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We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Corporeal

by Sweeney

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ob1david Structure of this quite illuminating, self referential yet universal personal/impersonal album is emotionally, intellectually and spiritually exquisite. Its power of off balance questioning reminiscence and refusal to achieve, let alone seek resolution is a profound recognition of life as jagged edges of incomprehensible incompleteness.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    23
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Failures & False Starts, Ageism, Better Man, "Keep No Husbands: The Various Songs of Par Avion 1996-2019", Daddy-O, Inbuilt Obsolescence, Turn Away From The Middle Aged, The Fear & The Failing, and 15 more. , and , .

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  • Limited Edition Compact Disc (**AUSTRALIA ONLY!**)
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    **AUSTRALIA ONLY** (EU/UK/USA order from here: soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com/album/corporeal

    A limited edition handmade and hand-numbered collectible copy of the Sound in Silence (Greece) CD. It is packaged in a lovely hand-stamped 127mm x 127mm 260 gsm dark grey recycled cardboard envelope with the front cover image printed on a polaroid style photo paper and two insert sheets containing tracklist, information and lyrics printed on a 120 gsm smoky grey recycled cardboard. It also comes bundled with a download code coupon and a Sound In Silence card.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Corporeal via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Slowly the Bones 06:23
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AND WHEN I STEP OUT ONTO THE STAGE IT’S NO LONGER DAY OR NIGHT IT’S JUST NOT TIME I NO LONGER EXIST HERE WHERE I ONCE WAS WHERE IS MY AUDIENCE APPARENT TO YOU AND NOW APPARENT TO NO-ONE HAD TO LEAVE THESE BEHIND THE GHOSTS OF MY LIFE HOW TO LEAVE THESE BEHIND THE GHOSTS OF MY LIFE THE GHOSTS OF MY LIFE AND SLOWLY THE BONES TURN TO DUST AND SLOWLY THE BONES ARE NO LONGER US
2.
Paranormal at Birth 03:53
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WELL AT FIRST AT FIRST COMES A BIRTH AND LOOK AT ME NOW HERE IN A PHOTOGRAPH IT’S ME ONE MONTH AND A DAY HERE IT’S ME AND LOOK AT ME NOW WHAT DOES IT SAY CLOSER AND WHAT IS THE DATE OH BABY WHAT HAPPENED OH BABY WHAT HAPPENED IT’S HIM LET IT HAPPEN AND YOU DID LET IT HAPPEN AND A SPIRIT SAYS WHAT IS THE DATE NOW READY OH READY IT’S COMING AND IT’S ALL SO STRANGE AND IT’S ALL SO
3.
High School Damage 04:09
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WAIT HERE BY THE FENCE DON’T MOVE UNDRESSING IN FRONT OF ASSEMBLED UNIFORMED CHILDREN YOU ARE NOT OF CORPOREAL FORM ANYMORE OOH THEY’LL TRIP YOU UP AND YOU NO LONGER FALL YOU ARE NOW JUST AIR JUST AIR PASSING THROUGH WALLS NO LONGER CAN DO HARM TO YOU
4.
Lost Youth 01:44
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5.
The Basement 03:36
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IT SAYS IN MY STUDIO SPACE KEEP GOING AND THEN HOW DID I DIE OR ELSE BE QUIET I’M INVISIBLE NOW I’M INVISIBLE NOW A SON TO THEM IT SAYS HOW WITH CAUTION IT SAYS HOW WITH CAUTION A SACRIFICE SAYS AGAIN KEEP GOING SAYS AGAIN KEEP GOING TO THE BASEMENT WHERE IS IT AND THEN IT SAYS TAKE A KNIFE A DOOR WILL OPEN THERE
6.
Dumb Love 04:20
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AND SO I GO BACK TO A HOUSE THAT HAS MEMORIES SO MANY IN THE WALLS AND BEFORE HE EVEN CAME ALONG THE GHOST OF HIS NAME APPEARS TO ME DUMB LOVE IT WAS SUCH A DUMB LOVE DUMB LOVE IT WAS SUCH A DUMB LOVE AND I REMEMBER AND I REMEMBER A NAME HE COMES TO ME MARK MY WORD IN THIS HOUSE WITH A 3 AND A 5 AND SOMEONE STARING AT ME THROUGH THE WINDOW IT SEEMS DUMB LOVE IT WAS SUCH A DUMB LOVE
7.
Ghost of Bully 01:53
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8.
All Alone on the Stage Tonight 03:52
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IN ’87 I FOUND A DOOR OPENING IN ’87 I WALKED ONTO A DARKENED FLOOR AND I SAW A SHADOW OF MYSELF NOW RETURN HEY HEY A SHADOW WALK ONTO LOW LOWER OH A SHADOW OF MYSELF DIG DEEP DIG DEEPER ALONE WHAT DOES IT SAY NOW WHAT DOES IT SAY NOW BEHIND YOU BEHIND YOU
9.
It's Behind You 02:19
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AGE WELL MY DARLING AND AVOID ALL MIRRORS AND DON’T LOOK BEHIND YOU
10.
Leaving Love 01:22
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11.
The Dead Speak Back 03:21
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WHEN I ENTERED THE CINEMA WHERE MY BODY ONCE LAY AND I MADE A PERFORMANCE BUT YOU KICKED ME IN THE BACK NOW THE SPIRIT BOX SAYS YOU MUST EXIT PECULIAR THAT AND THE DEAD SPEAK BACK WITH CAROLINE AND MILES IN THE KITCHEN HE NEVER CAME BACK IT WAS MICHAEL’S VOICE ON THE SOUNDTRACK AND MY OWN A DISAPPOINTMENT A FILM PROJECTED UP THERE ON A BIG SCREEN AND SUCH A SMALL LIFE JUST KICKED IN THE BACK WHAT MEMORIES OF A DEAD PERFORMANCE ARE LEFT
12.
Writing a Song 03:05
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WRITING A SONG TELLS YOU THIS I’M NOT DEAD YET BUT IF I AM I AM A GHOST SINGING BACK IN YOUR HEADPHONES OR STEREO SPIRIT SONG THAT I SUNG FOR YOU AND WROTE IT DOWN PRESSED RECORD FOR YOU SO AS NOT TO DIE AT LEAST AT THE TIME TO WRITE A SONG TO STAY ALIVE
13.
The Studio 02:14
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14.
The Act of Disappearing 02:18
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SAY CAN YOU SEE OH A SPIRIT STANDS THERE BEFORE ME AND DISAPPEARS NOW CAN YOU FIND NO SIGNAL THERE OR THE GHOST OF A CHANCE DANCE WITH ME DANCE WITH ME
15.
The Dead Dig Deeper 02:30
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FALSE MEMORY WHAT’S FOLLOWING ME
16.
The Quiet 01:36
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17.
The River 03:17
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AND SO I VISITED THE RIVER WHERE WALKING WAS DONE SOMETIME BEFORE AND NOW AND THEN WHEN HE AND I WERE LOVERS JUST A SHADOW ON THE WATER AN ECHO OF CONVERSATION SEEMS DEAD TO ME NOW AT THE RIVER THE TREES THEY KNOW AND COULDN’T CARE LESS
18.
The Bedroom 06:08
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IMAGINE ME SLEEPING HERE IN THIS BEDROOM IT’S HAUNTED HERE WITH NOISES OF DUMB LOVE THE SHAPE OF HIS BODY IS MERELY A CURVE EMBEDDED ON SHEETS HIS BODY GETS BURIED IN MEMORY PASSING THROUGH WALLS DO YOU HEAR HIM NOW I THINK HE’S FOLLOWING I THINK HE’S FOLLOWING I THINK HE’S FOLLOWING

about

Corporeal is a collection of songs from the live performance work of the same name. A soundtrack mapping personal ghosts.

Haunted by the past 51 years of my life, I wanted to revisit the many places that have been sites of heartbreak, of queer love, of trauma, of old houses I’ve lived in, of the places in which I’ve performed my music.

I wanted to ask myself: can personal ghosts at sites of memory, loss and grief have something to say or offer the haunted body and mind?

For this album I started working with paranormal audio investigation tools such as a Spirit Box, the GhostTube apps, electronic voice phenomena and other immersive techniques in order to generate sound and lyrics.

Using all of this raw paranormal material I then set about composing tracks using various electronic instruments such as vinyl and turntables, a bass guitar, old microphones, a VoiceBox pedal, a 10 track mixing desk with in-built effects, drum machines, a Nord synth, then I put it all into a SP404A Roland sampler and pressed record.

I wanted to ask these ghosts of mine: Are you still following me after all of these years? What haunts this corporeal body? What ghosts remain in our lives as we age? Is there something inherently queer about an interest in the spirit world?

The 18 tracks on this album span songs, soundscapes and spoken word interludes. The lead track introduces the listener to the idea of the fragility and performativity of the corporeal body. One day we will all be dust. Maybe the bones remain? So then, who am I performing for in life? Who is my audience? Was I always haunted, even before I emerged as a sentient being into the world?

Singing as if from the paranormal beyond. Singing back to the shape of a former queer self, aged beyond recognition, another life lived in the shadows of one’s personal ghosts. Now walking through life devoid of corporeal matter. These days it’s just me and my spirit box.

- Sweeney, 2023

“Beyond music, beyond the very concept of disc, beyond form: for almost an hour Jason Sweeney - Australian composer, active since 1996 both as a soloist and in various projects, including Panoptique Electrical - plays the role of a ferryman souls, or of a medium, if you prefer, a link between the realm of shadows and the land of confusion we inhabit.

Waiting for answers that will never arrive to always uncomfortable questions, "Corporeal", on the Sound In Silence label, draws a gloomy, leaden, obscure, haunting picture in the strict sense: built on sounds, lyrics and textures inspired and generated by tools used for investigations into the paranormal, it takes its cue from a dark world for a long investigation of the self, which becomes a meditation on the before and after, a secret passage between the mind and its possibilities, a liason between very distant or very close worlds.

It alternates dreamy dilations with ecstatic passages, interspersed with intense recitatives that act as a narrative glue; crossed by trembling impulses (“Dumb love”), field recordings, scattered interferences (“Paranormal at birth”), intermittent beats (“The basement”, “It's behind you”, “The dead dig deeper”), unfinished melodies. The album perfects its plot without ever revealing itself completely, hidden behind the screen of a stratified, multifaceted, iridescent expressiveness. Elusive and cryptic, it wanders sibylline on the wings of soft and diaphanous harmonies, often punctuated by a subtle restlessness, with Jason's deep crooning to evoke countless ghosts and awaken ancestral fears (“The dead speak back”).

Nebulous atmospheres remain suspended in mid-air, hanging from the invisible thread of elegant electronics, floating against the background of opaque scenarios, enriched by contrasting feelings and a general climate of inescapable loom, amplified by memories of David Sylvian, Matt Howden, David Tibet. Improper to speak of songs: it is rather a magma of sounds – refined, elegant, fluid – which act as a substrate for dense and evocative texts. The milieu is at the same time alienating and falsely relaxing, but not serene: it transmits disturbance ("Writing a song"), induces an elusive affliction ("The act of disappearing"), suggests reflections and agitates thoughts, while leading through the meanders of the psyche aboard a precariously balanced lifeboat.

The destination of the journey remains mysterious, the panorama around preserves a grey desolation intact; sad and well present, incorporeal entities stand beside us, mute.” (Manuel Maverna, Music Map, Italy, June 2023)

credits

released May 1, 2023

Written, performed, produced and recorded by Sweeney on Kaurna Country October 2022 - February 2023. Sleeve image star: Jarrod Takle.

Mastered by George Mastrokostas in Athens, Greece.

Instruments: Vinyl + Turntable • Bass Guitar • P-SB7T Spirit Box • GhostTube app • Field Recordings and Found Sounds • SM58 Microphone • Voice Box Pedal • Memory Boy Pedal • 10 track mixing desk with effects • SP404A Roland sampler • Holy Grail Pedal • Ableton Live 11 • Piano

Supported by Arts South Australia.

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Observable Universe Recordings / Sweeney image

Observable Universe Recordings / Sweeney Australia

A record label based for music by Sweeney and associates. Based on Kaurna Country.

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