Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater is a 20 movement cycle of audio/visual ecstatic visions, and is being released as a purely musical work on cassette tape and as an interactive audio/visual web based experience. Stabat Mater is heavily inspired by the visions of female Christian mystics Hildegard von Bingen and Teresa of Ávila. The lyrics for Stabat Mater include adaptations of writings from these mystics fused together with text taken from surrealist poet Aase Berg's With Deer and Dark Matter (both translated by Johannes Göransson and published by Black Ocean).

Lyrics

  • 01. wounds renew 02:58
  • wounds split open through the cracks of my skin
    hands anointed and fingers curl
    my head is immersed in pools of white foam
    I am bathed in liquid
    it pours itself throughout
    it pours itself throughout my limbs
    I search inward, washed clean in milk
    it will come through my eyes from the other side
  • 02. mother weeping 03:56
  • body cast in milk
    come into you soft as sleep
    I am bathed in liquid
    put my fist through my mouth and pull the roots out of the ground
    my eyes filled fast with milk
    I weep from this place
    I weep from my throat and swim alongside this tide
    body cast in milk
    I shall come through your eyes
  • 03. nourishment 03:33
  • my feeble heart
    my feeble heart beats through this enclosed shell
    exploding waves break
    I drag myself
    a slit begins to dissolve through these heavy waters
    thrusting my body across netted fibers and pounding veins
  • 04. she beneath 00:50
  • gasping for oxygen
    an entire lung full of salty air
    throbbing fiercely
    throbbing
  • 05. burning sphere 01:09
  • I swell with fatigue
    burning sphere pressing me down
    I swell with fatigue
    burning sphere pressing me down
  • 06. fragile veils 02:13
  • I have cried out tearfully to you
    her face appears as if it is pure water
    she touches me
    I am covered with fragile veils
    glowing like a thousand eggs
    I flow forth
    I flow forth from this froth-filled watercourse
  • 07. black vein 02:01
  • I wake in the middle of the night from feverish waves
    silent clusters form
    dew collects on my eyelids
    this night fever lowers through me
    breathes against my chest
    my fingers search the bottom of the lake
    for the water lily’s black vein
    to find
    to find my nourishment
  • 08. on your knees 05:03
  • in the distance the wind is slowly dying
    the night of nights is coming
    but still my fetus flower rests untouched
    and still my fingers search the bottom
    a wreath of water encircles my torso
    here glowing petals stick to the thin branch
    there is a scab on me
    this water runs slow and sweet
    glowing through my milk skin
    I will bend backward through the pain
    sink back through the bottom
    I puke, it runs slowly out of my slack mouth
    I sink downwards through this sweet meat
  • 09. shell 01:23
  • I weep from my throat and swim alongside this tide
    my feeble heart beats through this enclosed shell
    exploding waves break
    I drag myself
    exploding waves break
  • 10. fount of love 04:36
  • I drag myself
    a slit begins to dissolve through these heavy waters
    thrusting my body across netted fibers and pounding veins
    gasping for oxygen
    an entire lung full of salty air
    throbbing
    throbbing fiercely
    I swell with fatigue
    burning sphere pressing me down
    bending the burning sphere that encircles me
    I have cried out tearfully to you
    her face appears as if it pure water
    she touches me
    covered skin with fragile veils
    glowing like a thousand eggs
    I flow forth
    I flow forth from this froth-filled
    from this froth-filled watercourse
  • 11. pierce me through 00:55
  • wounds split open between the cracks of my skin
  • 12. nailed to my body 02:17
  • 13. veil of water 00:52
  • a wreath of reflective water encircles my torso
    bright light white as snow
  • 14. scab 02:41
  • trembling
    trembling foliage encircles my chest
    glowing petals stick to the thin branch
    there is a scab
    there is a scab on me
    I will bend backwards through the bottom of light
    I puke calmly
    it runs slowly out of my mouth
    without moving
    without moving a single nerve
  • 15. grief divine 02:19
  • 16. fetus lily 04:37
  • I wake
    I wake in the middle of the night from feverish waves
    silent
    silent clusters form
    dew collects on my eyelids
    this night fever lowers through me
    breathes against my chest
    my fingers search the bottom of the lake
    to find
    to find my nourishment
    in the distance the wind is slowly dying
    I am coming
    I search for this vein
    a wreath of reflective water droplets encircle my torso
    bright light white as snow
    transparent as crystal
    from my throat down to my breasts
    I glow with scales
    mirrors of scales in a row
  • 17. cast down the flesh of your body 01:37
  • with fingers I have sought you
    maneuver the body across a wide and deep lake
    I can hear the waves break
    I can hear my heart scream
    I will go across
    I will go across the deep, deep lake
  • 18. feeble heart 02:27
  • this night fever lowers through me
    breathes against my chest
    my fingers search the bottom of the lake
    but still, but still I search to find my nourishment
  • 19. half-open mouth 01:39
  • with fingers
    with fingers I have sought you
    I will go across
    through the mouth like the mouth of a well
    sharp branches beat thorns against my skin
    I utter several moans
  • 20. streams of mercy 02:35