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The Quick of the Heart

by Quinta

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1.
Taking the long way round Riding her bike along roads filled with sleepwalkers woken by lights in the sky they can't fathom Great branches are down and the gutters and kerbs filled with pools of rainwater This storm with a name which she yearned for has caught her She's slightly undone as she thinks of the swirling wind brewing, and blowing her future wide open, But she likes the view and in a way it feels new enough Pedalling onward Her gunmetal clouds fight with sunlight that blazes on brick walls and houses, She knows that the waiting is over, the waiting is over, the time is October, the waiting is over She's high now, and closer, impossible energies lifting her wheels and then floating her past all the rooftops the office blocks, bus stops and treetops, feels stars in her coat, no more fear in her throat
2.
You are the most wonderful thing Lift me I can’t stand on that foot I jumped from a height and cut myself But I’m the 99 cents that buys the book Trust me, I’ll make a midnight theft but I’ll get off the hook I’ll meet you later, a cafe corner, did you get my letter? Astragal Oh my lover, oh my lover You know I’d die or kill for you Dutiful guest, past undercover You know I’ll just lie still for you My liberty weighs heavy on me I’d rather be inside, I’d rather me inside, I’d rather you inside me Astragal You are the most wonderful thing
3.
Guido 04:23
Your hex plays an open hand I see no tricks and coins You map your music here With five fingertips And I just sing your tune Do Re Mi Fa May be I’ll remember The way that things are still May be I’ll know the song before You feel the thrill Do Re Mi Fa So La
4.
Embryo 04:12
5.
Blood 05:15
Telegraph high wire Holds hundreds of tiny birds All facing the sun He drives to you He drives to you smiling Now four are five He cannot wait to speak it You made a sister With your tiny fingers crossed She drives with you She ’s silently crying Her red eyes melt She almost cannot speak it This autumn blue It’s so nice to be home You saved your sister When you’d thought that all was lost Your whole brain Is filled with blood When you love Telegraph high wire Holds hundreds of tiny birds All facing the sun
6.
Sometimes when we’re too tired to speak And when it’s early morning I hear you talking in your sleep You think you guard the silence of the deep And sometimes if it’s early morning If it’s too dark to see your hands I watch the dryness of your mouth And know that nothing will come out We feel each other change direction distantly We’re breathing water in like swimmers lost at sea Sometimes if it’s too dark for words You wake from dreams that I have left you If I can’t speak I say don’t cry don’t cry don’t cry it’s just the night But then I scare myself with thinking quietly That it’s my own silence I’m guarding carefully That when your eyes are fully open That when your hopes are broken It’s you who’ll be the one to leave me
7.
8.
Subsong 02:53
You are pale blue and I am white I speak from the left and you from the right I sing but think you’ll break my little fork in two I hold the cup up, try to hear And think of long strings making near Our hearts and ears are made of threes That’s how we beat the dinosaurs I’m wasting air on empty flight Not sure the gift will last the night The hottest stars are blue So why cold me and why cold you? No vaster habitat could make So small a view, so deep an ache We’ve change the world you see, But stayed the same, in you in me We’ve changed the world You’ve changed my world But stayed the same, away from me
9.
An Elf Ring 06:25
There was a ring beneath a tree Wherein a music charmed so easily Around we danced, ran widdershin Our hands held fast, we ventured deepest in Consumed by light, we disappeared And now can’t tell a moment from a year Can’t break, can’t move this rock, this bed, We are the dancing when we are the dead Unseen to all but to each other Caught in this light, in this cover Tell me, are we made or maker You’re my madness and my hunger There was a ring beneath a tree Wherein a music charmed so painfully It’s now our feet that mark the grass That the make the line we cannot seem to pass
10.
Doctor Eric told me twice A story with two different endings Of a man who fought a storm But just one ending saw him listening Play for me please play for me With lungs that never want for air Once there is a fear of falling There will be no freedom there Before the bow must come a stick To hold it is exaggeration Strength is not just of one kind Can just be catching of momentum Little Karen, quarter size Your fingers inching like an earthworm Moving circles and elipses Taking you from string to string. Did Yehudi tell you Karen Of the man who fought the weather? Did Yehudi know my doctor Did a storm bring them together Give up to that motion that you study that you’re cultivating Throwing is one single impulse Then the missile does the rest Little Karen, though you’re small You’ll find things are the way you tell them Because your little space existed You’ll have a concert just for one.

about

The latest record from London-based experimental composer and multi-instrumentalist Quinta.

Always richly inventive with sound, Quinta takes us piano adventuring in this new record. Discovering incredible variety in piano sounds during the record’s making, with instruments ranging from a Romberg character piano through a white-painted Co-operative Society ‘piano of the people’ to a Steinway Model A, Quinta worked first only with pianos, and then with keyboards more generally, both at home and away- even as far as Portland’s Old Church where on tour with Radiohead's Philip Selway, she recorded herself playing the venue’s resplendent pipe organ before soundcheck. She created numerous homemade sample sets for the record, including one made from the sounds of a piano tuner twanging one of her own instruments back to its full glory, and the album is lush with imaginative electronics and processing. Her trademark strings are in the mix too, and Quinta plays virtually all the instruments you hear on the record. With a steady intelligence in her story-telling lyrics, and a movingly unaffected singing voice, Quinta has created a sound world of extraordinarily powerful emotional resonance.

Praise for The Quick of the Heart:

"An utterly beautiful and magical album...full of gems from start to finish" Cast the Dice

"The kind of album that'll stop you in your tracks" [sic] Magazine

"So strikingly alien, yet brimming with such passion and humanity" Fresh on the Net

Praise for Quinta's first record, My Sister, Boudicca (Tartaruga, 2009):

“Wistful, sparse, and transportive; this record sparkles with a sense of play, of wilful originality and effortless grace.” Danny Wadeson, The 405.

“As the album comes to a close, you get the idea you’ve just been to the most peculiar recital you’re ever likely to experience. Quinta comes from a different place, and a different age. There aren’t enough albums these days that are genuinely fascinating. This one is. Cherish it.” Sam Shepherd, The Line of Best Fit.

“This is probably the strangest, most beguiling record I’ve heard in a long time. It’s hard to describe as it is so singular that comparisons are difficult and almost unhelpful. As a work of art it is wonderful: strange, beautiful and irresistibly unique.” Nick Lewis, God is in the TV.

credits

released July 10, 2017

All songs written by Quinta 
All parts performed & recorded by Quinta except for drum kit on tracks 1, 2, 6 & 9 (Alex Thomas) and bass guitar on tracks 1 & 6 (TJ Allen)
Mixed by TJ Allen at Station 7
Mastered by Shawn Joseph at Optimum Mastering
Artwork by Felicity Hickson
Cover photography by Beth Crosland
For song info and lyrics, visit www.quinta.me

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about

Quinta London, UK

Quinta is a London-based multi-instrumentalist performer, improviser and experimental composer.

She is one quarter of Collectress and works with a number of other artists.

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