal hill Rainbow sign but a silent will
Book of change, book of acts Your story's full of blurry facts What you felt we can only guess There are mountains hidden in hiddenness
Second sight, second son Who'll watch over me now that you're gone Citywide, hazel green Brotherless from here on in
7 5
O u t
It's 75 out and you can't see past your window You know you're alive but still the world is moving slo-mo You open a book and find a phrase that you can borrow It's something you took but you'll forget you did tomorrow
The coffee is dark but it's a start so you go outside Still don't feel a spark that's something your poor heart's never tried You hear a sound out in the background for a minute There's a world all around you don't forget that you are in it
You can't find your way around this city anymore so You only walk halfway and take a taxi to my front door I let you inside for the last time but you don't know yet We talk by the bedside in the darkness share a cigarette
I make up my bed but inside your head we're still sleeping Nothing is said you get up instead and you feel like weeping That look you give me makes me feel like I'm your mother How can we live like this when you see me as the other
You tell it backwards like it started with this ending Like we're method actors and we're only just pretending There's salt in your wound but someday soon you'll have a new chance Someone attuned or maybe immune to this kind of romance
You stare at the ground but you want to lay down so you stare at the ceiling Nothing profound you're just surrounded by this feeling
E a r t h l i g h t
First we start by watching The waxing of the moon It's an ancient observation We dance around the room There's a certain expectation You find is wearing thin But you know it's just a moment We're all here living in Living in
Your first birth constellation If those stars could see you now Would they circle round your orbit Bright seven's Starry Plough It was always hard to reach you A hand I couldn't lend Has the season come unhinged now Like the meaning of a friend Of a friend
The old Moon is in the new Moon's arms
Now you're ghosting past me Like you're already gone Cause the hills are calling to you You can't name the path you're on You're wandering the stacks now In the library of desire The wild silk is growing Higher and higher And higher
There's a sound like slowing thunder A gurney rolling through Your deathbed's getting made now No matter what you do The night is full of wonder Sparks above the clay Fireworks surround you Saltpeter where you lay Where you lay
The old Moon is in the new Moon's arms
O h
T h e s e
H o u r s
Sunup prayer to light the morning Feels just like the house we were born in All those years that moved like light speed Sturdy seeds became such tall trees
It hurts that you're gone I'll befriend the unknown I know your kingdom was quiet But you were never alone It hurts that you're gone I'll befriend the unknown Now my kingdom is quiet But I know I'm never alone
Searchlight arms forever reaching Shadowboxing always teaching You did poses, Moses, without number Asked the questions brothers wonder
Hand on the water Wind on the sea Blue walls are parted Who's watching me Set my boat out on the ocean Part the water with these oars Row toward the life I somehow always thought was yours
Oh these hours are breaking nightly Count the days are quiet my nights free
T r o u b l e d
A b o u t
M y
S o u l
Wonder about my brother I wonder where he's gone Somewhere in the kingdom He won't be worried long
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
Father he got worried Worried all about his soul Just as soon as his feet strike Zion He won't be worried no more
Sister she got worried Worried all about her soul Just as soon as her feet strike Zion She won't be worried no more
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
Wonder about my mother I wonder where she's gone Somewhere in the kingdom She won't be worried long
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
T h e s e
D a y s
It's coming on quickly like December The ice is cracking 'neath my feet Winter's fruit is bittersweet These feelings from further back than I can remember
I don't know where to begin It's coming in clear How to hold it all dear Wish I could call and tell you everything These days
We were heading west to find a life with promise I'd lean in and you'd pull me through I felt like I could be anything next to you I had no idea what I was doing, honest
We drove through the fog quiet and steady Everything so mythic Just look at that blue Pacific It was like California knew us already In those days
Your shadow was ten feet tall So many things you kept from me The silence and the secrecy Sometimes I wondered if you saw me at all
Now I'm reeling on this sudden morning It's like we've been here before Except I can't feel you anymore Woke up and you were gone without a warning One day
You said we learned to talk without talking And you were right, we still do Can't you hear me talking? Cause I'm out here talking to you These days
You're looking younger in every photograph Like the opposite of a Polaroid You fade back black into the void You disappeared before the second half
You closed your eyes and the stars came out You always said you'd die trying I never thought you'd try dying It's hard to know what we can live without These days
I spent three years making this album. I poured everything I had into the process—time, tears, questions, clarity, listlessness, love. I didn't rush. I grew—emotionally, lyrically, vocally. I learned to trust my inklings and intuitions, the floodwaters and dry spells. I wrote at home and away—on Mayne and Pender Islands, in Brooklyn and in Banff.
We all know the internet caused a sea change in the music industry. This business of music was never just or equitable but artists figured out how to stay afloat because we love spinning sound, singing stories and sharing space. A powerful few always got the lion's share but still, small streams would recirculate back to the music makers and we could keep doing what we loved. Make no mistake—there's money flowing but now it only goes one-way: into Silicon Valley and Spotify's headquarters in Stockholm.
What we had left before coronavirus was touring. It's how I earned most of my livelihood. Of course now I've had to cancel my North American CD release tour that was set for September. A year of booking and planning vanished in a matter of days. But musicians are nothing if not adaptable. Our careers are the ultimate improvisations. Our audience is what truly sustains us. I decided that releasing this album now is the most vital thing I can do. I want people to hear it and feel it. Since putting this out on streaming platforms essentially means giving it away for free, I figure I might as well give it away in a place where I can give it some context and curate the space—hang art on its walls, open the door wide and invite you in. I built this website to make a home for these songs. It's like Kickstarter in reverse—"Here's a beautiful thing I made, will you consider supporting it?"
If the music moves you, I invite you to make an offering to support the project. Please click the links to the right for multiple ways to donate. Fractured Atlas provides an opportunity to make a taxdeductible contribution. PayPal and Venmo are easy. Of course, if you are unable to give, I'm more than happy for you to listen, enjoy and consider sharing the music with your friends.
"Awake, awake, the light has come," sings Jayme Stone in the title track of his new album; one of stargazing tales that sing from a white-hot core of love and loss. On AWake Stone breaks new ground: from folk musician and composer to experimental pop singer and producer. A unique tonal palette blends with deft storytelling and disarmingly honest lyrics to create a sonic world both eminently engaging and full of nuance and surprise.
The songs on AWake mark a new creative start for Stone, who is best-known for his banjo playing and world-wise roots albums like Africa to Appalachia, Lomax Project, and Folklife. Now we hear Stone singing, playing guitar and OP 1 (a micro-synth, sampler and sequencer). He captures and sculpts sounds—felted piano, bass clarinet, analog synths and sequencers—until they're hazy and unrecognizable.
AWake features Felicity Williams (Bahamas), Jason Burger (Big Thief), Daniela Gesundheit (Feist), Jason Linder (David Bowie), Alec Spielgelman (Cuddle Magic) and more. It was co-produced by Stone and David Travers-Smith, his longtime collaborator who has recorded, mixed, mastered and co-produced all of Stone's records.
"For years I knew I had these songs in me," shares Stone. "Like I had a premonition that some future me was driving backwards in time, full of songs, and at some point, we'd meet." In July 2018, Stone had earmarked six weeks off the road to start writing a new record. On day one, his brother Michael, a well-known teacher of yoga and Buddhism, died suddenly and unexpectedly. In the yawning ache of being brotherless, the songs became oracles—new ways to reckon with who his brother was, and who he himself was becoming. Stone sings: "What you felt, we can only guess / There are mountains hidden in hiddenness." At times, Stone felt himself to be the keeper of his brother's shadow, having known him so long in all his complexity. The song "Brotherless" samples his brother's voice and quotes zen poet Dōgen's "Mountain and Water Sutra."
AWake consults the stars and planets for direction. In the song "Earthlight," the sun reflects off the earth and onto the moon, capturing the mysterious ways in which the planets and constellations pull invisibly on our lives. And we feel it: the song wanders breathlessly with a sense of wonder, weaving intricate guitar melodies with unexpected offbeats and offset line-breaks, programmed drums interlaced with a drum kit, glitchy bass clarinet and vocal samples. In the glowing lostness that permeates these songs, we zoom through space as we listen: witnessing the invisible tug of forces we can't control on our bodies and our lives.
"Mouth the Words," conjures the tumult and tenderness of Saturn return, that time in our lives when we reckon with the past to renew our lives for the future. "Strike a spark / Wrap your arms around the dark / Stars align Saturn turns / Redesign everything you ever learned," sings Stone, full of forgiveness and hope. In the sun-drenched, Afro-pop sparkle of "Future Promise," a couple rolls up their sleeves to re-make a relationship in danger of sinking. Voices crackle through cell phone static, two people trying to hear and to be heard.
"My Woman's a Nation," is a song about long-term love, a touring musician's love letter home—"My idol my altar / My sister my maker / My heiress my daughter / My circuit my breaker." Sounds and styles cross-pollinate: the warm glow of a Prophet synth, surround sound back-up vocals and a bridge that draws from spoken word. "Wait for Heaven" features bursts of pitched up vocals and kaleidoscopic hooks in the song's upper atmosphere.
AWake was recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, a space that feels more akin to a community center or Japanese monastery than a studio. Entering from the street, musicians take off their shoes and walk through the kitchen with farmer's market produce on the counter. The studio, made of reclaimed wine barrels, cork and felt, is drenched in sunlight. The studio's owner, Shahzad Ismaily (who also guests on the album) has a dizzying collection of rare synthesizers and one of world's few Klavins Una Corda keyboards (which anchors several songs on the album).
Stone has made a rare thing: a piece of work that asks us to both travel on his melodic and emotional journey and allows us to have our own.
Summer again already We weren't even waiting Summer again already Roll up your sleeves Show me your brawn and beauty
Take this promise apart Let's get carried away Un-stop your heart
Calling it so you know right now Calling out till you know me now
Future promise Settle it up right now
It's always been summer Even when we weren't looking Can we finally learn? Roll up our sleeves See how we're thirsty and yearning
Take this promise apart Let's get carried away Un-stop your heart
Calling it so you know right now Calling out till you know me now
Can't hear what you're trying to say (trying to say) You're breaking up I'm breaking away Are we breaking up? Are we making up?
2
A w a k e
A w a k e
Summer will circle it's coming undone August and after you won't feel the sun I see you see me from up on the heights You tell me everything's gonna to be right We wind it in circles the questions entwine What you would give me I'd give it in kind The trees are still ringing I'm ringing your phone All of these boys have to go it alone
You're lost I'm lost we're all the same You say I say we say his name Alight a light a life is made He's here he's gone don't let it fade The salt dissolves your eyes are clear My hands your hands a single sphere Awake awake the light has come An ache an ache the past is numb
We scatter your ashes on out at the break Gather up all that you left in your wake It's hard to just live in the air and the sea With nowhere to land you got nowhere to be It's like you ain't left but what's left is right here How come what's so far away is so near You told me to tell you to wait for your call Been waiting on you ever since we were small
(chorus)
Fly west Change skies Out on the western isles Slow heal Try wait Cry seven hundred miles Clear seer (steer clear) Slow learn A thousand join this choir
(chorus)
3
M o u t h
t h e
W o r d s
River bends Taste the silt and make amends Mouth the words you couldn't say You'll be cured of all the things you forgot to pray
First reverse Change your course cast the curse There your eyes tumble low Now you rise out your bed under Chiron's glow
Your sail is full The harbor's past you feel the pull It's 10 below you hardly speak Tombolo the islands swim out past the creek
Do you feel it all? Can you see it all? Are you free at all? Gonna feel it all
Strike a spark Wrap your arms around the dark Stars align Saturn turns Redesign everything you ever learned
Keep it pinned To your back and feel the wind Mind the hurt I couldn't stay Fever burns all the things you didn't say
Do you feel it all? Can you see it all? Are you free at all? Gonna feel it all
Mouth the words you couldn't say You'll be cured of all the things you forgot to pray
4
W a i t
F o r
H e a v e n
Bright morning your blinds are drawn You think about her off and on Brick by brick you're still woebegone Your tower never reached Babylon
You settle up and you settle down This ain't a bend you can see around You walk on water and almost drowned Now watch yourself with that thorny crown
Out it in the distance it's plain as song You wait for heaven you wait too long
Imma plant nothing this season Bone tired no reason No one said this ground was laid even Some forests ain't got no trees in
A city's never completed Every garden can be reseeded Don't worry if you're feeling mistreated This time it won't be repeated
(chorus)
I know how hard you tried But heaven's on the inside
Generations keep on repeating We're all trying to find a house to believe in A hand's there to lift every ceiling A ladder back to this feeling
(chorus)
5
M y
W o m a n ' s
A
N a t i o n
Here take my hand So this wedding band will ring If we ladder up our voices The crowd will all rejoice and sing You know my hiding places I see your many faces too Time can't erase Even trace of you
My woman's a nation My civilization
You know it means the most To see you on your native coast so free The ocean meets the land We run into the sand and sea All the things that could've been This wild sea you're swimming in with me Someone turned the hourglass The world is moving way too fast to see
My woman's a nation My civilization
This Baltimore morning I'm on the wrong coast I'm always touring I miss you the most Just follow the sounds Look up at the stars Apollo's a healer His story is ours In Cleveland this evening I want to be home The room's full of people I'm still sleeping alone This Japanese maple Is blocking the moon Now Artemis' twin Is coming home soon
My idol my altar My sister my maker My heiress my daughter My circuit my breaker My keep it together My measure of hours My mirror my seer My magical power My back in the day when you Whispered "come stay" and we Kissed until morning I Never turned over we Fell into photographs Double exposure Now twenty years later A home and two labors A garden of plenty A love that won't waver
6
B r o t h e r l e s s
Trouble made your troubled mind Trouble catches you every time Suddenly you're gone too soon Poems fill your empty room
You ain't sure, it's a working cure Astral salt from far offshore Burning bush, signal hill Rainbow sign but a silent will
Book of change, book of acts Your story's full of blurry facts What you felt we can only guess There are mountains hidden in hiddenness
Second sight, second son Who'll watch over me now that you're gone Citywide, hazel green Brotherless from here on in
7
7 5
O u t
It's 75 out and you can't see past your window You know you're alive but still the world is moving slo-mo You open a book and find a phrase that you can borrow It's something you took but you'll forget you did tomorrow
The coffee is dark but it's a start so you go outside Still don't feel a spark that's something your poor heart's never tried You hear a sound out in the background for a minute There's a world all around you don't forget that you are in it
You can't find your way around this city anymore so You only walk halfway and take a taxi to my front door I let you inside for the last time but you don't know yet We talk by the bedside in the darkness share a cigarette
I make up my bed but inside your head we're still sleeping Nothing is said you get up instead and you feel like weeping That look you give me makes me feel like I'm your mother How can we live like this when you see me as the other
You tell it backwards like it started with this ending Like we're method actors and we're only just pretending There's salt in your wound but someday soon you'll have a new chance Someone attuned or maybe immune to this kind of romance
You stare at the ground but you want to lay down so you stare at the ceiling Nothing profound you're just surrounded by this feeling
8
E a r t h l i g h t
First we start by watching The waxing of the moon It's an ancient observation We dance around the room There's a certain expectation You find is wearing thin But you know it's just a moment We're all here living in Living in
Your first birth constellation If those stars could see you now Would they circle round your orbit Bright seven's Starry Plough It was always hard to reach you A hand I couldn't lend Has the season come unhinged now Like the meaning of a friend Of a friend
The old Moon is in the new Moon's arms
Now you're ghosting past me Like you're already gone Cause the hills are calling to you You can't name the path you're on You're wandering the stacks now In the library of desire The wild silk is growing Higher and higher And higher
There's a sound like slowing thunder A gurney rolling through Your deathbed's getting made now No matter what you do The night is full of wonder Sparks above the clay Fireworks surround you Saltpeter where you lay Where you lay
The old Moon is in the new Moon's arms
9
O h
T h e s e
H o u r s
Sunup prayer to light the morning Feels just like the house we were born in All those years that moved like light speed Sturdy seeds became such tall trees
It hurts that you're gone I'll befriend the unknown I know your kingdom was quiet But you were never alone It hurts that you're gone I'll befriend the unknown Now my kingdom is quiet But I know I'm never alone
Searchlight arms forever reaching Shadowboxing always teaching You did poses, Moses, without number Asked the questions brothers wonder
Hand on the water Wind on the sea Blue walls are parted Who's watching me Set my boat out on the ocean Part the water with these oars Row toward the life I somehow always thought was yours
Oh these hours are breaking nightly Count the days are quiet my nights free
10
T r o u b l e d
A b o u t
M y
S o u l
Wonder about my brother I wonder where he's gone Somewhere in the kingdom He won't be worried long
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
Father he got worried Worried all about his soul Just as soon as his feet strike Zion He won't be worried no more
Sister she got worried Worried all about her soul Just as soon as her feet strike Zion She won't be worried no more
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
Wonder about my mother I wonder where she's gone Somewhere in the kingdom She won't be worried long
I am troubled troubled troubled all about my soul Just as soon as my feet strike Zion I won't be troubled no more
11
T h e s e
D a y s
It's coming on quickly like December The ice is cracking 'neath my feet Winter's fruit is bittersweet These feelings from further back than I can remember
I don't know where to begin It's coming in clear How to hold it all dear Wish I could call and tell you everything These days
We were heading west to find a life with promise I'd lean in and you'd pull me through I felt like I could be anything next to you I had no idea what I was doing, honest
We drove through the fog quiet and steady Everything so mythic Just look at that blue Pacific It was like California knew us already In those days
Your shadow was ten feet tall So many things you kept from me The silence and the secrecy Sometimes I wondered if you saw me at all
Now I'm reeling on this sudden morning It's like we've been here before Except I can't feel you anymore Woke up and you were gone without a warning One day
You said we learned to talk without talking And you were right, we still do Can't you hear me talking? Cause I'm out here talking to you These days
You're looking younger in every photograph Like the opposite of a Polaroid You fade back black into the void You disappeared before the second half
You closed your eyes and the stars came out You always said you'd die trying I never thought you'd try dying It's hard to know what we can live without These days
I spent three years making this album. I poured everything I had into the process—time, tears, questions, clarity, listlessness, love. I didn't rush. I grew—emotionally, lyrically, vocally. I learned to trust my inklings and intuitions, the floodwaters and dry spells. I wrote at home and away—on Mayne and Pender Islands, in Brooklyn and in Banff.
We all know the internet caused a sea change in the music industry. This business of music was never just or equitable but artists figured out how to stay afloat because we love spinning sound, singing stories and sharing space. A powerful few always got the lion's share but still, small streams would recirculate back to the music makers and we could keep doing what we loved. Make no mistake—there's money flowing but now it only goes one-way: into Silicon Valley and Spotify's headquarters in Stockholm.
What we had left before coronavirus was touring. It's how I earned most of my livelihood. Of course now I've had to cancel my North American CD release tour that was set for September. A year of booking and planning vanished in a matter of days. But musicians are nothing if not adaptable. Our careers are the ultimate improvisations. Our audience is what truly sustains us. I decided that releasing this album now is the most vital thing I can do. I want people to hear it and feel it. Since putting this out on streaming platforms essentially means giving it away for free, I figure I might as well give it away in a place where I can give it some context and curate the space—hang art on its walls, open the door wide and invite you in. I built this website to make a home for these songs. It's like Kickstarter in reverse—"Here's a beautiful thing I made, will you consider supporting it?"
If the music moves you, I invite you to make an offering to support the project. Please click the links to the right for multiple ways to donate. Fractured Atlas provides an opportunity to make a taxdeductible contribution. PayPal and Venmo are easy. Of course, if you are unable to give, I'm more than happy for you to listen, enjoy and consider sharing the music with your friends.
"Awake, awake, the light has come," sings Jayme Stone in the title track of his new album; one of stargazing tales that sing from a white-hot core of love and loss. On AWake Stone breaks new ground: from folk musician and composer to experimental pop singer and producer. A unique tonal palette blends with deft storytelling and disarmingly honest lyrics to create a sonic world both eminently engaging and full of nuance and surprise.
The songs on AWake mark a new creative start for Stone, who is best-known for his banjo playing and world-wise roots albums like Africa to Appalachia, Lomax Project, and Folklife. Now we hear Stone singing, playing guitar and OP 1 (a micro-synth, sampler and sequencer). He captures and sculpts sounds—felted piano, bass clarinet, analog synths and sequencers—until they're hazy and unrecognizable.
AWake features Felicity Williams (Bahamas), Jason Burger (Big Thief), Daniela Gesundheit (Feist), Jason Linder (David Bowie), Alec Spielgelman (Cuddle Magic) and more. It was co-produced by Stone and David Travers-Smith, his longtime collaborator who has recorded, mixed, mastered and co-produced all of Stone's records.
"For years I knew I had these songs in me," shares Stone. "Like I had a premonition that some future me was driving backwards in time, full of songs, and at some point, we'd meet." In July 2018, Stone had earmarked six weeks off the road to start writing a new record. On day one, his brother Michael, a well-known teacher of yoga and Buddhism, died suddenly and unexpectedly. In the yawning ache of being brotherless, the songs became oracles—new ways to reckon with who his brother was, and who he himself was becoming. Stone sings: "What you felt, we can only guess / There are mountains hidden in hiddenness." At times, Stone felt himself to be the keeper of his brother's shadow, having known him so long in all his complexity. The song "Brotherless" samples his brother's voice and quotes zen poet Dōgen's "Mountain and Water Sutra."
AWake consults the stars and planets for direction. In the song "Earthlight," the sun reflects off the earth and onto the moon, capturing the mysterious ways in which the planets and constellations pull invisibly on our lives. And we feel it: the song wanders breathlessly with a sense of wonder, weaving intricate guitar melodies with unexpected offbeats and offset line-breaks, programmed drums interlaced with a drum kit, glitchy bass clarinet and vocal samples. In the glowing lostness that permeates these songs, we zoom through space as we listen: witnessing the invisible tug of forces we can't control on our bodies and our lives.
"Mouth the Words," conjures the tumult and tenderness of Saturn return, that time in our lives when we reckon with the past to renew our lives for the future. "Strike a spark / Wrap your arms around the dark / Stars align Saturn turns / Redesign everything you ever learned," sings Stone, full of forgiveness and hope. In the sun-drenched, Afro-pop sparkle of "Future Promise," a couple rolls up their sleeves to re-make a relationship in danger of sinking. Voices crackle through cell phone static, two people trying to hear and to be heard.
"My Woman's a Nation," is a song about long-term love, a touring musician's love letter home—"My idol my altar / My sister my maker / My heiress my daughter / My circuit my breaker." Sounds and styles cross-pollinate: the warm glow of a Prophet synth, surround sound back-up vocals and a bridge that draws from spoken word. "Wait for Heaven" features bursts of pitched up vocals and kaleidoscopic hooks in the song's upper atmosphere.
AWake was recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn, a space that feels more akin to a community center or Japanese monastery than a studio. Entering from the street, musicians take off their shoes and walk through the kitchen with farmer's market produce on the counter. The studio, made of reclaimed wine barrels, cork and felt, is drenched in sunlight. The studio's owner, Shahzad Ismaily (who also guests on the album) has a dizzying collection of rare synthesizers and one of world's few Klavins Una Corda keyboards (which anchors several songs on the album).
Stone has made a rare thing: a piece of work that asks us to both travel on his melodic and emotional journey and allows us to have our own.
