The CD with the moth on the cover was my idea. I just wanted to get that out there because when you're working with a highly trained troupe of musical and performance specialists, there's not much room for personal glory. Now that my ego has been sated, I think I can reasonably describe the songs that are on our first album for Trisol. The first six tracks were recorded by Daniel Ribiat and I in 1996. It was our first adventure as a two-man project, and we tried hard to create a product that was not obviously a two-man project.
"Aboriginal Anemia" is the first song we finished together. There was a slower, stranger version in the beginning, but it was recycled in favor of the present, high-speed adventure about a diseased rabbit who floats above the snow in a winter wood. There's more to the story, but everyone will just have to read the book when I finish it.
"Moundshroud" was Daniel's brainchild from early on. Our new format, including a load of electronics, was the ideal opportunity to bring it to life. Lyrically, I decided to pay homage to Ray Bradbury and sing about "The Halloween Tree", which meshed with the music wonderfully.
"Nightfalls" was a carry-over from our first line up, which had dissolved a year previous. This version is altered slightly, but it's still the same kind of goth rock anthem that drove us to play music in the first place.
"Sadist Sagittarius" is about a serial killer who is haunted by the ghosts of his victims. Our original guitar player, Colin O'Donnell came up with it and we decided to record it for posterity.
"En Hiver" was a little piano song that I had come up with. I thought it would translate well into an eerie death rock ballad. Something to slow-dance to in the Batcave. Lyrically, it's very winter-oriented but without a plot... something to do with water-crystal formation and messy murder in sub-zero conditions.
"Laughing Bloody Murder" is a waltzy love song satire. We here at Cinema Strange, GmbH are not exactly anti-love, but one has to admit that there are certain drawbacks to such emotional afflictions.
"Mediterranean Widow" was my other piano song. Daniel and I collaborated on it and turned it into a duet for bass and vocals. The story is about an old Sicilian woman whose husband died at sea. She has gone soft in her old age and has taken to roaming the beaches, screaming and tearing at her hair, all the while keeping her eyes on the horizon, waiting for her husband to return. And he undoubtedly will.
"Hebenon Vial" was a song that Daniel had written on bass, and for a while we performed it with bass, drums, and vocals only. Here, it happens to be the first recording with Mik Ribiat on it. He was a very new, and very welcome edition to the Cinema Strange project, and it was a nice debut performance on guitar.
The music for "Lindsay's Trachea" was written around a story that concerns a doctor who is murdered by his alter-ego. It was a different approach to song-writing for us, sort of like working backwards, and I think the resulting composition is fairly dynamic, like a mini film soundtrack.
Mik gave us "Greensward Grey". It was his first major contribution to the project. He and Daniel finished the music together and I supplemented it with a lyrical story about an old man who is hallucinating in a sunny park. He is unsettled by visions of various atrocities he had performed, at that very park, in his younger days.
Now, you may be wondering why Cinema Strange seems to deal exclusively with ghosts and murder. It's a good question. If it makes anyoine feel any better, some of our new material concerns, among other things, pirates, imaginary friends, and runaway little girls. I'll have explanations for those when the next album comes out, undoubtedly. Until then, good day to you, and I do hope that your ear lobes are relatively un-nibbled by weasels. (kiss, kiss)