Luz e Sombra - the lyrics

Minas Gerais/Brasil, May 2023

There's No Escape

It's such an indistinct feeling

bright flames are burning deep underneath

and as they crawl up to the ceiling

I feel them pouring right into me

We are human, so fragile and clueless

And maybe none of us chose this life 

or then gets stranded in no man's land

Watch that steady stream,

it's such a curious scene

Yet some day you may see it through

We are human, obsess with useless things, get deluded

And if you wanted to escape,

you will see that there's no way out 

You gotta stick to the plan

or you'll get overrun

So hard to stand your ground

No chance to turn our eyes away

You can not just sit this one out

But if you dig deep through this ragged surface, 

you soon will find nothing's just as it seems

We are human, insatiable and cruel

And you're just one more time around

No chance to turn your eyes away

You better stick to their dirty plan

or you'll get overrun

So hard to stand your ground now

and then there's no one out there 

who would just stop all this madness

Wake Them Up

Think they're safe and sound

by the way they drag themselves around

Seems that all gods children just can't relate

It's such a pity to me

how much they'll miss in this life

if they won't start to listen to what they really feel

Hey don't wake them up,

when they prefer to sleep all their life's away

and it's all they got,

make sure the doors are shut

Who sleeps cannot be no sinner

I know y'all won't do no wrong

but then it's time to arise

Hey don't wake them up,

when they prefer to sleep all their life's away

and it's all they got,

please never give them up

And when you roam through these filthy streets,

look at every odd face that you meet

with all the scars that they wear on their minds

and all the hopes that they'd scrapped

While getting stuck on some part of their odyssey,

it just occured to me that all this suffering could end

Hey don't wake them up

when they prefer to sleep all their life's away

and it's all fucked up,

yet so hard to break out

Hey, go wake them up!

Luz e Sombra

Deep inside of you,

there's a void you can't break through

Before the world comes falling in, 

gotta find another way

and if you really want to know,

you'll find the truth

One Endless Summer

I've wasted away so many precious days

while looking at parts of my old life,

then it all just turns into a blur

All the reasoning done with myself

and the feelings I'd trapped on my inside

have lead to this endless summer,

here by your side

Fading away,

in these hungry flames of our youth

The spirit will always remain,

so don't you cry

Like after every hard rain, shines the sun,

yes even after death, life goes on

You'll see that some of these startling things 

seem to depend on what you have learned

And don't you chase 'em away,

both demons and angels are a part of truth,

as you will see that golden age arise

 

We're only trapped in sweet forever babe

Leaving Samsara

Though we weren't born to touch the sky, well we did

and all the trails that we've left behind still tell our tale

Just by following a call from inside,

we climbed a mountain, stood against the rain

with our raging hearts

These wounds must heal and all the pain I feel

The fussing and useless discussing will come to an end

We fell victim for our own foolish pride,

got lost in delusion and fear

After all you'll see that I am still here

By myself, I'm here in these strange new world,

but I still cling to this voice,

that tells me now it's not what I thought,

tells me how I'm not made of gold

Was looking for peace, or finally some freedom,

the same as you,

hoping for something to enlighten me 

or just sets me free

Alone, I'm staring at the face of the world

in all its beauty and all its disgust,

with all the anger, that is still inside of me

And then the rain, is getting stronger every day,

while none of all this is real

The sooner I come to realize,

will drive my demons away

Sometimes I linger in all the memories,

that seem like a fever dream

At times I rather push them away, much farther away

But they've become such an undeniable part of me

and I know that it wasn't all just in vain

And no, I can not deny,

insight and guilt transcend me

when we'll meet, just one more time

Did you enjoy the silence?

Since the nerve-wrecking fights and the tensions are gone

You still don't know if it was for glory, or self-deceit

I feel you staring at me with a frown,

while that old relentless clock is marching on

You already knew I gotta keep pushing further 

and follow my calling, and maybe break through

Love In Progress

In the beginning it's all sorcery,

our names written in cloudless skies,

a love so untouched, and so pure,

but that's just half the truth -

cause when you'll awake,

with every nervous breath you take,

dark memories come crashing in

Oh babe it ain't over,

we both just came a little further,

cause out back home there is no one,

to teach about our own truth

But anyway,

I didn't come here just to make you sad

I know the rain

will wash all your sorrows away

So let him cleanse your soul now,

come let us float away

No babe it ain't over,

we both are just a little older

and out back there is really no one,

to understand me like you do

You didn't pick the wrong one

Let's wait until we both are sober

Inflamed like this we'll never see

of what we've stumbled into

Oh babe it ain't over,

we both just came a little further now,

cause out back home there is no one,

to teach about our own truth

Learning To Live, And Live Again

Oh, it's just another lazy afternoon,

but i'm ready to hear - the next lesson

And while everything's been shut down, 

I've been learning to live, and live again

with all these people so insincere

Oh well I guess they're still slumbering,

mending their pain

This whole wide world is still in such a mess

I'm so glad for the voices of reason, 

rising above all the same old nothing

We gotta search for the truth in our hearts, 

to find the key for love and trust,

as it's time for these to reign

Yeah sometimes it may drag you down,

but then it's just such a waste of time,

waiting for everyone else to change their minds

There's many ways to go through this short life

To find a way out of all this distress,

we'll better listen again - to our own inner voices

World In Sound (Pt.2)

Following up on the first part of my little write up about the World In Sound-label, I would like to mention some of the outstanding new groups there. Even though I have to admit that I'm not as euphoric about all of them as I am about the older groups, there are some gems there, which for some reason are still hardly known. 

Well, to lift a secret, you don't just need cool songs or maybe a reasonably appealing look (also the artworks etc matter, you know). If you want to make it as a musician, you also need a lot of dedication and longevity! It takes years to get to a point where you can say something is successful or not. And before you have that financial success, you're basically living on dry bread and spaghetti with ketchup ;) having a job you probably despise while trying "to make it" and spending all your free time touring and playing ... but anyway ... here are a few groups I'd like to recommend to you if you can find the time.

BUDDHA SENTENZA - instrumental stoner with progression

These guys are really good! They've had two albums on WIS before moving on to another label, probably hoping for something more professional :) and I hope they found it. It's tough in the music world, a lot seems to depend on luck too, or being in the right place at the right time, and I wish they make it soon. They deserve it!

KIRKBINSINEK - Turkish Prog-Psych

Well, another strange group that decided to sing in Turkish, which is great, but may not open up a bigger market for them, maybe they don't even want that. However, the album they released on WIS is very cool and I would recommend you to listen to it if you are into this kind of "experiments", but maybe you have already heard of Erkin Koray, or new groups like Altin Gun?

POSTURES - Swedish hipsters with a knack for Prog?

When the demo for their debut album arrived at WIS mailbox, I immediately told Wolf to should release it because most of it is just stunningly beautiful music and I was excited about this and told all of my three friends about it. For some reason, though, the band didn't last too long, which is a shame...

SATURNA - Retro Heavy Rock from Spain

Super professional band, as it has always seemed to me. For some reason things didn't click so well with WIS and they switched to another label after this album. I would rank them much higher than many of the more popular Retro Rock-groups out there in Europe, probably because they really are the better musicians ... I hope they find (more) success!

SUN AND THE WOLF - from New Zealand to Berlin

Another one of my personal favorites and suggestions for Wolf when he was pretty clueless about what new band deserved our attention. These guys had great songs and a lot of stage presence, but for some reason they didn't really hit the nerve of the larger Stoner/Psychedelic-crowd and therefore probably gave up, too soon ... a real pity!

IMAAD WASIF - has just all the Rock Star - material!

I'm immensely proud that WIS released one of Imaad's early albums that will forever be among my highlights of new releases from 2010 to the present. For some reason, though, it seems to remain an insider's tip, like too many others - there's just so much music out there I guess ... this skinny Indian dude's music you should have heard, though!

And then on a side note: Samsara Blues Experiment's "Revelation & Mystery" wasn't that bad of an album too ;) I always thought it has all that made other bands "big" (maybe more) but people still genuinely love the debut and then, not so much ... I can't complain though. Danke Wolf, fuer alles!

Is your World In Sound? (Pt.1)

Okay, this is going to be a bit of a biased post, as I've been "more or less" lucky to work with and for the German World In Sound-label for quite some time now. And I say more or less because as with many things, there are pros and cons to being a musician myself and also working in the biz. To be clear: WIS is great! You can find a plethora of super cool, often unheard musicians and bands there, if you have patience to discover these for yourself ... which I sometimes think is becoming a lost art, to have patience. 

And working with WIS, you need even more of that same, patience ;) There may be more "professional" labels who may have better distribution, big ole' ads in music papers, music videos and all that fancy stuff, but a lot of them probably don't have half the heart of the guy behind this little WIS-organization, who is a guy named Wolf with a voice like the same ;) a guy who fits in kind of nicely with all this "craziness" here.

So, all I wanted to do with this little post is introduce a few of the amazing artists that are united under the umbrella of WIS, since there are many, it may help to have a starting point. WIS is basically divided into two branches, stuff from the past (60-80s) and new groups. Pretty much all of it is worth a music lover's attention, I swear ... Some of my personal highlights from the classics would be the following:

FRED - the best band, the biggest enigma

It is quite a miracle that WIS in deep rural Germany was the first and only label to release this early US psych-prog highlight! A band from Pennsylvania that never released much during their active period in the 1970s, which is very strange since this is a really great group with similarities to King Crimson, or Frank Zappa including a wonderful wailing violin as in It's a Beautiful Day.

DARIUS a.k.a. the Psychedelic King

This guy is one of the absolute mysteries for me, with two great albums, a truckload of talent and great musicianship, yet remained a total underdog. Fans of The Doors must really love his stuff, at least I do, so give this a spin ...

FEAR ITSELF - female fronted psych was big at WIS, long before it became a trend

Among several female fronted psychedelic bands on the WIS label, this is the standout featuring the amazing Ellen McIlwaine, who (like many others) never made it past a sort of insider tip status, despite being pretty much in league with other acid rock singers of the era. Her backing band was a bit sloppy though, well, that has its own charm for me ...

GOLDENROD - forefathers of Earthless?!

Maaan, seriously check these freaks out! A late 60's band formed by amazing studio musicians who worked with the aforementioned Darius, but also with "the King" Elvis Presley himself, The Doors, The 5th Dimension and others. Maybe that already speaks for itself, but this album is really a trip, a kind of Blue Cheer with better sound and musicianship maybe?

CLIMAX - Hooray for South America!

There were also quite a few early South American proto-prog releases on WIS. Bands like Modulo 1000, Laghonia and then Climax, which, at least for me, are the highlight of these. The opening track alone is worth getting into this rare recording. Great rhythms and relentless fuzz guitar will get you excited!

The oddballs: HAMANA, MICHAEL JAMES, MARCUS and more

This is kind of the wildest part of WIS, Loner Acid Folk in all its beautiful obscurity. If you're looking for something different from all the rest, which is still a wonderful part of an almost forgotten universe - ... and I could say that for pretty much all WIS releases, old and new - Dig in! 

And there are so many more true psychedelic gems like THE ID, DRAGONWYCK, MYSTIC SIVA, THE HEADSHOP, JEFF SIMMONS etc, see also www.worldinsound.com and no, I won't get paid for this post ;) I really am quite proud of being part of this crazy trip!

Paraíso achado

Influences: Mammatus

Probably the biggest influence of any new band throughout the last 15 years was this "little odd band" (should be huge IMHO) from Santa Cruz County: MAMMATUS. And even tho when I say this I mean just basically their first and second album which in some way showed me that music can be kind of weird and still rocking and exciting, and doesn't have to follow any kind of stereotypical pattern at all - even though at times with SBE I think we exaggerated when we were adding part after part after part in just one song, but yeah; big influence this. 

I even tried to convince Mammatus to play a show with Samsara in SF on our first US-tour in 2009, but this didn't work out. Their rare stage appearances may be a crucial part of why they aren't more known. Nevertheless, they're a very unique band in many regards. Their drummer with his synthesizer project WAPITI later also influenced me to do my Surya-stuff. Lots of creativity here, and I'm only guessing but Mammatus seem to be influenced from Japanese 70s music like Osamu Kitajima, and Isao Tomita in particular - which are other faves of mine too.

Return to the farm (Pt.2)

Return to the farm (Pt.1)

Influences: Bland Bladen "I Grevens Tid" (2003)

While I am working on new tracks for a Surya Kris Peters-album, for some time later this year perhaps, I found a similarity to a band that I almost forgot: Bland Bladen. And here's a funny thing, I never really listened that much to this kind of jam music, long guitar noodling or pretty much anything that Samsara probably became sort of notorious for - LOL ... Well, I may have went through a rather short phase when I liked such stuff and maybe that was around the time this four track-album fell into our hands, and I say "our" because actually this CD mysteriously landed in the hands of former Terraplane singer/bassist Chris Oelke when we played at Stoned From The Underground-festival in 2003. And yes in a way Terraplane already played extended jams occasionally, when pretty much no one had a clue what was going on. Also the ultra-long version of Zepp'lins "Dazed And Confused" always left us with lots of oohs and aahs, but anyways that was pretty much that. Remember the very early 2000s were also a time when streaming, or even decent downloading was pretty much non-existent, so you listened to the CDs you had and for us that was a lot of Zepp'lin, Hendrix, Canned Heat's "Parthenogenesis and then this mysterious Bland Bladen-band from Sweden that went though lots of spins in our Harz mountain-homes.