Selections from 5 years worth of writing, 35mm photographs and music. Beautiful embossed gold, tied with blue twine and including a download code for your full album. The 7" record features PETRICHOR and a stripped-down version of PITIFIED.
(Bandcamp charges 10% on merch sales plus third party fees, but we wanted it to be available in both online locations for your convenience. If you order through Candor and are in Chicago, you can even bypass shipping and pick it up from the publisher!)
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ON I SAW THE SUN:
I Saw the Sun is an invitation to explore a sure-footedness that is paradoxically rooted in the recognition of the precariousness of life. It looks to distill empathy, awe, urgency and gratitude from the wild desires, fears, and limited time we share together.
This book and album are meant to perform publicly a private confrontation and catharsis of fear, sometimes powerfully, sometimes on its hands and knees—in hope of seeing seductive mystery in the unknown, and to turn fear into a tool.
The words offered have been carefully shaped like knives—sharpened by humor and tempered by the urgency of mortality, with the sharpest ones brought to you in a soft melodic sheath… tools not for violence, but to cut away disillusionment and the unnecessary.
On days one needs to cut loose, it hopes to be a book of pocket knives. And, in a more substantial moment, “A long curved blade in the hand of a sweetheart”.
...Or, at least, a good swift kick in the butt from a friend that wants to see you be true.
ABOUT MAREN CELEST:
Maren Celest, direct result of a moment of passion on February 2nd, 1987. Born October 29, night 'fore devil's night. That may or may not mean a thing. She is a storyteller that employs a broad skill set; vocal work, musical composition, all kinds of visual design, and writing. She has shown her photography and short films internationally, and collaborates with many amazing musicians in Chicago to create visuals on their behalf. She performs live digital foley (sound effects), vocals, narration and some instrumentation for Manual Cinema, a performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company that combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive visual stories for stage and screen. She created and runs Law of Ice, a vintage shop focused on gender-neutral clothing. She has previously released two albums and an EP with the band Photographers; I Saw the Sun will be her first official LP and vinyl record as a solo songwriter/composer, though her tracks have had lovely collaboration added by some of her favorite musicians.
Includes unlimited streaming of I SAW THE SUN
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
...more
ships out within 7 days
edition of 300
Purchasable with gift card
$39USDor more
lyrics
"Oh my words
Treat my intentions right
We may only
Have the night.
... Choose your weapon
Be it soft or be it smooth
I heard that soft less often lose.
My soft weapon
a hard thing does hold -
Like a Bosom holds its Bone.
Oh like a Bosom holds its Bone."
credits
from I SAW THE SUN,
released April 26, 2019
Written, recorded and mixed by Maren Celest (Vox, Baritone Uke & Clarinet), Mastered by Kyle Vegter.
(All album artwork is original 35mm photos or illustrations by Maren Celest, most featured in the book I SAW THE SUN.)
Bright light plunged into deep wet dark. Beautiful, big, leaves nothing for want. If you could remember the music that played in your most profound strange dream. Maren Celest
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