Sex and Wildflowers
Iceflower/Trisol TRI 188CD
Released: September 2003
Tracklisting: Spring snowdrop • Forget me not • Love's trumpet • Virgin in the green • John in the pulpit • Knudlustysummer • Deadly nightshade • Bleeding heart • Winter snowdrop • Love’s promise • Love’s other trumpet • Loki’s lust and punishment • Deathlust
Buy the CD: SOLD OUT
Buy as a digital download from iTunes (as part of the ‘Ogham Inside the Night’ double album): 
Lyrics for this album: click here
This, the fourth Sieben album, was where I feel I started to find my own style. It takes a long time to work out what you are musically; where what you aim for and what you achieve become synchronised to some extent. That was the case with this album, and it was no coincidence that this was also the point that I started looping the violin to make songs. The restrictions of this, the technology to do this, helped unify a ‘Sieben’ sound and stopped me ‘dabbling’ with too many elements, as on previous albums.
Again, the songs were written to accompany beautiful photographs by Kristine Haffgaard. The album is themed, as the title, and uses many common English flower names as verbs and metaphors. Many of the songs from this album have survived into my live set; ‘Love’s promise’ and ‘Virgin in the green’ being two particular favourites, it seems. The album was released through Iceflower/Trisol in 2003.
This album has sold out, but is available for digital download via iTunes. At some point I may consider re-releasing it through Redroom.
Here are some notes on the songs on ‘Sex and Wildflowers’:
Spring snowdrop: the first track I wrote for the album, a spring beginning. The snowdrop breaks through the winter ground, asserting its will, and calling the spring. It’s an incantation of the annual ritual, with an earthy feel to the music, that flows without time signature over plaintive vocals.
Forget me not: the soil berates the forget-me-nots for daring to leave and start the above-ground cycle of their lives, and for answering the call of summer. Here you can really hear the violin loop building at the start of the song, starting with strumming, taking the octave down, more strumming, adding beats using the body of the violin, and my stubble on the pickup (!), then layer after layer of string harmonies. The songs take a little longer to get started as a result, as I have to build layer upon layer, but I think this adds to the organic feel and mimics the subject, the cycle of the flowers growing.
Virgin in the green: never thought I’d be singing ‘fuck’ in such a sweet manner, or be putting it on my website either, especially now I know my aunt looks at it from time to time (sorry!). I absolutely love the bird recordings I used in the middle of this piece; what a fantastic and mesmerising noise those little buggers can make. Keep an ear out also for the very odd grunts that I emit whilst recording the violin solo (after the birds), I couldn’t lose them as they were recorded through the violin microphone, and I’ve grown quite fond of them now.
John in the pulpit: My good friend Jason told me about the name of this plant. I duly went away and wrote the track, and then discovered that he meant Jack in the pulpit—after I’d deleted the masters for this song. I still like him, despite him not being the brightest button in the bag. This song should be subtitled ‘sex described in wildflowers’.
Knudlustysummer: the silly side of wildflowers. Just glad to have included ‘Toothed Medick’ and ‘Everlasting Pea’ in a comic fashion in the lyrics.
Deadly nightshade: originally a track called Maldoror for a compilation of the same name, but it fitted perfectly with autumn killing off the summer buds.
Bleeding heart: The flowers tell us to get a life, get over our problems and neuroses, and get on with living. My Bleeding Heart plant, originally lanky and weak-looking, now fills the back wall of my garden.
Winter snowdrop: Picks up some of the musical themes of ‘Spring Snowdrop’ and ‘Virgin in the Green’, and shows the sinister side of the flowers; waiting in the ground, ready to pounce with the new spring: “Shafted again. Our bistort senses vervain divine in the driest ground, and magic of our betony can track and map the wind and rain, yet the death-rattle sorrel went unheard. We expected, deep in bracts, we knew, in perianth and sepal, just forgot the truths we cluster. We hoard ourselves for fibrous return, to sainforth our everlasting, a spur of what we are, but for now, charlock and cluster, deep in the ground, awaiting our return.”
Love’s promise: more of the magic of flower names and the images they conjure: “The sun has spurge the season, enchanters night the wormwood sky. Your musk, your asarina joy, your radiant woad, our honeysuckle tryst. Will you come again, sweet as briar, rose-hipped? Will you come again, rough as chervil, lining the lain? Our fritillary love, its warp and weft our bindweed trust. Our wild garlic lust, our foxglove thrust, your butterbur desire. Will you come again, perfuse as cicely, spurge as teasel? Will you come again, sharp as shedherd’s needle? Will you come again, sorrel and bramble? Will you come again, my winter aconite? Will you come again, saxifrage and dittander? Will you come again, my lily of the valley? Will you come again, viper’s grass and hawkweed? Will you come again, my feverfew and tansy? Will you come again, love’s promise and betony desire? Will you come again, enchanter’s night, our honeysuckle tryst?”
This album was later re-released, with bonus tracks, as the second disc of ‘Ogham Inside the Night’ in July 2005.
Reviews
“This is one of the most imaginative and intelligent records I've ever heard. It’s very sophisticated poetically, and brilliant musically. A major achievement…”
Rik, Fluxeuropa webzine, Sep 2003
“…A very special and gifted musician… one of those rare albums that you want to hear from the beginning to the end without any interference, and can’t stop listening to.”
Martijn Van Gessel, Funprox webzine, Sep 2003
“The 13 songs that make up this disc are exquisitely made.”
