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The Quiet in the Land

by Calamateur

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    Download also includes exclusive-to-Bandcamp digital extras, including the original 13-page liner-notes booklet, designed by DUFI-ART.
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1.
You hold our lives in your hands In ways that we can’t always understand Your love can be a mystery Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just believe In the desert In the darkness In the silence You ask me to bring Yeah, all my questions In surrender And call you king So when we doubt and when we fail When it seems your love is just a fairytale Come lift our heads, come lift our eyes Come remind us of the smile you like to hide In the desert In the darkness In the silence You ask me to bring Yeah, all my questions In surrender And call you king When you prayed in the night Daddy let this troubled hour pass me by You shed our tears and cried our cries Embraced the black hole at the heart of all our lives In the desert In the darkness In the silence You ask me to bring Yeah, all my questions In surrender And call you king In the desert In the darkness In the silence You ask me to bring Yeah, all my questions All my questions All my questions Like why did you go? Why didn’t you stay? Why did you leave us this way? Out in the cold Out on our own Discarded outcast alone You say just wait But we need you now What kind of fucked up father are you anyhow? Who pushes his kids Over the edge Demanding what we can never ever give People will say I’ve crossed a line That I’ve mistaken your place for mine But I call this love And I call this faith I call it hanging on to the promises you made And damn you, I surrender And damn you, I surrender
2.
Hell 00:17
3.
Try 04:05
I try to love you God I try to love you God But resentment’s creeping under like a disease I try to praise you God I try to praise you God But the curses drip like honey from my lips I try to trust you God I try to trust you God But I don’t know if you’ll catch me when I fall I try to need you God I try to need you God But a father’s job is to let go of his child I try to love you God I try to love you God Come break my heart so I can love you more
4.
Recant 00:55
5.
Separate 06:44
No global power No human plan Against your love Can ever stand Not one mistake That we can make No single rule That we can break No great depression Or divorce Can stem this Unrelenting force Jesus your love is the last word Carrying us forward Making all things new Help us attain this resurrection To know without exception There is nothing can separate us from your love No prison walls No splintered heart Can ever tear This love apart No secret sin No troubled mind No stillborn child No wasted life No act of terror Or of war Can pin this wrestler To the floor Jesus your love is the last word Carrying us forward Making all things new Help us attain this resurrection To know without exception There is nothing can separate us from your love From your love And when we can’t Believe it’s true When we think we’ve Lost even you Come trouble our hearts Come don’t give up Have mercy on Our crooked hearts And do not let us Be defined By what we’ve yet To leave behind Jesus your love is the last word Carrying us forward Making all things new Help us attain this resurrection To know without exception There is nothing can separate us from your love
6.
Turn off the light This headache is blinding my sight Give me your wrist So you can't hurt yourself with your fist All this fear and doubt Is just trying to fight it’s way out This box of stones Made me feel we weren't alone Now I can't hide From this thought that we've been filled with lies Open your eyes Pull me inside So I can Hide with you my love When our answers are not enough When we question all we've seen Come retreat to love with me That’s where I’ll be When you can’t understand Why we think there is more Than the sleight of our hands When the curtain comes down When silence is king When people are fools To believe in anything I’ll hide with you my love When our answers are no longer enough When we question all we’ve seen Come retreat to love with me I’ll hide with you my love When our answers are not enough When we question all we’ve seen Come retreat Retreat with me Turn off the light This headache is blinding my sight I dreamed last night That we fell through the holes in our lives
7.
Coal Miner 00:47
8.
Written by Mark Linkous.
9.
Hail 04:49
Even when the stars are going out I will hail you, always hail you Even when your love it is in doubt I will hail you, try to hail you When all I want to do is curse your name Help me to hail you, always hail you When every day is exactly the same I will hail you, try to hail you Can you hear your people call your name? In the dark, from the depths, of my heart I will hail you With the works, of my hands, my whole life I will hail you But how long can I keep this up? But how long can I keep going without you here? When all these prophecies have proved untrue I will hail you, try to hail you When the promise of our youth has I will hail you, always hail you In the dark, from the depths, of my heart I will hail you With the works, of my hands, my whole life I will hail you But how long can I keep this up? But how long can I keep going without you here?
10.
Demo 230608 02:26
Though your body has been split Though your body it is ripped Will you still come down to save us Though your body it is split Though your body has been ripped Will you still come down and save us In your silence we are broken In your silence we are broken Under the rejected stone Please pray our prayer for redemption Redemption
11.
Written and originally performed by Moby and Mimi Goese.
12.
Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him Your cross of doubt and fear Of all that you hold dear Leaves you unwelcome here Take up your cross Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him Your cross of craven lust The charge in every touch That never is enough Take up your cross Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him Your cross of awkwardness Makes each exchange a mess Fills you with loneliness Take up your cross Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him Your cross of barrenness The ache inside your chest That never gives you rest Take up your cross Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him Your cross of failing health Makes a fool of wealth Cursing the hand you’re dealt Take up your cross Take up your cross and follow him Take up your cross and follow him The cross that brings your death Shortens your every breath Leads you to holiness Take up your cross
13.

about

13-track album, originally released on Autoclave Records in November 2011.

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"an album which is at once confusing and mysterious, but an intriguing and brilliantly realised effort. 4.5/5." - Is This Music?

"an album that defies categorisation, constantly challenges the status quo and ultimately cleanses from an artist who consistently pushes his own musical boundaries as well as the expectations of everyone who dares to listen. 9/10." - Cross Rhythms

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REVIEWS IN FULL:

"Andrew Howie has seen many musical changes since he released his debut single, the Peel-favourite ‘White Light Unknown’, itself a fragile mystery of love and oblivion, a stark piece of pop genius lightly sprinkled with atmospherics. Since then he’s flitted between downright experimental (a 3” CD left on park benches and pubs for people to discover) and pop (the recent album 'Each Dirty Letter' which picked up reviews across the mainstream press). He’s even done an album of covers, 'Jesus Is For Losers', which just about surmounted the pitfalls of such a theme by using the likes of Lou Reed and Mark Eitzel as source material. 'The Quiet In The Land', somehow, ties together all these threads, even from the opening 18 seconds, a sample where we’re told “There’s no such place as hell” – a kind of anti-Wiz. But the difference between this and his recent more commercial releases is typified the dirty visceral sound that he’s got on opening track proper ‘Call You King’ which is driven by electronic percussion and eventually subsumed by noise until Howie’s clear voice cracks and he says “I surrender”. The title track follows and is probably what we call “glitchcore”, certainly with more electronics providing the backbone for the song while a whispered almost demonic voice mutters “I tried to trust you, god”. It’s like a curious cross between Depeche Mode or NIN; this is no happy clappy album, neither is it a denouncement of religion. In fact the satanic feel of the vocals makes it hard to see what’s going on. ‘Retreat’, by comparison, features Jo Mango and the voices go together to form some sort of celestial choir. ‘Hail’ – “I will hail you“ – doesn’t sound too devotional either with a muttered co-vocal delivering the pay-offline. Indeed, ‘Take Up Your Cross’ is the closest we get to a hymn, with cracked, tortured vocals like Johnny Cash in ‘Personal Jesus’ mode. In all, an album which is at once confusing and mysterious, but an intriguing and brilliantly realised effort. 4.5/5." - Is This Music?

"The latest album from Scottish singer/songwriter Andrew Howie (aka Calamateur) is certainly not for the faint hearted. In sharp contrast to his previous release 'Each Dirty Letter', in which Cross Rhythms reviewer Phil Thomson noted a "spectacular lightness of touch", this offering is unmistakably heavy in its musical approach with a steady stream of distortion, electrical beeps, buzzes and white noise. This sonic backdrop sets the scene for an often dark album that documents Howie's grievances and dissatisfaction with God in bitingly honest fashion whilst ultimately relaying his undying love and faith in Jesus - often within the same breath and totally in keeping with the reality that Christians who voice their concerns and doubts should never be considered second class citizens of faith. Prime example of this is found in the epic opener 'Call You King' in which Howie airs his views on how he perceives God has let his people down and therefore enters daringly candid territory that I doubt many Christian artists would be willing to enter - at one point accusing the Almighty of being a "f***ed up father" - before offering his exhausted and, let's face it, undoubtedly genuine surrender to God. Many people will feel that Howie has crossed the line by voicing this aforementioned sentiment - something he alludes to in the same song - but, to be fair, he does give ample warning on his website to stay away if easily offended. Elsewhere, the hard core electronica of 'Try' and 'Hail' further document the struggles of loving, praising and needing God with candour and offers up a swirling soundscape that showcases Howie's standing as one of the country's most excitingly unpredictable artists. The acoustic 'Hundreds Of Sparrows' betrays a tender but no less brooding side to Calamateur and a couple of ambient remixes of 'Retreat' - his duet with the critically acclaimed Scottish songstress Jo Mango from 'Each Dirty Letter' - add some variety to an already eclectic collection. The breathtaking 'Take Up Your Cross' closes an album that defies categorisation, constantly challenges the status quo and ultimately cleanses from an artist who consistently pushes his own musical boundaries as well as the expectations of everyone who dares to listen. 9/10." - Cross Rhythms

credits

released November 16, 2011

Everything was written, re-written, hastily played, badly miked, recorded, re-recorded, sampled, ganked, altered, reversed, distorted, mangled, produced, mixed, mastered and abandoned by Andrew Howie except:

6 and 13: originally recorded by Iain Hutchison at Glo-Worm Studio, Glasgow. Original piano and electric guitar parts played by Iain Hutchison. Additional vocals by Jo Mango.
8: written by Mark Linkous.
11: written by Moby and Mimi Goese.

Additional keyboards on 6, 8, 11 and 13 by Mark Hilditch.

Mostly recorded at Autoclave Noiselab 2.0, Beauly.
Tinkered with, mixed and mastered at The Annexe, Bannockburn.

Thanks to the man who left the Orange bass amp at the tip in Inverness for me to "rescue". You inspired me to get my bass guitar out again, which led to some of these songs turning out very differently than they might have done otherwise. Thanks to Mark Hilditch for the Korg MS20 and the old red guitar. Thanks to all the makers of free RTAS plug-ins throughout the world, and to Izotope for their awesome iDrum, Vinyl and Ozone 4. Feel free to let me endorse your products and shower me with free software. And thanks as always to L who doesn't mind me spending hours making a racket in the annexe.

To everyone I sampled: I hope you don't find out, and if you do, that you don't mind. Please don't sue me.

Artwork by Al at www.DUFI-ART.com

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Andrew Howie Scotland, UK

Andrew Howie is a Scottish singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist & community music tutor who has been writing, recording and releasing his own music for over two decades.

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