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Shapes of the Fall

Piers Faccini

NØF.51 — 2021

Tracks Credits Bio Links Tour
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They‘ll gather no seed 

They’ll break no bread 

They‘ll gather no seed 

But a hunger Instead 


Bring me my home back 


They’ll nourish no root 

They’ll feed no soil 

They‘ll grow no leaf 

But a moaning and toil 


Bring me my home back 

Stone me and I’ll break 

Shoot me and I’ll fall 

Cut me and I’ll bleed 

Bells toll for us all 


Bring me my home back 


How bark was my home 

When wind was my bride 

When men tore our flight 

From skies far and wide 


Give me my home back 

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Foghorn calling  

Thought I spied a ship at the harbour gate 

Saw the mooring  

When the anchor dropped with the iron weight 


Where there’s a will there’s a wanting 

Where there's a heart there’s something 

Where there’s a will there’s a wanting 

A hand to hope 

A hope to hold  

To drag forth the darkness from you 


Heard a whispering  

With the ballot cast on the judgement floor 

Heard a wailing  

When the word was called it was called no more 


Where there’s a wish there’s a yearning  

Where there’s a turn there’s a burning 

Where there’s a wish there’s a yearning  

A hand to hope 

A hope to hold  

To call forth the darkness from you 


Ship is leaving  

When the bell will toll it’ll toll for you 

No denying 

When the log is lost it can’t be true 


Where there’s a will there’s a wanting 

Where there's a heart there’s something 

Where there’s a will there’s a wanting

A hand to hope 

A hope to hold  

To drag forth the darkness from you 


Foghorn calling  

Foghorn calling  

Foghorn calling  

Foghorn calling  


Where there’s a will there’s a wanting 

Where there's a heart there’s something 

Where there’s a will there’s a wanting 

A hand to hope 

A hope to hold  

To drag forth the darkness from you 

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Too far in 

Can’t turn back 

Too long gone 

in the gap 

Shedding skin 

I repent  

Step by step 

My lament 


For the wound Dunya  

I traded her 

For the hope and the tear Dunya 

I believed in her 

For a dream      


Colour breaks 

Over lines 

Your eyes wake 

Into mine 

Draw the blade 

Stripped and bare 

Kiss the lash 

Meet me there 


For the wound Dunya I traded her 

For the hope and the tear Dunya 

I believed in her 

In a dream     

And the moon Dunya 

I bled for her 

In a dream 

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Higher the peak shadows fall  

Deeper the well the echo calls 

Here in the unknown out of the gap 

Wrapped in the fold the devil’s trap  


Milder the winter fairer the tide 

Finer the dust when sunlight climbs 

There with the ether there with the snow  

The flake on the window with the ember glowing 


Wide was the water low was the tide 

Darker the fear we rose to ride 

You pulled me under I held you there 

Together forever everywhere  


Cover the darkness heaven hell  

Over the distant peeling bells 

Ringing in hope without regret  

The living and dying of Spring are set 


Turn for tomorrow leaf over years 

Page after page bled out tears 

Faster disciple dearest of none 

Bowing to no one kingdom come 


Wide was the water low was the tide 

Darker the fear we rose to ride 

You pulled me under I held you there 

Together forever everywhere  


Wide was the water low was the tide 

Darker the fear we rose to ride 

You held me under I pulled you there 

Together forever everywhere  

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All aboard pull the oar and row  

All aboard to the poles we go 

All aboard take the oar and row  

Climb aboard for the gale will blow 


All aboard to the prairies wild  

All aboard man woman and child 

All aboard to the prairies wild  

Back to back and side to side 


All aboard watch paradise burn  

All aboard for the past I yearn  

All aboard watch paradise burn  

Douse the flame will it ever return 


All aboard Noah built the arc   

All aboard now the choice is stark 

All aboard came two by two  

All aboard will he come for you 

All aboard Noah built the arc  

All aboard before the day was dark 

All aboard run from the frey  

All aboard we’ll sail away 


All aboard now the waters rise  

All aboard thunder in the skies 

All aboard now the waters rise  

On the plank before the last light dies 


All aboard pull the oar and row  

All aboard to the poles we go 

All aboard take the oar and row  

Climb aboard for the gale will blow 


All aboard pull the oar and row  

All aboard to the poles we go 

All aboard take the oar and row  

For the gale will blow 


All aboard to the prairies wild  

All aboard man woman and child 

All aboard to the prairies wild  

Back to back and side by side 


All aboard now the waters rise  

All aboard thunder in the skies 

All aboard now the waters rise  

On the plank before the last light dies 


All aboard pull the oar and row  

All aboard to the poles we go 

All aboard take the oar and row  

Climb aboard for the gale will blow 

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I found a path  

Maybe it found me 

I was blind now I see 


I heard a call 

Or was it from my throat 

A murmur wound in the note 


Like a hundred lashes 

Flames give birth to ashes 

When the levee crashes  

Row 


Who stole the birds  

Tore then from the sky ? 

Who then covered up the lie? 


Back then before  

As brothers we 

Grew as leaves do for trees 


Must I long for thunder 

Longing how I wonder 

Waves will pull me under 

Row 


To be undone 

To die and be renewed 

The lies I once took to be true 


I fell for good  

Off the face of time 

When your eyes looked into mine 


Like a hundred lashes 

Flames give birth to ashes 

When the levee crashes  

Row  


Must I long for thunder 

Longing how I wonder

Waves will pull me under 

Row 

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Dreams will be remains 

Fragments never claimed 

Dreams will be remains 

Gain and again  


Skies forever weep 

Teardrops I will reap 

Skies forever weep 

Never ever keep 


Hear me when I speak 

Hear me when I cry 

Hear me before I 

Lay low to lie  


Dipping with the lark gone 

Echoes of the one song 

Bending with the fold now 

Broken with the last true vow 


Nights will gather sleep 

Shepherds they will reap 

Nights will gather sleep 

Drag me to the deep 


Purpose is a fault 

Cracked under the vault 

Purpose is a fault 

Reset time to nought 


Hear me when I speak 

Hear me when I cry 

Hear me before I 

Lay low to lie  


Dipping with the lark gone 

Echoes of the one song 

Bending with the fold now 

Broken with the last true vow 


Hear them when they speak 

Hear them when they cry 

Hear them before they  

Lay low to lie  

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When the longest night 

Folds back in to day 

You’ll know my love 

Not to be afraid 


It’s the way we’re made 

Makes us break away 

In your embrace  

I was meant to stay 


You’re not alone 

To the wind you take 

Murmuring desire 

At the rib you ache  


It’s the way we’re made 

Makes us break away 

Like dust and debris 

In sunlight playing 

It’s the way we’re made 

God breath into clay 

In your embrace  

I was meant to stay 

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This house of ours a ball and chain  

This house of ours where no one reigns 

Forget my name and our abode  

Abandon ship abort the code  


I was at the bridge the fuel spent 

You were at the turn but why repent 

I was at the drop abandon all  

I was on my knees 

Unbreakable  


Fire fly burning up the light 

How high far into the night 

 

This hidden sun gave birth to stars 

Moonlight moans across the bars 

This story then in time unfolds  

This body when with words I’m told 


I was at the fall drawn to the edge 

You were at the lock torn at the thread 

I was at the flame the root the creed 

You were at the cut but why believe? 

But why believe? 


Fire fly burning up the light 

How high far into the night 


I never believed it was true 

I never believed it was you 

I never believed it was true 

I never believed it was you 


Only you only me  

Only you only me 

Only you only me 

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Gone is the hour when the hand drops 

There goes the fall at the last stop

Soar on the wing south we’ve gone 

Trapped at the fold hurricane blowing 


Dive with the wind dipped in the tide 

Snapped at the edge but the wrong side 

You wouldn’t wait and I couldn’t stay  

Trick to the bait is Nature’s play  


Form is the bone with the vessel cracked 

Spoke in the wheel with the back track 

Bird on the branch with no say 

Sing a little now for another way 


Burden’s a beast without a home 

Too far gone I’ve never known 

Paradise fell on the eighth day 

We’re on the last watch  

Should I even pray ? 


I want us to grow old 

I want us to get through  

I want us to be whole 

I’d love to be as new 

I want us to evolve 

I’d like us to be true 

Then maybe we’d be whole 

And we could be as new 

I want us to grow old 

I want us to get through  

I want us to be whole 

Then we could be as new 

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A little died 

Some little part of me has died 

Angel bear it to the sky 


A little died 

Little part of me has died 

Can’t help it how I tried 


I yelled before 

Yell it again 

I’ll yell it now 

Remember them 

I yelled before 

Yell it again 

I’ll yell it now 

Remember them 


A little lie 

Some little part of me a lie 

Angel hold it to the fire 


A little lie 

Little part of me a lie 

Had to tell it don’t know why 


I yelled before 

Yell it again 

I’ll yell it now 

Remember them 

I yelled before 

I’ll yell again 

I’ll yell it now 

Remember them 

I yelled before 

I’ll yell again 

I’ll yell it now 

Remember them 

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You were the blood kissed by the thorn                

I was the wind in the leaf                                            

Bent at the eye of the storm                                       

North at the pole repelled and drawn                    

I wanted to fall or to be reborn                                 

Fall or to be reborn                                                       


I tried to be brave  you tried to be strong                

You said I was wise like a king  

More like a fool all along                                              

I wanted to drown in the dust of a drought            

I wanted in when the real way was out             

In when the real way was out  


And so I ran but nowhere fast                                   

I was the hare in the lights  

And the lead that fired up the glass                         

The way was dark and I should have passed        

You were the first through and I was the last 

The first through and I was the last                         


Tides always turn dipping away                              

I was the wing in flight  

Dying to return some day                                          

But I couldn’t leave nor could I stay                       

Deliver me I used to say                                             

Deliver me I used to say  


Once more to the fore but for what cause  

I heard a heartbeat and then a pause                     

Go where the real way is yours  

Go where  the real way is yours 

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Produced by Piers Faccini and Frederic Soulard 


All songs by Piers Faccini except :


Dunya - Music and lyrics by Piers Faccini and Malik Ziad 

All Aboard - Lyrics written by Piers Faccini, music by Piers Faccini and Malik Ziad, arranged by Karim Ziad 


Foghorn Calling and Remember Them, arranged by Malik Ziad 


Arrangements for string quartet on Dunya, Together Forever Everywhere, Lay Low To Lie and Paradise Fell by Luc Suarez 

Arrangements for string quartet on They Will Gather No Seed and Epilogue by Luc Suarez and Frederic Soulard 

 

Recorded at Blackbox, Angers, France by Frederic Soulard and Etienne Clauzel from June 19th to 30th, 2020 


Drums by Simone Prattico on Dunya and Lay Low To Lie recorded  at NGR, Roma  

by Francesco De Nigris 


Ben Harper recorded his voice and acoustic slide guitar on All Aboard at home in L.A 


Abdelkebir Merchane on All Aboard recorded by Tarik Hmiti, at HMTI, Marrakech, Morocco 

Strings recorded by Sébastien Tondo at Studio 12 ter, Montreuil, France on July 15th and 16th, 2020 


Mixed by Frederic Soulard assisted by Léo Nivot at Studio Méchant, Paris, France 

Mastered by Chab at Chab mastering, Paris, France 


Executive production and A&R – Anaïs Ledoux and Laurent Bizot  

Artwork - Piers Faccini 

Design - Element(s) 


Published by Beating Drum / Nø Førmat! 



They Will Gather No Seed


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, piano, percussion 

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


Foghorn Calling


Piers Faccini - Voice, electric guitar, guitar-oud, backing vocals 

Malik Ziad - Guembri, backing vocals 

Karim Ziad - Karkabous, tbel, backing vocals 

Clément Petit - Cello 


Dunya


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic and electric guitar, backing vocals 

Malik Ziad - Voice, aouisha, guembri, backing vocals 

Karim Ziad - Brushes, tbel, cassettes, backing vocals 

Simone Prattico - Snare drum 

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


Together Forever Everywhere


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


All Aboard Feat. Ben Harper and Abdelkebir Merchane 


Abdelkebir Merchane sings the traditional El Fqih

Piers Faccini - Voice, National, electric guitar, backing vocals 

Ben Harper - Voice, acoustic slide guitar, backing vocals 

Abdelkebir Merchane - Voice, backing vocals  

Malik Ziad - Aouisha, backing vocals 

Karim Ziad - Guembri, karkabous, tbel, backing vocals 


Levante


Piers Faccini - Voice, National, guitar-oud, backing vocals, claps 

Malik Ziad - Aouisha, backing vocals, claps 

Karim Ziad - Brushes, bendir, karkabous, backing vocals, claps 

Oriane Lacaille - Kayamb 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


Lay Low To Lie 


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, backing vocals 

Malik Ziad - Guembri, oud, backing vocals 

Karim Ziad - Bendir, backing vocals 

Simone Prattico - Drums 

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


The Longest Night 


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, guitar-oud, harmonium, backing vocals 


Firefly


Piers Faccini - Voice, electric guitars, backing vocals, claps 

Malik Ziad - Guembri, mandole, backing vocals, claps

Karim Ziad - Bendir, taàrija, backing vocals, claps 

Oriane Lacaille - Backing vocals  

Clément Petit - Cello 


Paradise Fell


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, dulcimer, psaltery, backing vocals 

Malik Ziad - Guembri 

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 


Remember Them 


Piers Faccini - Voice, guitar-oud, backing vocals 

Malik Ziad - Guembri 

Karim Ziad - Bendir, taàrija 


The Real Way Out


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, backing vocals 

Clement Petit- Cello 


Epilogue 


Piers Faccini - Voice, acoustic guitar, piano, percussion 

Sylvain Favre-Bulle - Violin 

Florian Maviel - Violin 

Benachir Boukhatem - Viola 

Clément Petit - Cello 

In the Gabriel Garcia Marquez story A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, the author reflects on the opposing facets of human nature, like the two sides of a spinning coin landing randomly either on cruelty or compassion. Anglo-Italian songwriter Piers Faccini’s new album Shapes Of The Fall, speaks of something similar, through songs he asks, which part of our nature will prevail; will we, as the very old man with broken wings, learn to fly again or are we destined to fall?  


With the opening song, They Will Gather No Seed, the narrative tilts us more toward the latter and with it, the fall. A sparsely plucked guitar blends with a distant finger snap and the single bass notes of a piano and while a string quartet builds in intensity, Faccini sings, “They’ll gather no seed, they’ll break no bread, they’ll gather no seed but a hunger instead.” If shapes of the fall are the myriad endangered forms that make up the mosaic of our environmental collapse, the descent is of our doing or undoing. ''Bring me my home back'' is not the singer’s personal cry for a home but the animal lament of innumerable species on the brink of extinction.  


A dystopian flood myth narrative is the theme of All Aboard, a song in which the only two guests on the album feature; Californian singer-songwriter Ben Harper, a collaborator from his 2005 album, Tearing Sky and Moroccan singer and master of the trance traditions known as Gnawa, Abdelkebir Merchane. “All aboard, pull the oar and row, all aboard to the poles we go,” sing Faccini and Harper while the Moroccan master’s intervention brings a shift into a major key as he asks the Gnawa saint or djinn, El Fqih for blessing and healing. In this way, ruin or repair and hope or despair are the album‘s parallel narratives; with All aboard, it swings back toward light, toward hope. 


Over the years, Faccini, has often made of his songwriting, a passion for pursuing the kind of cross-cultural dialogues that have long been heard on Mediterranean shores throughout the centuries, bridging southern Europe with the Near East and Africa. And over his eight studio albums, including his duo album, Songs of Time Lost with cellist Vincent Segal, he has collaborated with musicians far in wide in search of musical dialogue such as Ballake Sissoko, Ibrahim Maalouf or Jasser Haj Youssef.  


The musical influences in Shapes of the Fall draw heavily on Faccini’s own Mediterranean ancestry, on southern Italian, Arab-Andalusian or Sephardic modes and rhythms. Beginning with his fascination with Tarantismo from the Puglia region in Italy and the last known example of trance ritual and music taking place in Europe, the album crosses the narrow straights of the Mediterranean in song-like vessels, accompanied by the two Algerian brothers and master instrumentalists, Malik and Karim Ziad, to find and converse with existing trance traditions in the Maghreb and in Berber and Gnawa culture. 


Whether it’s the more percussive Foghorn Calling, Firefly or Levante or the slower compositions like The Longest Night, featuring Faccini’s custom made hybrid fretless instrument, the guitar-oud, the songs, all recorded live in a farmhouse studio hidden away in the French countryside by co-producer and sound engineer Fred Soulard, are steeped in rhythm. Percussion marks time, cuts silence into dances, frame drums pulse (bendir, tamburello) while the metal on metal of the karkabous and claps, provide the spark to fire up the songs. Throughout the album, rhythm fans the flames of their collective fire. 


And so the songs act as an eulogy filled with regrets and somber sorrow that begs to be addressed or redressed, but with notes of hope, it blossoms within us a brimming emotion born of the internal monologues of our own lives, our own reflections. How have we strung the beads of our lives together, what choices, what actions determine our rise or fall?  


The cyclical, Folk-like, call and response forms in these songs calls then to us, to those with voice. Asks us, what are we going to do with the rest of our time in the world, what are we going to do with the rest of the world? The theme returns, shifting in musical shape, the questions remain, unanswered, rhetorical.  


Verses keep us rooted in the rhythm of earth, bridges dip and soar, choruses drop us straight into the realm of emotion until, unraveling, spinning out, the verse and percussion earth us again. Arrangements for string quartet by the Spanish composer, Lucas Suarez, a collaborator from Faccini’s 90’s London based band Charley Marlowe are the album’s Greek chorus, turning and returning, summoning Faccini to push his voice and narrative through eerie registers. Pleading, he sings, bending notes inspired by musical modes (Arabic Maqam, Andalusian) where the fractured or microtonal notes between notes are deliberately invoked as gut stringed (guembri) and fretless instruments (oud, aouisha) reply. Here, the magical and mythical clash with the real and present giving the listener a liminal space in which to insert their life and living into the music. 


These songs feel like songs of renewal and caution, the kind of songs one can imagine A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings singing to regain his strength, to repair his feathers, to gather his spirit once more before he was ready to ascend back into the powder blue skies. 









NØF.24 — Songs of Time Lost

05/06 MASSY (91) Paul B

06/06 BEAUPRÉAU (49) Rivage des Voix

10/06 BOULOGNE-SUR-MER (62) Carré SAM

16/06 PARIS (75) Le Trianon

26/06 LES CÉVENNES La Route de la Voix

02/07 NÉVACHE (05) Terre Sauvage Festival

03/07 NÉVACHE (05) Terre Sauvage Festival

05/07 VIENNE (38) Jazz à Vienne

08/07 LES CÉVENNES La Route de la Voix

10/07 GRENOBLE (38) Chapelle Baroque

14/07 ARLES (13) Les Suds

17/07 UZÈS (30) Festival Autres Rivages

21/07 MÈZE (34) Festival de Thau

26/07 SAINT-PROUANT (85) Prieuré de Grammont

29/07 PORNICHET (44) Les Rencarts

31/07 CHAMONIX (74) CosmoJazz Festival

19/08 LES CÉVENNES La Route de la Voix

02/09 CÉNON (33) Le Rocher de Palmer

17,18,19/09 LES CÉVENNES La Route de la Voi

Shapes of the Fall