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Laughter Over The Water

by Noel'le Longhaul

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  • Laughter Over the Water: Limited Edition Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    13 track album, hand-painted tapes, type-written case-labels. Includes track sheet.

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  • Limited Edition Compact Disc
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Each thirteen-track CD is hand-folded, type-written, and painted. Each includes a sprig of Usnea from the lake at which I first heard the loons, which later became the location and focus of the writing and recording of "Moon Under Water, Hole in the Ice." Limited edition of 100.

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1.
2.
darling, what have you done? you held me in the halifax sun, it was like being in love. for you, the sun comes. for you, the sun comes. We promised to use a lot of time and it took a while for that promise to die, i can still here it cry. i've been wrapped around your spine, you're a tree and I'm a twisted kudzu vine. you're a house, i am a door i am a guest on your floor i'm always on your shore you're an ocean, i'm your tide i'm the smoke from your campfire i am signalling you. mourning dove out on the wire, i'm calling you a liar you have nothing to mourn. one hand to you, the other to traffic, wondering which choice could ever last, i am always an ass. I've watched you burn and watched you flood, i've seen your rivers turn to mud, and dry up.
3.
Tether 02:27
cut the thread of the fraying edge of your green bandana you wore all summer in the fog. and the thickets sing hallelujah and the mountains wear black dresses and your kisses were made of sap that view glued my heart to a tune i will hope to sing forever.
4.
Be Kind 02:37
5.
The Light 05:22
bury all of your prayers so you can find them anywhere. cast them into the wind, so you hear them in everything. oh child, you will lay down in the light. child, find your home--get there by walking alone. it's past that time of year again when all your energy is spent trying to keep things from changing, but the light is fading. we kill a little piece each day to keep the bigger death at bay bury the still parts in the ground and trust they will know when to come out. standing at the door of fall i can see its light dancing on the walls i want to learn to dance like that. and i want to be here with you but like dust motes winking out of view we're in a long hall and these are old rooms. and this is not my tune-- but it's mine to use. this is an old song, these are old blues.
6.
7.
between the fog and city lights behind the highways and desert sky you see one thing clear and bright. at birth, they gave you a sound. it was the first time you were spoken out loud. they said it one time, clear and bright. for each one of us, there is a ship in the sea i saw yours, i thought the captain saw me. your name was painted in blue. it sailed straight and true towards one thing clear and bright.
8.
in the hobo jungle at the foot of mt shasta, i carved in wood some kind of flower i had never seen. it was blooming, it was clear and bright. it was everything i had ever wanted to be. but in the looming shapes of the night i knew the only thing i knew how to do was leave. so the ladder on the water tower takes my weight and bears it well, til i can see the lights from the southern cross motel. i cup my hands and i whistle loud i hear my friend reply from the ground but the hardest part is always climbing down. for a time there, i was lost and free i was a westbound train, i kept my whistle screaming.
9.
saw its face rising from the steam in the field. saw it like a razor. the fireflies wrap around the kudzu vine. you watched all the light leave the frame saw the home dissapear and the house remain. cupped his heart in your hands like a firefly blinking silently at the southern sky, i dug a pit with my hands where i buried my plans now the sunrise is quiet, there's a silence in the land. it's a long walk home and there is no road take the bundle on your back, you've got to carry your load. he found in you a place to rest sleeping in the thickets dancing in your chest. so hold on to the one thing you understand: your heart's a honeycomb, and there's a silence in the land.
10.
The moon followed me home. the moon came in through my window. Thank you moon, for following me, faithfully. the walls were looming mountains my bed was a bright hollow. I lay in the cave carved by all the hopes I'd ever known. all that i was feeling stretched across the ceiling like a starry dome. with fragile elation i mapped the constellations i thought i had seen. i felt located, or fuck, even fated but lucky to believe that i could trust this stuff enough to slough off all the shit i didn't need: and trust the tunnels twist below us.
11.
Blood 02:43
tonight all that i want is to get drunk by the tracks. tonight, all that i want is to clean up my act. both of these things live inside of me, and every thing i say is binding. i wake up each morning and write my own blood write my own blood write my own blood contract. each night is black ice. if i were a car i'd have bad headlights. remind me to pull over it's far too late to drive.
12.

credits

released September 17, 2013

"this is haunting, gorgeous music. animism, folklore, icons, wild winds, and great vast sweeps and vistas."
--Stephen Higa

"Noel'le has a new album out and it's heartbreaking."
--Niko (allthatisair.tumblr.com)

Banjo, percussion, guitar, casio, vocals, violin, production, recording by Noel'le Longhaul.

Thanks Katie Ross for vocals on Morning Dove. Thanks Joshua Marcus for the stylings-inspiration for "Blood." The phrase "Silence in the Land" comes from Haley Handsdirty. "Hallelujah, I Have Known You" is the last line of a beautiful piece of writing by Wren Awry called "Six Objects, Exchanged, Between Someone Dying and Someone Being Born. Find it at www.seamsandstory.org. Last two lines of "The Light" by Joanna Newsom. Thanks to Airoe for the sample of the train we shared. Recorded at home in Providence.

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Noel'le Longhaul Montague, Massachusetts

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