The Magic Lantern

To The Islands (2018) - Album

by The Magic Lantern

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Jason Boardman Developing an OCD for this lp, genius left field majestic wonky pop. One for the top ten end of year list for certain.

keef chemistry What a voice. This album is a real gem Favorite track: Holding Hands.

transientstatic I don't think I'd write a message for anyone else's album, but so much love for The Magic Lantern. So good.

Dave West This is The Magic Lantern's masterpiece. An album of sublime vocals, haunting melodies. can't recommend it enough, absolutely beautiful. Congratulations Jamie x

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Limited edition 12" vinyl, screen printed on textured vellum milkweed card with die cuts on front/back. 2-colour offset lithographic inner sleeve on Context Birch. Records pressed on black virgin vinyl and the whole thing finished and put together by me. Edition of 200.

Includes unlimited streaming of To The Islands (2018) - Album via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

edition of 150

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Limited edition CD, offset lithograph printed on unique recycled paper Arigato paks all the way from Portland OR's Stumptown Printers with litho fold-out poster/lyrics.

Includes unlimited streaming of To The Islands (2018) - Album via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

edition of 200

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Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

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Full Digital Discography

8

releases

Get all 8 The Magic Lantern releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of To The Islands (2018) - Album, Albatross (2018) - Single, Lydia (2018) - Single, Holding Hands (2017) - Single, Love of Too Much Living - Remakes (2015) - Album, A World In A Grain Of Sand (2011) - Album, Love Of Too Much Living (2014) - Album, and Cut From Stone / The Bridge (2010) - Single. , and , .

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1.	Holding Hands 05:25	lyrics	buy track

2.	Albatross 04:19	lyrics	buy track

3.	Between the World and Me 06:18	lyrics	buy track

4.	Scattered Leaves 04:28	lyrics	buy track

5.	Lydia 04:07	lyrics	buy track

6.	Tangled Chimes 03:51	lyrics	buy track

7.	Two Bells 04:21	lyrics	buy track

8.	Masks 04:52	lyrics	buy track

9.	Darling Day 05:26	lyrics	buy track

10.	Re: Her 02:06	info	buy track

about

The act of remembering and its challenges, has defined much about this album and me in the making of it. With profound personal and political implications, it is a wonder that the process itself remains such a mystery. For what and how we remember helps define the limits of our aspirations and shapes our understanding of, and expectations for, a world in which they might be realised.

The point where memory, hope and expectation meet therefore, is a fertile, febrile place. Like a delta, it is rich with the accumulated narratives and shared histories we lay down over time, year upon ever flowing year. It is here we sink our roots; here we sow our seeds.

But just as when looking in on Schrödingerʼs poor cat, the act of observation itself affects the outcome. The present tense recollection of the past is always biased by our current selves, the demands of the present and whatever colour glasses we happen to be wearing. In that sense we live in the moment, perhaps unwittingly, more than we give ourselves credit for.

This is important because although we cannot, as Einstein pointed out, ‘get around the assumption of realityʼ, we know our memories are fallible. However they get corrupted, challenged or lost, the effect is like trying to walk in a straight line on a rolling ship; the sudden destabilising of certainties can quickly spiral into an unravelling of the whole kit and caboodle - all hope and expectation reduced to the intensity of the moment. For who are we if not what we were? And what is left if we no longer know?

Memories, however imperfect, sent me back to my childhood home to Australia after many years away, where I began writing these songs - memories of who I thought I was and what made me who I am. Taking them for granted, I set off on a wild goose chase. And as the saying goes, assumption will make an ass out of you and me, and so it did. But it started me thinking about all of this and how fresh and fragile we are.

The making of this album has traced the journey I have taken over the last three years, through places geographic and emotional, in ways I couldn’t have imagined - as intensely beautiful as challenging. I’ve lent on friends and family and had to hold them up. And while I feel less certain about everything, I’m more at ease knowing how little I know:

That a delta owes its fertility to the floods that wash away much of what was. As the waters recede, what remains is the promise of a new beginning, but one which entails its end.

All love and thanks to Fred Thomas, Zac Gvirtzman, Chris Hyson, Dave Hamblett, Alex Killpartrick, Chris Sheehan, Adam Greves and Adam Lawson for their dedication and support in helping to make this record happen; and in particular to thank Rhia Parker, for reminding me to look up at the moon.

This album is dedicated, with love and admiration, to my father.

- Jamie Doe, Autumn 2018

credits

released November 2, 2018

All songs written by Jamie Doe
Performed by Jamie Doe, Zac Gvirtzman, Dave Hamblett, Chris Hyson and Fred Thomas.
Additional horns on 'Holding Hands' by Dave Shulman and Mick Foster
Strings on 'Masks' by Peter Thomas, Phil Granell and Sergio Serra

Produced by Fred Thomas and Jamie Doe
Recorded by Alex Killpartrick with additional recording by Fred Thomas
Mixed by Alex Killpartrick
Mastered by Mandy Parnell
Artwork by Raimund Wong

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about

The Magic Lantern London, UK

The Magic Lantern is an artist dedicated to remedying the anxiety and fear present in everyone.

His third album 'To The Islands' explores memory, hope and anxiety in a world of near constant uncertainty. 'To The Islands' is out on 2 November. ... more

the-magic-lantern.co.uk

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Track Name: Holding Hands: I’m searching
For my true love
And I know she’s there
Just carry on, just carry on

I promise
I’ll find you
And it won’t be long
Just hold on, just hold on

So i’m trying
To be a better man
But the work goes,
Yes the work goes on
Yes the work goes on

One day when all this is washed away
Some will remain
Full of hope in the pouring rain
And I’ll see you there
With wet shoes and wet hair
And when the last day is done...

We’ll make it
Somehow
You know we will
We’ll be holding hands
We’ll be holding hands
We’ll be holding hands
Track Name: Albatross: Albatross
Skims over the waves
Alone with the rain and the wind
That she commands

Sailors say
Don’t be afraid
On fate’s fragile wing
We’ll ride out this storm

[Storm]

Blown off course
Foam flecked and cold
Home is an old children’s song
We sing ourselves to sleep

Lighthouse knows
All journeys end
With hope’s hand reaching out
To still each beating breast
Track Name: Between the World and Me: Can't escape the news
And tragedies every day
And desperate people
Being washed away

Oh brother what should we do?
Oh brother what should we do?
Oh brother what should we do now?

Wherever I look around
Seems everyone’s worked it out
Ashamed I still don’t know
What it’s all about

Oh father I’m so confused
Oh father I’m so confused
Oh father I’m so confused now

For the gap between what is and what could be
Is as fragile as the beating of a butterfly’s wing

Between the world and me
Between the world and what you see
Between the world and me
Between the world and what you see

We want all the love
But not commit too much
But beware that cautious hearts
Can grow cold to touch

So lover where should we go?
So lover where should we go?
So lover where should we go now?

For the gap between what is and what could be
Is as fragile as the beating of a butterfly’s wing

So grab someone and roll and roll and roll and roll and
Roll and roll and roll and roll and roll and roll and roll and
Roll about

Between the world and me
Between the world and what you see
Between the world and me
Between the world and what you see
Track Name: Scattered Leaves: With fear and trembling
Of our hopes unending
We wind our weary way home
Like scattered leaves

That settle where we’re blown
The good old stories
Are all death and glory
But worry’s what will get us in the end
Just endless rounds
Of hows and whys and whens

But regret’s a drug babe
It holds you down
And shakes you ‘till your lips are blue

Our search for purpose
Is one long reflective surface
Scratched from where
We’ve tried to change the view
Like an oak tree on its side
And an acorn where it blew

*Teerere mudzimu dzoka Haaaa hoyiye
Mudzimu dzoka Kwaziwai changamire
Haaaa hoyiye Kwaziwai changamire

[Listen spirit come back. Haaa hoyiye
Spirit come back, Greetings Lord]

*Shona lyrics borrowed with permission from my friend Fidelis Mherembi from his song ‘Mudzimu Dzoka' - Spirit come back
Track Name: Lydia: Oh Lydia
Don’t believe the hype
There’s nothing you can find ‘round here
And you might have to turn around
And start all over again
‘Cos at least then you’ll be headed
Where the sun can warm your skin
And then you’ll know
I meant it well
Lydia

But promises of green and gold
Will turn to turtle shell
And fall like autumn rain from your eyes
And in the pools that form around
Your tired and angry feet
There’ll be scattered lights reflecting
All the dreams you just can’t carry anymore
So let them go, go, go
Lydia

Then just go home
Then just go home

But sure as what is been is done
You’ll sing your own song
A warning’s just a challenge to carry on
And maybe you’ll outsmart us all
And see your name in lights
But though every door looks the same
Only one can lead you back the way you came
Don’t lose your way,
Lydia

Then please come home
Then please come home

One day please come home
One day please come home.
Track Name: Tangled Chimes: There’s no denying we live far apart
But they’re funny old things
Oh the head and the heart
And you can hear
Chance whistling
That you’ll never, ever know If you never, ever start

I wanna run home and hold you tight
I wanna run home and tell you that It’s going to be alright
I wanna dance with you baby
And turn off all the lights

You have the Tyne
And I have the Thames
A long silver thread
With two separate ends

We whisper
Down the line
But with shells to our ears
We hear the sea
Every time

But with shells to our ears
We hear the sea
Every time

But sometimes
Wanting’s not enough
And all that gleams
In time will rust

When there’s salt in the air and our eyes
Like tangled chimes
The wind unwinds us
And we ring out alone
Track Name: Two Bells: It won’t be easy
Won’t be easy at all, Ma
You’ve a twilight journey
Down from on the hill, Ma

The voice says don’t forget me
Don’t let me forget me
We’ve come this far
Why can’t we sit beside the sea
Just as we are

There’s one bell ringing
Warning songs
Fog frays the edges
Of what’s been and gone

Is it worse to lose
Or be lost, Pa?
And can you find your way back home
Now the moon’s clouded over?

He says don’t be scared son,
No don't be scared son, I’m still here
And though the night is dark
It’s your mother’s voice I hear

We’re like two bells ringing
Hands entwined
One leads the way now
One follows behind

We’re like two bells ringing
Hands entwined
One leads the way now
One follows behind
Track Name: Masks: It’s not that easy
All that effort
To keep those muscles moving
When you’re black and blue inside
Though you do so well to hide it

So still and silent
The day breaks violently
Colour creeping in the corners
Driving shadows from the floor
Like driftwood on the shore line

But sometimes I see
Your mask slipping down
Don’t be scared
No don’t be scared

Because you’re beautiful
But you’re hurting bad
There’s nothing to be done
But let time run and run
A beginning entails it’s end
And what’s broken we’ll mend

You’re broken
Broken
Broken down

Come on let’s lie down
And I’ll stroke your hair
And tell you it’s going to be
Alright in the end

Believe me
Believe me

But it’s not that easy
All that effort
To keep those muscles moving
When you’re black and blue inside

Though you do,
So well
To hide it.
Track Name: Darling Day: Come on darling,
Darling day

Come on darling,
Darling day

I lie wide awake
In the wine-dark lake
Of the night
And cold waves of worry and guilt
Come in gangs I can’t fight

Come on birds
Come on birds
Come on birds sing
Come on birds sing

Come on
Come and stay

Come on darling,
Darling day
Come on darling,
Darling day

The worry lines worn
With each black-opal dawn’s
Slow embrace
A sea cliff that holds back our fears
‘Till the moon shows her face

Grey goose
Grey goose
Grey goose

Come on,
Come and stay

Come day, darling

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To The Islands (2018) - Album

by The Magic Lantern

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

£20 GBP or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

£10 GBP or more

Streaming + Download

£7 GBP or more

Full Digital Discography

£27.95 GBP or more (35% OFF)

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To The Islands (2018) - Album

by The Magic Lantern