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The Liberty System

by Nat Johnson

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      £1.49 GBP  or more

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Hand-numbered limited edition CD with three covers to choose from. Only 300 copies were produced; 100 of each cover. Each one comes with a tiny lyric book (inspired by the tiny books the Brontës wrote as children).

    Artwork by Oliver Allchin, tiny books by Nat.
    NB all CDs contain all three songs

    ...

    The Liberty System is a Brontë sisters triptych full of classical elements and meteorology. The songs 'Anne, the Gardener', 'Emily, the Diver' and 'Charlotte, the Levitator' study the literary sisters' creative approaches and their influence on one another's writing and ambitions.

    Each song sees a sister returning to the Parsonage dining room to write - bringing the room alive - before her work is released into the world. Each sister has been ascribed an element and each seeks a different kind of liberty.

    Commissioned by Off the Shelf Festival as part of the Brontë bicentenary celebrations.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Liberty System via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 228 

      £3 GBP or more 

     

1.
Let out like a scream, you don’t fit with the scheme; an orange hawkweed Among the blues and yellows, the bells and primrose that line the way home Where you’re drawn, by-and-by, by invisible tie, a hand in the sky You’ve been gritting your teeth until your release, and you stole truth like a thief Sister, lay your burdens on the table In a bundle of blooms let them grow Twisting tendrils, oh tormentil your roots running over To the edge; your wretched vetch stretching out, heading boldly Down the table leg to flagstone bed 
Your honest seeds are sown Now like your own self before watch them climbing the walls Build your trellis according to new rules Try to train them in lines, prune the faith-strangling vines “Come forwards” Sister, grow your garden Though your soil is pure and giving, your work’s never done Every harebell you get ringing they hide from the sun Every yellow rattle shaken, selfheal nettle-stung But wear your foxgloves with that perfect love, don’t hold your adders-tongue: “You tell us curl up, “dear creatures”, beside the fire at night While you hedge this heaven’s pleasures to indulge your appetite
But here in the garden you must walk a straighter edge
You can really smell the roses if you cut back the excess There’s an expansive future like the Scarborough sea With all its hope and possibility And dew from my sister gives my plants their Yorkshire tea Untasted, unsalted, unkept inspiring me And the breath of my sister to spread my sprouting seeds “Taking our plans In our own hands Working the land”
2.
From depths returned, floated back to land Face of fog and body of clay Diamond dust, evaporee A river cut deep, a path drawn straight 
 Seen from above, the line of fate Face of fog and body of clay
 The earth moves out of your way Myth sees you ride a dark wave neath the moon Dredging all worlds from the ancient salty blue A bride-less train of eternity Dragged in your wake across the cold country But on a damp and still morning - ah! Your shadow there cast crepuscular And in the garden your rain falls far from the plain
 Each mark met with arrow’s aim Your currents strong, your clouds right wrung
 A bay where floats your galleon Quencher, oh drencher, lifegiver, life taker 
 Feed these roots, fill these boots, blot and cross the wallpaper
 With port-wrenching power and starboard compassion Love finds a lover but a storm soon comes thrashing Then with mingled affection your steam-devil of a sister Drives you to advection, that oft-brewin’ half-twister
 And comes a creeping fog from her petting conquistar Downward and townward to menace the vista A low-lying, eye-widening solitary cloud A galaxy unfocused unsettles the crowd But you’re far from there; you are diving again For no soul can be loosed in this world of men Closer to home is closer to you Closer still is the infinitely starry salty blue
 Diving and grasping for hands outstretched
 Take your place in the chain reaching down to the depths

3.
A stillness she can’t bear, This curling, swirling air But she holds her breath and, from right to left, Patrols the perimeter Oh, a breeze breathes relief She comes in, then what’s in is released Soars to ceiling height, then from left to right Spreads her secrets to each dew-soaked leaf Decanter, thought-planter Blow through the grass and speak at last Set em flyin, dandelion Come sing out loud, don’t whisper now Navigator, levitator Over mist prevail to fill that sail Before you turn again, weathervane Weeds to tumble and stalks to bend Soil to crumble and breath to lend Prithee pepperpot-shaker Show your power, sea-shaper Take us up, take us out, sky’s friend Hair-tangler, cloud-wrangler, It’s up to you when the sun breaks through Take us higher, spread this fire Through the great outside, be satisfied Fog-lifter, seed-drifter Your own heart as proof, tell the truth Before you circle back on your corkscrew track And with this tidy turn the wallflowers wince and waver Flickering the lamplight, dropping the temperature Throwing back the bushes like a tossed head of hair
 Right to left - so bereft - blowing a cold, cold air Refuter, uprooter! “I gift to thee a dormancy” Chastiser, capsizer! “And evaporate this sinful strait” Oh banshee, how can she! “Watch me dim the Northern Lights” Turn again, hurricane The wind can but grasp at the hands of time Wise-turner, late learner, all liberty thine

about

The Liberty System is a Brontë sisters triptych full of classical elements and meteorology. The songs 'Anne, the Gardener', 'Emily, the Diver' and 'Charlotte, the Levitator' study the literary sisters' creative approaches and their influence on one another's writing and ambitions.

Each song sees a sister returning to the Parsonage dining room to write - bringing the room alive - before her work is released into the world. Each sister has been ascribed an element and each seeks a different kind of liberty.

...

Commissioned by Off the Shelf Festival as part of the Brontë bicentenary, The Liberty System was performed and discussed at Off the Shelf, Beverley Literature Festival and Ilkley Literature Festival in October 2016.

Only 300 copies of the CD were produced; 100 of each cover. Each one is hand-numbered and comes with a tiny lyric book (inspired by the tiny books the Brontës wrote as children).

credits

released October 21, 2016

Written and performed by Nat Johnson
Violins on Anne, the Gardener by Katherine Jackson
Artwork by Oliver Allchin

Recorded by Actual Midgets at Harwood Street Studios, Sheffield
Mastered by Rob Gordon
Exorcism by Graham Burchell

Straw and Hay Records 2016

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Nat Johnson Sheffield, UK

“A treat for fans of PJ Harvey and Alela Diane” – Subba Cultcha

"Let’s talk about Nat Johnson. Sometimes people do, but not nearly loud enough or often enough, which is a shame, because she is as integral to the Sheffield scene as Kid Acne murals and Jarvis Cocker poems on the sides of buildings." - The Girls Are ... more

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