BELLOW [Track 2 : Unzip The Horizon album : 2018]

CREDITS
Official 'BELLOW' Music Video:
Directed, Shot & Edited by Peter Hastings
VIDEO PERFORMERS: Moira Smiley, Valentina Kvasova, Philip Mayer, Anna RobertsGevalt, Kyle Sanna

Bellow
by Moira Smiley
From the album ‘Unzip The Horizon'
MOIRA SMILEY VOCALS/PERCUSSION
MERRILL GARBUS (TUNEYARDS) HARMONY VOCAL
DAVID WEBER PERCUSSION
SEAMUS EGAN PERCUSSION
CHIP REARDIN PERCUSSION
STEVE MASCARI DOUBLE BASS
samples from Moira’s Ukrainian song study trip
Produced by Moira Smiley and David Weber
Recorded at Airtime Studios
Mastered by Chip Reardin

Moira Smiley went to Ukraine in summer 2005 with the KITKA Vocal Ensemble, as led by Mariana Sadovska. Some of the Ukrainian grandmother singers said that the true power of group singing was in the unison. They also sang songs specifically to lift the veil between the living and spirit worlds.
In a leafy yard at midsummer, in a small hamlet in northwestern Ukraine, an elder singer turned to vocalist and composer, Moira Smiley. Moira recalls. “She said, matteroffactly that some singing in her case, the powerful,’calling voices of herself and several other singers can negotiate a better future by communicating with the ancestors. She gestured toward the horizon, and back to her fellow singers indicating this dialogue between known and unknown, past and future.”

That moment, chronicled in her new song “Bellow,” shifted something in Smiley, bringing her not only into closer contact with things past, but toward a fastchanging future. A few years ago, Moira found herself entering new musical zones when she began singing with tuneyards’ Merrill Garbus, exploring Laura Nyro’s music with multigrammy winner Billy Childs, touring internationally with IrishAmerican supergroup, Solas and writing commissions for choral superstars like The Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Moira wrote:
I love the fearless, bright sounds of these Ukrainian voices, their plain, but cosmic purpose of communicating with the dead, so they might help keep the living on good terms with their universe. I hope that kind of singing never dies. My friend, Merrill Garbus, who also sings with a unique strength and purpose, was the voice I wanted to hear sing it with me. Please don't hide your voice! Sing out!

BELLOW LYRICS:
Sometime, anytime you wanna bellow at the sky Call on me, call on me
We’ll unzip the horizon with our voices.

1. You ask me why I sing softer now, and did the world beat me down?
Cuz back then I sang hard, I sang proud, but where are the edges now?
Ukrainian summer before the revolution. I sat at the knees of the grandmother
Her daughter told me we could lift the veil between the worlds by singing.
We were sat outside in the dawn light of the midsummer feast and the short night.
Singing to the dead so they’d bless the crop, bless the young, bless the year

We’ll unzip the horizon with our voices.
Sometime, anytime you wanna bellow at the sky Call on me, call on me
We’ll unzip the horizon with our voices.

2. This is the way we call the unknown, and lift the veil to the other side
We’re singing to break the walls down the walls down. Throwing the gate open wide

Every breath I take has been taken before
Every note’s been sung………
Who can I sing them all again for? Baba, Baba Baba….

Please don’t give up please don’t lose that sound
So many people fought to gain that ground
Please don’t give up – please don’t hide your voice
So many people did not have that choice.

3. She told me the power of song was in the unison. She gathered her friends all around her
And they pierced the sky with a call one melody from many voices
And from then til now, I remember, when the year is fat, and full of shadows.
I’m singing to the dead so they’ll bless the crop, bless the young, bless the year.

Unzip the horizon with our voices