John Donne

I'm reminded of this John Donne poem for the Winter Solstice. By chance, I read it to a friend of mine yesterday, in giving her a book of Metaphysical Poets.

A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day

BY JOHN DONNE

'Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,

Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;

         The sun is spent, and now his flasks

         Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;

                The world's whole sap is sunk;

The general balm th' hydroptic earth hath drunk,

Whither, as to the bed's feet, life is shrunk,

Dead and interr'd; yet all these seem to laugh,

Compar'd with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be

At the next world, that is, at the next spring;

         For I am every dead thing,

         In whom Love wrought new alchemy.

                For his art did express

A quintessence even from nothingness,

From dull privations, and lean emptiness;

He ruin'd me, and I am re-begot

Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that's good,

Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;

         I, by Love's limbec, am the grave

         Of all that's nothing. Oft a flood

                Have we two wept, and so

Drown'd the whole world, us two; oft did we grow

To be two chaoses, when we did show

Care to aught else; and often absences

Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death (which word wrongs her)

Of the first nothing the elixir grown;

         Were I a man, that I were one

         I needs must know; I should prefer,

                If I were any beast,

Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest,

And love; all, all some properties invest;

If I an ordinary nothing were,

As shadow, a light and body must be here.

But I am none; nor will my sun renew.

You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun

         At this time to the Goat is run

         To fetch new lust, and give it you,

                Enjoy your summer all;

Since she enjoys her long night's festival,

Let me prepare towards her, and let me call

This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this

Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is.

Online presence

You can now download Babel CDs on Bandcamp, via the Babel site. Ah, the wonders of the new technology!

Also, with the help of Kathianne, you can pick up our tweets @babellabel. Actually, not always me, but they could be!

So you can get hold of many of our releases. Also, watch for many that are on the way  early in the New Year, into the shops. And the list is growing - Hans Koller with Francois Theberge, Vole and Gannets among others.

Hope that this gives a bit of a feel as to what is going on.

Duplicating service launched

Babel now has a CD duplicating machine, doing high quality CD-Rs for limited runs, along with great on body printing.

In particular, it's proving a hit for small runs (up to 100), such as for press demos, pre-album launch events where manufactured CDs haven't arrived or because CDs are not the main focus.

We also have some nice CD wallets which can be used - recycled cardboard 'gatefold' with window for sliding in a booklet.

More and more satisfied customers.
Contact me on oliver@babellabel.co.uk

Alexander Hawkins - some videos

And buy the album here

Emilia Martensson - Some videos

Ahead of the release of And So It Goes, here are some videos from Emilia's gig at the Vortex in October, as well as a link to her interview in the Observer.





Observer article - THE PHOTO SHOOT

EMILIA MARTENSSON

The singer who melds Swedish folk, jazz standards and classic pop.

"I don't like to say I'm a jazz singer," says Emilia Martensson. "People think of Broadway," she says, miming jazz hands, "but jazz can mean a lot of things."

For Martensson, 29, the genre encompasses Swedish folk songs and pop as well as jazz standards. Her lush, beguiling interpretations of all three can be found on her debut album, And So it Goes, made with the pianist Barry Green.

"I approach songs from a jazz musician's point of view when it comes to phrasing and improvising," she says. "I think the art is in finding songs that you really connect with."

Growing up in a village just outside Malmö in Sweden, Martensson discovered jazz at school. Hooked, she established a jazz night at her parents' restaurant. Two years later, she moved to England to study music at Trinity College of Music in London. She's lived here ever since and is now based in east London. "I like the London jazz scene a lot. It is a great community. Everybody is really supportive. And everyone knows each other," she adds with a mock-weary look.

So what sets her generation of musicians apart? "Quite a lot of us are going away from the jazz standards. People are writing their own music, using the harmony and the language of jazz in a new context."

Though she loves what she does, Though she loves her life, Martensson admits it's not easy. "We aren't in this for the money. If we were, we'd do pop."

The best gigs, where she can do her own thing, tend to be ones she does for free. She works as a singing teacher and takes paid gigs at weddings. But being on stage is where she feels most comfortable. "I especially love the smaller venues. That's another reason I do jazz, because the venues are often more intimate. Normally, you're playing with a good group of friends, and because of the way that jazz music works, it is very much about communicating and listening to each other; having a nice time and trying to get that across to the audience."Gemma Kappala-Ramsamy




BUY THE ALBUM HERE