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Of This Dirt

by Artemis

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  • Digital Album
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Limited edition of 75 signed and numbered hand-made packages, each absolutely unique. Beautiful vinyl-look CD (with tactile grooves) tucked into a recycled paper sleeve hand-stamped on both sides with metallic pigment inks, and wrapped up in a recycled Kraft sleeve eco-dyed by hand with hi-desert flora and rusted metal objects gathered from the landscape that brought these songs to life. Follow @artemis_music on Instagram to see time-lapse videos of each step of the making of these little treasures. Images shown here are *examples* of works in progress - further/alternate embellishments may be made, and no two will look exactly alike. Check back for more images! Also, because each element is lovingly hand-crafted, your one-of-a-kind CD package may be blessed with its own tiny flaws and imperfections, just like all of us. Handle with care and enjoy!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Of This Dirt via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography Full Digital Discography

    Get all 17 Artemis releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Points Of Light, Skin To Marrow, For A Human World, Transfigure, Of This Dirt, Friendship, Triptych III (Ten for Magpie's Secret Bliss), Triptych II (Nine for a Kiss), and 9 more. , and , .

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1.
Janus Eyes 03:38
staring into Janus eyes crouched down in the middle fire cracking the sky compliments of monkeys and their missiles your god and mine got our head in a vice made of greed and avarice no mother tongue no chosen ones we're equally flawed and precious light and shadow filed for divorce but pulling apart they'd cease to exist so we still gotta find ourselves in each other to the slow decline of stars in the lid for all our hyperconnectivity we're better at tin cans and string so i'll meet you my friend in ten billion years galactic address of Milkomeda watch heaven twist her lips into wry coyote smile love is a dare devil may care this may take awhile free will is a knife cuts both ways we take the sting to get the honey they say living hard living's easy til you risk all you're merely surviving but oh how we cling to our stories for our very lives while human laws fossilize watch heaven twist her lips into wry coyote smile love is a dare devil may care this may take awhile
2.
Two Two 04:57
two two tuesday so much to do today so i try reaching out get out of bed put the kettle on keep your head up let your guard down never turn your back on the waves sneak up on ya tumble under get up and do it again get up and do it again get up and do it again look out look out you lookout you might look out you might like it indiana grass is cool wind is long takes her time remembering through a porthole was it sea or it sky first widened your eyes stand on a hill sway and howl at the moon bend back like a willow close your eyes it's not on the outside you're the beating heart the rain in the sand your own deep well pull that bucket up pull that bucket up pull that bucket up lift off the animal mask layer by layer what keeps generating what keeps generating what keeps generating two two tuesday fall into the fray strength wrapped in fragility chain mail steel blue morpho wing flaps til jupiter rolls backward with her pearl moons when your mind is stuck in a groove pull the plug fall forward heart first
3.
schooner skim the night spinnaker billow phosphorescent light sail the frequencies ever shifting pull treasure up from the deep shadow only distance traveled between points of light suns and moons racing by raindrops on portholes trickle trails like teardrops breathing like a tree never reaching terminal velocity ringing in your ears echo in back of your head second hand slowing til you're light years ahead drifting particles universe of broken rules elegant punctuate each life sentence fibonacci a spine every moment passing crows land round your eyes tattoo a smile catch memory snowflakes on your tongue dissolve into you doorways and tunnels we hide and we seek higher resolution each frame closer to home within range we hide and we seek higher resolution each frame closer to dot on horizon drifting particles universe of broken rules elegant punctuate each life sentence
4.
Of This Dirt 04:24
so now you're smiling wider than time busted free of this wheel of age hours click forward and backward helix spin down below up for the galaxies you are the sound the earth makes thunder that bursts through the clouds wake up your electricity show me you show me me facets of one shining sun singing in unison trading harmony fat or tall skinny or small we're all of this dirt teach me your philosophy show me your horizon draw me round your boundary keep me in your sights friend you are my enemy when it serves me right one way or another we all get there together all of the lines we drag through the sand are the folly of one hand
5.
water is life water is us all water is life water is us all black and brown and white flowing through us all in it together flowing everywhere mni wiconi (water is life) water is life water is life water is life brown and black and white flowing through us all om
6.
powdered sugar coffee and fried dough clouds huddle like the people in the road ladies round the next table with their eyes all looking down lost in their devices together and alone seem to have forgotten how the conversation goes all thumbs and digits ones and zeros just before the sky cracked open storm flashed in my eyes i avert my gaze so you won't catch me when i cry you take my hand rain runs rivers through the town if i wasn't running i'd a laid down standing under shelter call your mama on the phone sound of her cooking and cleaning feel like home while ladies on the tv screen are at each other's throats seem to have forgotten what to reap what to sow the nice man at the counter rubbing voodoo charms just to help us all keep running into each other's arms but maybe all we need is a candle and a knife to burn away cut through what ain't right and shine a light
7.
Les Enfants 00:59
et les enfants qui pleurent quand ils voient le soleil où sont leurs coeurs qui va découvrir leur secret et nous qui ouvrent la voie une génération sans le nord vrai que dirons-nous nous trouvons notre propre chemin English translation: and the children who cry when they see the sun where are their hearts who will discover their secret and we who lead the way* a generation without true north what will we say we find our own way (* the literal translation of “et nous qui ouvrent la voie” into english words is “and we who open the view” which is how the french say “lead the way” - i love this)
8.
chatter chatter clink and clatter chop chop hammer build a home of imagination thin air inspiration broken glass tumbleweeds bottle caps rocks and things weeding pulling pretty weeds chatter chatter clink and clatter chop chop hammer
9.
A Small Star 03:11
a small star in a vast sky no known constellation hardly of consequence in the company of such bright luminaries hard to notice her burning hydrogen for joy helium desire leaden longing golden equanimity elemental emotion atomic state of mind uranium inquiry quicksilver curiosity solitary strong she educates herself alchemically greedy gravity make molecular constellation only the weightless are immune even thought is heavy mass of a line on a page consequence of a dream or a story told pushing air around in little ripples some cruel and some kind a small star in a vast sky
10.
Before Sleep 02:29
11.
Aiye Omode 03:10
aiye omode uhia uha i ao uhia uha ao aiye omode
12.
Spell 02:09
13.
Leap I 02:43

about

Of This Dirt:

a journey
down the roots of of our family tree
through the marrow of a breath
across the tides that river our veins
into the heart that dances us all

the pulse of a moment

infinite finiteness of a life
risen from ashes of galaxies’ pyres
up the spiral ladder
again

hand to hand

me

down the roots...



time is of the essence. time IS the essence. experience. measured, marked by time. it’s all we are. all ephemeral. we’re in it together, we’re in it on our own. we keep tripping, over ourselves, over each other, over the edge. but take heart. none of it matters, it’s all a playground, a classroom, a sandbox whose boundaries expand and dissolve, contract and concretize, according to the design and requirements of our souls. and yet it all holds mass and consequence. even thought, intention, lines on a page. matter. inherently devoid of meaning yet not of message, the sole precious portal through which life can be expressed and realized. the nature of everything we know is paradox. whatever is true, there is a context in which the reverse holds. so what to do? these bodies are fleeting. time is not passing. we are. in a great relay race to nowhere. molecule by molecule, all at once. compassion resolves, fear fragments, things get more or less pixelated, harmonic or dissonant, depending on…human condition, here and now. are we nature, bending ever toward the light, evolving and refining our way toward elegance and perfection? or are we careening out, splaying to chaos, refracted, diluted, in folly willfully bending nature to aimless, nameless faceless feckless urges and impulses? how does it end? does it? do we just pass it along? gift it as it was gifted to us when we ourselves emerged from the void, kicking and screaming? what will the state and shape of offering be, when it slips from our fingers and into the hands of the bequeathed? were they born for this? are we?

absolutely. relativity proclaims it. creative is the thread, through it all continues to move us, move through us, archetypes breathing our every move, this only every moment. we build these homes of imagination, thin air, inspiration. small stars in vast expanse of darkness we are, and yet every twinkling has its source and return in one great multifaceted beating heart. shadow only distance traveled between points of light. one way or another, we all get there together. and if from time to time we lose our way, i’ll meet you, my friend, in ten billion years…this may take awhile…

one thread running through these songs is the sense that the more we attempt to step into one another’s shoes, see deeply and even experience profoundly from the perspective of another, the more sane our world, our interactions, our lives can become and ultimately be. some of the phrases in these songs originate from the languages and deeply earth-and-cosmos-aligned understanding of brothers and sisters born of different cultures than the ones that shaped this particular fleshy spacesuit. this heart-soul-mouth is singing these words, visions and intentions with gratitude, respect and reverence, and only the greatest hope that some idea, feeling, color, flash of inspiration or creative healing light may come through that might be in service of repairing bonds torn asunder by pain, trauma, misunderstanding, separation, ignorance, fear and disrespect. or that might bring a little hope, light, joy, understanding, comfort or inspiration to anyone whose ears have found their way open to this momentary sonic meditation. or that might help forge another step forward toward dreaming a world we can all continue living and loving. thank you for listening. i’m still listening, too…and, to the best of my abilities, attempting to be able to respond.

credits

released October 27, 2018

Produced & mixed by David Earl
davidearlproductions.com
Mastered by Ian Shepherd
productionadvice.co.uk/about/
All songs written by Artemis
except Life Sentence, written by James NIcholas Groft III and Artemis
Additional instrumentation:
David Earl, Daniel Berkman, Danny Frankel
Recorded at Sunny Sands & Red Barn Recorders
www.instagram.com/redbarnrecorders/
Photography: Anne Daiva, Keith Crusher

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Artemis San Francisco

Spectral keyboard washes and sinuous dance beats set up a feeling of warm alienation while Artemis’s voice heats things further. Over the thump and shimmer, she croons with detached fervor, the music dissolving in a storm of pixie-dust disco until a rude riot of effects snaps the tether and she vanishes. ... more

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