Manafon (Japanese promo)

Small Metal Gods

It's the farthest place I've ever been
It's a new frontier for me
And you balance things
Like you wouldn't believe
When you should just let things be

Yes, you juggle things
Cause you can't lose sight
Of the wretched story-line
It's the narrative that must go on
Until the end of time

And you're guilty of some self neglect
And the mind unravels for days
I've told you once
Yes, a thousand times
I'm better off this way
I'm better off this way

Where's my queen of hearts
My royal flush
I have cleaned and scrubbed her decks
My suicide, my better days
There's nothing I regret

I've placed the Gods
In a zip-lok bag
I've put them in a drawer
They've refused my prayers
For the umpteenth time
So I'm evening up the score

Small metal Gods
From a casting line
From a factory in Mumbai
Some manual labourer's bread and butter
And a single-minded lie

Small metal Gods
Cheap souvenirs
You've abandoned me for sure
I'm dumping you, my childish things
I'm evening up the score.

Small Metal Gods

Featuring Toshimaru Nakamura and Burkard Stangl.

The Rabbit Skinner

The Rabbit Skinner

Featuring Christian Fennesz and John Tilbury.

Random Acts Of Senseless Violence

Random Acts Of Senseless Violence

Featuring Keith Rowe and Werner Dafeldecker

The Greatest Living Englishman

Here we are then, here we are
Notes from a suicide
And he will never ever be
The greatest living Englishman

It's such a melancholy blue
Or a grey of no significance
Plastic coated surfaces
A space to place his suitcase
As he's bussed from A to B

But it's such a melancholy blue
The curtains round the bed are drawn
Broadcast voices from the ward
The humming of machines are heard
But there are distances between
Yes, there are distances between

His aspirations visited him nightly
And amounted to so little
Too much self in his writing
Now he will never ever be
The greatest living Englishman

The engine shifts into second gear
They're all aboard accounted for
It's a journey he must make alone
The black sheep boy is leaving home

It's been rehearsed a thousand times or more
He's well prepared of that he's sure

But still it's such a melancholy blue
He's erased a page of history
Much as he'd intended to

He wouldn't speak or show you he was happy
Though you'd meet him with your eyes
There was a wall that always stood between you
He'd shut himself outside

And the love that he engendered
Would never be enough
For him to feel alive
Warm and tender
He'd shut himself outside

Not a fake nor a sham
But dug in deep and fighting
The world could not embrace a man
With so much self in his writing

Well he was never gonna be
The greatest living Englishman
He had ideas above his station
Minor virtues go unmentioned

Little England you fit like a straightjacket
Hemmed by the genius of others
He said "to conquer the world is not to leave a trace
Remove even the shadow of the memory of your face"

A grey of no significance

The Greatest Living Englishman

Featuring Sachiko M. and Otomo Yoshihide.

125 Spheres

And when it appeared
It was a flaming book of matches
A hundred and twenty-five spheres
On a parquet floor

125 Spheres

Featuring Christian Fennesz and Burkard Stangl.

Snow White In Appalachia

Half life
She moves in a half life
Imperfect

From her place on the stairs
Or sat in the backseat
Sometimes you're only a passenger
In the time of your life

And there's snow on the mattress
Blown in from the doorway
It would take pack mules and provisions
To get out alive

There were concerts and car crashes
There were kids she'd attended
And discreet indiscretions
For which she'd once made amends

And there's ice on the windshield
And the wipers are wasted
And the metal is flying
Between her and her friends

She'd abandoned them there
In the hills of Appalachia
She threw off the sandbags
To lighten the load

As soon as the sun rose
The keys were in the ignition
Following the tyre tracks
Of the truck sanding the road

There had to be drugs
Running through the girl's body
There had to be drugs
And they too had a name

And the adrenalin rush
Had left her exhausted
When under the blue sky
Nothing need be explained

And there is no maker
Just inexhaustible indifference
And there's comfort in that
So you feel unafraid

And the radio falls silent
But for short bursts of static
And she sleeps in a house
That once too had a name

Snow White In Appalachia

Featuring Michael Moser and Keith Rowe. Listen also to the full version.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Featuring Evan Parker and Joel Ryan.

The Department Of Dead Letters

Instrumental track from Manafon. Featuring Christian Fennesz and David on electronics.

Manafon

Manafon

Featuring Franz Hautzinger and Werner Dafeldecker.

Random Acts of Senseless Violence (Dai Fujikura remix)

Random Acts of Senseless Violence (Dai Fujikura remix)

Only available on the (worldwide) vinyl release and the Japanese CD of Manafon!
In 2011 released on the Manafon Variations album Died In The Wool.