U68 | Clinton Watkins | Raaswater
1. Gate_excerpt
6. Insects & Rocks_excerpt
format : CD ltd to 200 hand numbered copies/Digital
Regular edition of 170 copies packaged in clear vinyl sleeve with folded insert + an additional art card both on 350gr satin paper
Special edition of 30 copies packaged in thick kraft recycled cardboard digisleeve with frame.
it holds a set of 2 double-sided art cards with a different artwork from the regular edition on 350gr satin paper.
+ a set of 3 square photos on Fujicolor Crystal Archive Paper Supreme.
more details TBA
release year : 2021
length : 37’49
tracks : 1. Gate
2. Cemetery
3. Skull Crush
4. Orchestra
5. Fence
6. Insects & Rocks
7. EMF
8. Knife
9. Land Cruiser
10. Buried
11. Bone Kick
status : still available !
>>> order via Paypal : chalkdc@unfathomless.net
Regular edition
(Belgium) : 14 € (inc.postage)
(Europe) : 15 € (inc.postage)
(World) : 16 € (inc.postage)
Special ultra ltd edition
(Belgium) : 17 € (inc.postage)
(Europe) : 18 € (inc.postage)
(World) : 19 € (inc.postage)
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: info :
“In 1871, Thomas Baines, on his way back from visiting Lobengula and the Tati Goldfields, crossed the Limpopo on Mmabolela, and camped near the “Raaswater” where the Limpopo tumbles over granite rocks polished smooth by the passage of water over thousands of years.”
https://www.mmabolela.co.za/history
Raaswater is a seamless album of compositions using sound recordings made whilst participating on the 2018 Sonic Mmabolela residency for sound artists and composers in the Limpopo province of South Africa. With a small group of likeminded people led by Francisco López & Barbara Ellison, I spent countless hours exploring the dynamic environments of the Mmabolela reserve by walking, resting, listening, interacting, experiencing and recording a plethora of environments, objects, phemonema, structures, fauna and phyla unique to the area. Raaswater is a personal aural reflection depicting a rare, isolated and complex sonic environment rich with life, death and enlightenment.
(Clinton Watkins, 27 November 2019)
“Mma-bolela” – “Mother – speak to me”
https://www.mmabolela.co.za/mabolel-poem
This was the sad and unanswered call that echoed along the palm-strewn banks of the Limpopo River as dusk settled over the still, dark depths of the hippo pool into which Lalele, the father of all crocodiles, had slowly slithered. African folklore relates how Mabalel, the carefree young daughter of the local chief, was seized by Lalele as she was drawing water from the Limpopo river. This story has been immortalised by the famous poet and naturalist Eugéne Marais in his poem “Mabalel”.
English Version (Translated from Eugene Marais by Jeanne Heywood)
Swiftly down the footpath tripples Mabalel;
Gaily now her singing
Mingling with the ringing
Of her jingle-jangle ankle bangle.
All alone she goes,
As the shadows round her close;
A water jar of clay so red
Poised securely on her head.
Waves of colour surf the skies
As the daylight softly dies.
From behind a shelt’ring wall
Far-off winking fires call.
Wide and silent, still and cool
Lies Rakwen, Lalele’s pool.
Gleaming in the western glow
Coral depths reflections show.
And the reeds stirred by the wind
Sing lullaby of saddest sound.
Wait, wait, oh Mabalel!
Is there nothing there to tell,
Is there nothing whisp’ring darkly
Through the dusk that falls so starkly –
Does nothing give you warning
That round your cheerful song is dawning
A danger coming coldly
A danger following boldly?
Don’t you feel with every breath
The cold threatening hand of death?
Deep amongst the palmiet reed
In the blue depth waits Lalele.
Quintessential evil force,
Compassionless on cruel course
With patience that all want can suffer
Awaiting that which time or chance may offer,
He waits as surely as does Judgment Day.
Sleepless in his depths he marks his prey.
When water trickles through the sand
In a parched and barren land,
The dusty banks are dull and bleached:
Rakwena’s rocks are barely reached.
Here the blackened sheaths of reed
Weave a band of darkest grief
Round the green-encrusted shallows
Where the river lies in hollows
Here the water must be drawn.
Here Lalele bides his time.
When in deepest dark of night
At last the storm asserts its might.
With mighty roar like wounded lion
Thunder, lightning, raging wind,
Stripping trees of branch and leaf.
The swirling waters flood Rakwena.
Undeterred by Nature’s writhing
Lalele waits in darkness hiding.
Through winter cold and summer heat,
Though drought and flood their themes repeat.
Through all the pageant of the seasons
In his deepness waits Lalele.
Though the flames may char the land,
The blackened earth a mourning band,
And the land is raped and bare,
Lalele lies within his lair.
On the banks with heart o’erflowing
See Mabalel now softly dreaming,
Her maiden thoughts so sweet and true,
Her eyes intent on depths of blue.
As the darkness now surrounds her
So her dreaming self enfolds her,
Breathing in the gentle silence
As her precious dream absorbs her.
Her image, mirrored in the water
Beckons yet with softest laughter.
Slowly from the reedbeds silent
Lalele through the dark depth rises.
Wake up, wake up, oh Mabalel!
Don’t you see the shadow upwards well?
To the high ground, Mabalel!
Keep your darling dream for later.
Never willow tree in water had
Reflections of such danger!
Never image of such terror from the darkest pit of night
Overcame the dreamer with such urgent need for light.
Never was unholier creature spawned,
Risen from the depths of hell;
None so threat’ning, none so fell.
As this shadow, Mabalel.
As the shadow that beneath you
From the darkness upwards wells.
Watch your footsteps, Mabalel!
Darkly glowing shades of hell
As you stand absorbed and staring,
No dark thought of danger rising,
That thing in the moving stream
Just a drowning leaf would seem.
Had you muscles of a tiger
Or the wing strength of an eagle,
Maiden, nothing saves you from your fate-
You’ve tarried here too long, too late!
From the mirror surface burst
A great foaming water spurt.
O’er Rakwena, calm and wide
Sounds a single anguished cry.
Then softly as a feather’s fall
Sinks the silence over all.
Light from beck’ning fire calls
Twinkling through the sheltering walls.
Through surrounding darkness fell
Hark the calls for Mabalel.
Hark the echo as before –
Return she will not, nevermore.
The water surface bears no mark
As Lalele sinks to silence dark.
Unfathomless 