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Charlotte, the Levitator

from The Liberty System by Nat Johnson

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    Purchasable with gift card

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • 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 

     

about

A song for Charlotte Brontë.
Charlotte's element is Air. She seeks Liberty of Mind.

lyrics

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

credits

from The Liberty System, released October 21, 2016
Written and performed by Nat Johnson

license

all rights reserved

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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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