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Download the mp3 of Underneath (5.5 meg)
Sample four bars of Underneath (300k mp3)
"This piece was inspired by Claire Fayers' Are You Still There, Underneath? It is reproduced here with kind permission.
Are You Still There, Underneath? Below the surface of the light-spun green
Is the old world still there? Or will you find
Salt water merely stings the eyes with might-have-been?
Somewhere the rocks must make bold faces in your mind,
For fin-flash anger darts above the spears
Of the old wreck. But even deeper still there winds
A moving mass of shapeless, nameless fears
That raise their heads and whip their tails and moan.
Look closer: through a scattering of dead ideas
The milky-yellow gleam of salt-scrubbed bone
Shows cold beneath the drifting seaweed thought.
And brittle, coral pride cuts through in undertone.
Where is she now - the mermaid? Once I caught
A glimpse of her beside the emerald blue.
Did you forget her too, for life, dear-bought
Has little time for dreaming? Oh, but once you knew
The pirate gold was there for you to take.
Once, once, your dreams below the surface all came true.
Can you remember now? Or have the wakes
That passing ships stamp hard across the tide
Sold you the lie that all there is is what they make?
Have you forgotten in your quest from side to side?
The sea is deeper far than it is wide.
Copyright C.Fayers 1998
"The piece flows from the original loping 15/8 bass line. This was fleshed out into a piece called
Breathe in a band called Earthblood that barely survived two rehearsals, leaving the idea on the
shelf until I read Claire's poem. This gave me a very clear rhythmic emphasis for a tune and
the rest of the piece wrote itself.
"The introit is full of pomp, the crashing of the wild sea, and a nod towards my hero,
Vaughan Williams' dramatic first bars of the Sea Symphony.
Then the main riff, which rumbles through most of the piece, with the tune cutting a wake
through the chop.
"In the middle I play a distorted solo, trying to conjure up the shapeless, nameless fears that raise their
heads and whip their tails and moan. I'm using a Washburn six-string bass and a plectrum.
Countless teachers and friendly players have told me to abandon this unconventional technique,
but I fell in love with the style when I first heard Chris Squire and have never shaken my favourite bad habit.
"There follows the gentler mermaid section, then a reprise and finally the merging of
introit and riff in a noisy ending."