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Hyperion Drive

by Hyperion Drive

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1.
Your Arms 05:21
real your arms are real but if your heart’s not in it why go on trying to win it when I can’t get behind me you remind me to breathe and so my understanding deepens keep me here (I want to revolve you) under my (like you are the sun) skin light bare (with feet caked in mud can) naked and (I face the sun) intimate (or have you left my reach) I’m giving over keep me here (I want to revolve you) feet on the (like you are the sun) ground no fear (with feet caked in mud can) we can lie down (I face the sun) down (I’m falling)
2.
there’s no sense in you if I tried to strip away all the fabric that your motives lay I’d find a blackened lump which I wouldn’t even try to touch it would make me want to lose my lunch now hear me you are terrified of a loving hand and you don’t understand you have no plan but you still stomp around in boots you’ve filled with all of your loneliness your lack of thrill you are the fuck-up you are the threat you are the system you are the debt my mouth will find your warmth again it seeks you it won’t be itself while it needs you beggar and yet it chose you it lets you know it won’t let you go far hold on hard be on your way and it will keep you even so close closer hungry receives you leave it to leak in and fully it eats you believe when all of your meat it relieves you and equal to its weight in gold is its worth as an ass to an egg it will warm you and hatch you and always in its arms will house you my mouth will be full of you what have I become a bulls head on my neck has sprung from all the hatred that my chest has strung and I am so confused I don’t get why you take the view that you own another’s choice to do just what they want from their deepest house the place where love is born inside all of us the place you’ve frozen you house no harmony you are the sound of dead skin and jealous I am astounded you just don’t get it you are the threat you are the system you are the debt how come every time you speak its filled with daggers how come every call you make is for your own swagger how can I make real with you if lay behind that hateful shaking mass is a child that died
3.
Face Forward 05:01
I left early (I’m sick of the demon nights that I choose to attend) I left no note (step down the starlit block trying to mend) I said to myself (all the pathways in my head as though I found a map) I have no hope (to a place with a time machine or a place where I can nap) I deserve nothing (I don’t deserve this) I don’t get what I deserve (oh god) I have time ahead (I am not) I face forward I looked up and (4AM and I’m in my bed but my head is on a wheel) I saw the stars (can’t seem to fall asleep what an ugly way to feel) I saw myself in them (outside there are several stars falling to the ground) I stepped off (how strange that those falling stars never seem to make a sound)
4.
I am keeping things from you you see me weak with hunger but I’m patient so I’m comfortable and I am overflowing with love for you big open arms digging in but your mass is dwindling gravity thinning unbounded I’m swimming but there are other small bodies in space if you don’t contain me I’ll go seek my pleasure away in an orbit dependent on some other sun so untether me let me pleasure me only I’ll give over let open a better me talk of a better day it will be better this way another small body in space and I will travel I will be lost I’ll try the language I will get closer to me and I’ll be savage I will be tall I’ll let it get lavish I need a culture to bathe in water to wade in you can’t stomach it I don’t need things from you I’ve had my fill I am full of you and I’ll take what I have you and I give over ownership of you keep all your tender and all of your soap even contained I’m to hungry a ghost and I’m going breathe if I could just breathe I’d know what I need to defeat the king whose will makes the habits of my mind breathe if I could just breathe I’d know what I need to strip away the nagging thoughts that make a hostage of my mind
5.
and who we loved before we met and what we had already left forget and when it looked like all we’d want and when we knew we’d never get and who we keep within our heads
6.
did you mean to make me smaller make me fit where it felt safe contained just in case I fucked you over again you were ready not to be affected by it I forgot you needed me but you were too weak to reach out and I too angry at your desertion that I pretended I didn’t need you I rely on your reflection too much I know but you are guilty of it too and you already decided you’d never forgive me so I play out what you have written me to do what’s the point we build it up and let it fall we know we have no power at all
7.
your hands are not clean either your mouth is open unforgiving I’ve already said everything the desk with you bent over the scented soap on your skin I’ve already had everything from a bitter hold I report the mold that I feel but in my sunken heart I am apart of the steal I cannot fix the maze the hallways all lead to walls there is no path beyond the angry wand that points at the swollen guts of the thieves home lays my body down belonging home but I cannot unplug the longing just the other day I thought I found my way to the milk and honey with rolling hills and happy pills and fluffy bunnies when I put out the call the demons I grew came up from the stew with smiling lace they kissed my face and drove their icy sword my gut
8.
turn me over (wooden heart) I’m a new leaf (I promise) encounter me (no more hide) bring your best foot (I’ll walk true) put it forward (love the dancing) I am turning (of your leaves) I followed you hear and the air is thin and your arms are thinner than I remember my bones can feel the chill I can’t hold us both up should I find my own way down could I separate from you now you feel like you’ve been here before but I can’t believe you would be here again you could be here again my head is lighter than I need the grass was green at sea I was built for sea I’ll wait hear for it, I am turning.

about

Hyperion Drive is an electronic band of settings, a singing duo of dreamed up places at the edge of a flattened Earth - their music comes from a verdant holler nestled deep in the mountains, it comes from a sheet-metal-walled former auto garage underneath the Manhattan Bridge, it comes from a tiny clapboard house in a stony New England field, it comes from a Pacific shoreline. Or, rather, the music lives transmissions between these settings, in echoes and emails, in drum machine radio signals ever bouncing out and up into a deep dark universe, as much about outer space as the space between two people.

Alice Tolan-Mee (New Yorker, teacher) and Ethan Woods (Alaskan, arborist) - the two cosmonauts that make up this project - first met as students at a semi-notorious college in Bennington, Vermont where they found that their voices and temperaments braided nicely. They became friends and collaborators and their lives and work continued to intertwine when they then both lived in New York, singing in various ensembles and arrangements (Anawan / Trevor Wilson Vocal Ensemble, the Essential Prayers Project, Rokenri, Ocean Music, to name a few). Though much of the music they performed together is centered on singing, Ethan began dipping his toe into experimentations with samplers and other electronics - flipping little phrases of piano inside out, programming head-bopping drum beats, inventing new words from mashed together sounds - just as life would take Alice out to California and Ethan down to Asheville. Wanting to keep their braid of friendship and work intact - and wanting to dive fully into music made with digital tools - Ethan and Alice bounced the music back and forth over email, fleshing out what was becoming a futuro soap opera, songs translated a dozen times over across satellite bounces. When they finally convened to finish this first iteration of their project they did so at the Cabbage School, a farming education collective in the rolling hills of North Carolina. The result is sleek and slinky, pop hooks buried in bits of icy asteroid debris, two voices hurtling in orbit in a vessel held together by chewing hum. They named themselves after space age warp speed and for the greek god of dawn, their music describes a life lost in the dark cold of the cosmos but where there's always a sun rising, somewhere.

credits

released November 21, 2019

All songs written and produced by Alice Tolan-Mee and Ethan Woods

Trevor Wilson provided additional samples on Your Arms

Matt Evans provided additional drum programming on FORGET/Our Heads

Make Me Smaller contains a sample of Amphibious Assault by Dewanatron

Of Your Leaves contains two field recordings of wind recorded by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk)

Vocals were recorded at The Cabbage School in Leicester, NC

Everything else was recorded at Pickles’ Place in Asheville, NC

Album art by Alice Tolan-Mee and Ethan Woods

Design and layout by Benedict Kupstas

Special thanks to Lauren for the constant support and feedback given throughout this process

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Whatever's Clever Brooklyn, New York

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