Should Time Fall in Between
1. Workings of a Dream
2. Me and You
3. The Oracle
4. In the Day of Our Parting
5. I Can't Bear to Leave You
6. Mercedes
7. Starlight Threnody
8. Should Time Fall in Between
Gustav Holger, vocals, classical guitar,
electric guitar, organ, percussion, bass
(“Should Time Fall in Between”),
drums ("I Can't Bear to Leave You")
Daniel Eriksson, piano
Isak Rydh, electric bass, congas ("Me and You",
"I Can't Bear to Leave You", "Mercedes")
Sofia Haug, background vocals
Ludwig Svanerud, drums (“Workings of a Dream”,
“Me and You”, “The Oracle”, “In the Day of Our Parting”,
“Mercedes”)
Agnes Scherwin, violin
Sofia Sterne, double bass (“Starlight Threnody”)
Emil Hage, string arrangement (“Should Time Fall in Between”)
Johanna Edsgärd, viola (“Should Time Fall in Between”)
Cover photograph by Edit Nilsson.
A Subzero Annual
1. Mid-Town Hibernation
2. For Otilia
3. Chamber Music for the Night Watch
4. Sacraments of the Street
5. Pond Skating
Gustav Holger, vocals, guitar, piano, bass, drums, synths, woodwinds, string-arrangements
Cover photograph by Max Libell.
The Stockholm Study
1. Introductory Remarks
2. Lucile
3. To a Friend
4. Ode to Teachers at State-Funded Music Schools (Since I’ve Got No Leverage Concerning Your Wages)
5. To Tranströmer
6. Radio Intro
7. Telegram From Coastal Town
8. 4th Floor, Grevgatan, Slightly Offkey
9. Radio Outro
10. Grevgatan
11. Metro Transit
12. The Edge of Strandpromenaden Is Fettered to the Sky, or Nocturne for Docked Boats in Gowns of Frost, or a Victim of Indecisive Titling
13. Methodology
14. Summary
15. Night Bus
Gustav Holger, vocals, piano, guitar, drums, harmonica, organ, tambourine, string-arrangements, bass, synths, stonaphone, sleigh bells
Alma Rosendahl, vocals (“Grevgatan”)
Nora Bergsgård, background vocals, reading of poem (“To Tranströmer”)
Cover photograph by Ida Larsson.
Lyrics
Workings of a Dream
The pending tempest at my heels
“Look out, kid, you won’t last here
The ruling’s too far gone now for upheaval”
But the fire brushed the open wound
The common life gave in too soon
I’ve staked my time, not yet sure of the takingsI know that my time is fixed
Like the wanting breath of the dying day
As if light absolved in the fall eclipse
Like the workings of a dreamCan’t be long till the sparing life
Can’t be long until penance now
If I can only break from the fate of those before me
All men shall return to clay
As all rule must cease one day
I but hope to live to see atonementI know that my time is fixed
Like the wanting breath of the dying day
As if light absolved in the fall eclipse
Like the workings of a dreamEvery cast returns to clay
As every spirit folds one day
I but hope my words remain to someone
Me and You
Me and you
Got to get together
Me and you, got to have love
Me and you
We are stars in other clusters
Oh, but can't you see?
It's got to be-Me and you
We adhere still the old ways
Asking nothing beyond enough
Me and you
We hold out before our passions
But now that temperance is gone
For who could bear that very long?Me and you
We're the low voice of prayer
The paragon, the blood and spirit fused
Oh but, me and you, we're like votives that falter
We're apostates in the dark
But know we try so very hardMe and you
We're the past in its onset
We're shades burnt onto the silver prints of time
Me and you
We're the wavering constant
We're the last days in flight
Before the advent of night
The Oracle
Go find the oracle
And bring her the news
I wouldn’t like to keep her waiting
Go find the sybil for me
And tell her too
That you can’t get it right alwaysNow back in Delphi
They've got their signals crossed
They’ve got the means
But the war’s already lost
But don’t make too much of their despair
And don’t make too much of mine
Oh, for they thought to stake against me
They’ll pay for it in timeGo find the oracle
And bring her the news
I wouldn’t like to keep her waiting
Go find the sybil for me
And tell her too
That you can’t get it right alwaysThey think the gods are in their favor
But that’s only half-true
I’ve got the genius
There’s only so much they can do
They’ll trust for providence
To hold them by their side
But they shouldn’t see to old tricks
To salvage them this timeGo find the oracle
And bring her the news
I wouldn’t like to keep her waiting
Go find the sybil for me
And tell her too
That you can’t get it right alwaysSoon her omens
Will be buried in the sand
I’m no supplicant -
I guide my own hand
They’ve got the numbers
And their arms are on the move
But I’ve got the nerve still
Give them our weapons tooGo find the oracle
And bring her the news
I wouldn’t like to keep her waiting
Go find the sybil for me
And tell her too
That you can’t get it right always
In the Day of Our Parting
When the nights first froze
And distant stars hung close
We went farther still
With the seasons in their turnings
And when the first cold mists came
We were darkened still with rain
And the lives that we forewent
Must even now be waitingRemember my name
In the day of our parting
And I'll sanctify my dreams with thoughts of you
You let down your veil
With the spring-saints in mourning
‘Neath the rain-washed maples changing huesIn wisps of fog
I first vow to give us up
Sundered so far, yet I feel only now I reach you
Oh, but part still we must
The world is through with us
And soon I'll wake to find frost on my sleeves in the far mountainsYou slept in the dew
With grass for your pillow
When I still thought the vision mine to keep
And your wakened eyes were still
Slanted with shadow
When dawn scattered the blossoms of our sleepBefore the wind first wore the hills away
Before the seas or stars were made
Before our lives were bound in atrophy
And morning rent the aphotic frame
Before our spirits rose from emptiness
The ovules of our love were found
Where heaven and earth merge together at their boundWe are joined in our fate
But I am set on my passage
My heart shall never harbor
Yours again
Know I bear still your thought
Oh, would you heed mine in passing?
Should we never be
Quite as we were then
I Can't Bear to Leave You
The stars bid us wander
As we put out the flame
In the dark of the foothills
We ceded our names
And if it cannot be altered
This error of touch
Know we asked for so little
Though we wanted for much
And I can’t bear to leave you
I can't bear to leaveThe moon scattered our shadows
As mist entered our mouths
The peripherals led us
As the centre turned out
And should we fall to our yearnings
Let us hold by the vow
That it may be so always
That it may be so now
And I can’t bear to leave you
I can't bear to leave
Mercedes
I must return to Mercedes
On the seventh day in spring
As the winds probe the currents
And the paling rains begin
And if fate reverse our odds
I will recommence what wasAnd when the worlds first were parted
In the rime and failing light
And the old gods were silent
As fires clove the night
I saw time break from its course
As the past weighed down on its sourceAnd should we too go with fire
And the last front fall aside
And our fortunes split asunder
As my faults draw us behind
Then I shall bear the blame
As longing bears her nameAnd if it costs us our senses
If it costs us our will
And our days are as nothing
And the holy storm be still
If time and tide go on
Then pass us two beyond
Starlight Threnody
When the wild wheat blows
In cloaks of rain
And when our breaths come cold
And plovers part
And cross the wind
With the portent of snowWhen the bells of sleep
Still the sounds
And wash with light the heavens
And the grasses sing
With calling trills
For the ancient and the livingWhen the starlight clings
To our hollowed faces
And when our time comes
How swift our lives
How slight our fate
Against that world beyondI will take my leave
Of this world like you
To pass into the wind
And will once again
As the dew turns white
Sleep with dreams of spring
Should Time Fall in Between
The sound grows still on banks of snow
Our exhaled apparitions cast by the cold
I haven’t yet slept and the cold stars are twined
‘Bove the fall of the frost on the electrical linesI recall your eyes under veils of sleep
The revolving sparks on the face of the deep
Cloaked in remains of the world as it came
Woven with cinders, and thread’d through the flameI was called through the fog by an air unseen
The light of the pilgrim in furrows of dream
There is a veil past which we cannot see
Where the void holds the form of the world we let beOh, would you see to her, for me?
Should time fall in between
Mid-Town Hibernation
The iron pipes are frozen
‘Neath a trembling hand of snow
With the wildwood of the tin roofs
Sparsely dusted down below
And just north of the tollgates
The kids crusade the streets
Knitted caps with sticks in hand
And blades strapped to their feetAnd if you see their moments wearing out
Shut their eyes
If you hear their clocks are bleeding dry
Just let them tryAnd slippin’ through the turnstiles
Whilst adhering the mandate
The disciples of down jackets
With their middle part combed straight
Sheltered by the backwoods
Of these narrow, sunless rows
Whilst phoning for numeric port codes
As if pikers out in the snowAnd if you see their moments wearing out
Shut their eyes
If you hear their clocks are bleeding dry
Just let them tryThat down-an’-out jazzcat
Told me he moved here on a whim
But wounded in line of duty
This city sure wasn’t built for him
Now he's got a trade, and the pay’s too good
And he met some bird last year
He says he’ll fare for New York, one day
But I doubt he’ll make it thereAnd if you see their moments wearing out
Shut their eyes
If you hear their clocks are bleeding dry
Just let them try
For Otilia
With the broken shards of angels
Circling her eyes
The deep-set sleeping blue
Of the boreal skies
With the feathered mist of meadows
Woven through her curls
As though the passing spectre image
Of the endemic past unfurledWith the faintly singing sonants
Springing in her speech
The lyre-silver water
Held just beyond my reach
With the tailfeathers of Hesperus
Kindling ‘neath her skin
The slumbering horns of twilight
And her Suzuki violinWith the woodland stars sighing
To the tremor of her strings
And the dirges from the burrows
Of the resting pagan kings
With her twined flowers at midnight
As the ages interweave
With that northern, eddan angel
Flickering in between
Chamber Music for the Night Watch
The time tables mumbled as midnight prayer
Kindled butane igniting the air
Electrical lighting harnessed in pairs
As the embers still move ‘neath their handsThe etching of sound through passenger rails
Whispers of light in silvery veil
As the spectres of sleep wither and fail
And falter in softening huesCurls of tobacco adorning their heads
Their mourning veils in cartons o’ red
The wisp of the flame now depleted and dead
As they pass silent over the bridgeThe stars hang shrouded in submerging light
Chained to the skyway yet held beyond sight
As synthetic illuminance blossoms in height
Brushing the plumage of darkThe sermons of dawn yet sober in rest
Suspended in silence with flowering crests
As spark-gap transmitters of fleeting dreams nest
In the utmost hour of night
Sacraments of the Street
Boys lean out of windows
And breath nebulas of mist
The body heat they’ve woven
With the embers in their fists
And girls tend to their hair
In the bus windows at night
With their flickering reflections
In the periodic voids of lightHollowed metal carriers run
On spark-wires of steel
As beaded ropes of light unfold
And the pantographs kneel
And them light rail-pilgrimes
Sit trembling with dream
As their frozen breaths
Ascend in wreaths of steamAnd just on the flowery margin
Of mercury vapor suns
Stand creased paper-faces
With their newly solicited sums
While neat boys ask adventure
Of neon-nectar vialsWhile their deaths lay still sleeping
‘Neath the muted pave of time
As broad streams of winter stars
Float quiet between these isles
Introductory Remarks
I fold beneath the tension
Where the axes of my wishes meet my pride
And should regret know where I stand
Let my remaining time not quiver ‘neath its handGot so much to live up to
The delusions to which I tie my worth
Scorch my conscience in the snow
Agnafit, I’m comin’ home
Lucile
I let her wisps of smoke descend
The scent of them catch my clothes again
Her perishable breath
Shouldn’t have to yield with such ease
But I guess my mind does tooAnd despite that soft-spoken step of hers
And its intrinsic modesty
How her disregard erodes my words
I know that I could without her love
Without her loveDon’t weaponize that elusive spell
You know there’s no way I couldn’t tell
Or perhaps be more careful
With whom you lend your time
I guess I should be tooAnd despite that soft-spoken step of hers
And its intrinsic modesty
How her disregard erodes my words
I know that I could without her love
Without her love
To a Friend
I won’t dispute
The terms of her surrender
But I won’t upset myself
Hearing you defend herI know that she is your friend too
You’re bit by her contagious pride
And yet I expected more from you
You could’ve had the manners to play both sidesI won’t dispute
The terms of her surrender
But I won’t upset myself
Hearing you defend herYour forgiveness lends you grace
But chose carefully your pardoned
Look not to their condemned deeds
But to how they’re regardedI won’t dispute
The terms of her surrender
But I now regret
Having you befriend her
Telegram From Coastal Town
The nightly rains speak softly
The street lights toll in spite
The radio’s frantic drone is cut
As it’s tuned in to the night
Felted keys in ivory
Plays the midnight hour its psalm
And every note sends ripples
On the surface of its calmThe ancient facades shiver
Next to time’s abiding youth
Wishin’ once again to suffer
What old age works so to soothe
The women’s prior partings
Remain the last words from the yard
Where silent in the kerosene light
Sit the old men cuttin’ cardsHere man and weary weather
Have had lifetimes to reconcile
And weaves of clement sea mist
Are draped between the isles
Here the city’s gentle inlet
Acts a cradle for men at sea
And its dimly-lit concrete
Acts an old embrace for me
Grevgatan
My own qualms stand convicted
In the light of her selfless air
Amid cupidity’s silent culling
She is one it chose to spareIn my own manner
There is nothing but restraint
She seems but the musings
Of my abandoned love’s refrainAll must be ended
Despite conceivement without fault
But in this instant, always
I’ll live right next to her heart
Methodology
Can’t make out the thread
But I suppose it’s there
Through the woollen caps
And weathered courtyards
The overcast tedium
And ribbons of snow
Sculpted in the faint glow
And I know
I can’t really leave
Wherever I go
It points back here
Summary
Do not extend
My wait beyond my reach
Do not extend
My wait beyond my reachI’ve got no debts left unpaid
All music written and performed by Gustav Holger.
