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Orchid Mantis

by Elizabeth Devlin

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Comes in an orchid white, six panel, full color wallet, with photography by Charles Lavoie (charleslavoie.photography) and costume design by Jossie Vons (jossievons.com).

    Includes unlimited streaming of Orchid Mantis via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 7 days

      $12 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

1.
Middle Car 04:47
1. Middle Car Rippling silver dinosaur skin, great lake Superior breathes beneath ice epidermis. Middle car of train in which I sit stops, centered in vein of grey country road. Streaked yellow road lines of piss trail off into a barren upstate world of snow, beer and hockey. The approaching car is void of motion but grows like an immersed sponge toy. This was how it seemed to me, expanding outward, growing larger but never moving closer. This was how it seemed to be, the world eclipsed by a black boulder. Sunlight peers around the shoulder. Swirling scarlet eddies, red seas, coagulate near naked trees and my cup runneth over. Autumn warlord’s windy caterwaul beckons the blood leaves of grass to fall. The wind on which I stand pulls me up, tumbling me over and out, it's a screaming carnival. Your face was upside down, tucked inside out but baby, you were so beautiful. This was how you seemed to me, expanding outward, growing larger but never moving closer. This was how it seemed to be. The world's upside down, he once told her. Sunlight peers around my shoulder. If our fingers were tight rope walkers, then your words and my lips, and your veins and my hips, would be wires. It's a carnival and balance is required. Our hands fall heavily, through the air weightlessly, though the show's not expired.
2.
Take My Life 02:54
Take My Life Take my life, take my breath, take this heaving, beating heart from my chest. No more fears, no more frowns, I am here to take you home. Take me home. I am floating above the clouds. I am out of the storm now, Take me home. Take me home.
3.
Cold Sweat 03:46
Cold Sweat Three things that I see, three things to touch three things that I hear, will it be enough? Tether me to moments when the now escapes my grasp. Count all the externals while internals detach. Lead me from the dance floor, lead me to my bed. Take me from the party, that is what she said. Keep me in the quiet, lock me in the tallest tower Wrap me in good intentions, hold me in this dark hour. Far off float horizons, I will walk the beach Passing through the forest, keep me in your reach Feathered friends they fly 'cross countries, far across the seas Tie my balloon heart to your wrist, save me from this breeze. Lead me from the dance floor, lead me to my bed. Take me from the party, that is what she said. Keep me in the quiet, lock me in the tallest tower Wrap me in good intentions, hold me in this dark hour
4.
Wedding Song 03:49
5.
A Chorus Divine I'll slip away as you are sleeping murmuring something from a dream. And it's not that my heart is bleeding but there is something I've got to see. Past the blinds, cab-fair'd towers, past the gates party-pumped after hours, past all your delicious human powers, don't worry my love I'll come back to you. Untainted, untouched, unslept, unfucked, re-enchanted, forever chaste, to you my darling I'll make haste. My love, my life, my beauty, my strife, my sacred sacrament, my bitter hearts lament, my dulcet rumbling voice, my build, my choice, my right, my bite, my starlit supple night. In me you're the best, in you I take rest my toy, my melancholy ploy, be my joy.
6.
Bonnard and Marthe Paris colors spinning through my brain, a cotton candy rain strikes tourmaline puddles. Finally, a lightness to the breeze, it flutters violet leaves shading languid waterlilies. Oh, the love of it spills me into pools of honey and I never knew thrilling, 'til you laid those lips, laughing, down upon me. Bonnard's love for Martha was so fierce, trumped only by a lust for oil laid on linen. Bathing every morning as he drew, I wonder if she knew the colors carried music. Oh, the love of light spills her, into pulls of lavender and you'll know what I'm after by the waves of my laughter. Paris colors spinning through my brain, a cotton candy rain strikes tourmaline puddles. Finally, a lightness to the breeze, it flutters violet leaves...
7.
Delilah 02:49
Delilah Samson, why do you weep? Bound and blinded, without power, Delilah hands you to the Philistines. Honor your god, honor your god though you cannot see. Honor your God. Soldier, why do you kill? Is it a testament to your righteousness and will? Honor your god, honor your god, lose humanity. Honor your god. Rich man, why do you save? Will all the money you have keep you from a mass grave? Honor your god, honor your god, though they're so hungry. Honor your god, honor your god, lose humanity. Honor your god, honor your god though you cannot see. Honor your God, honor your God.
8.
The Field 04:46
The Field The wind is blowing through the trees and there is smoke upon the breeze. The taste of a life I used to know, If I close my eyes I see all the things that use to be and the memories that nobody knows. When you come to me like this, it is torture split with bliss and I don't know which way is up. When we ran through fields in spring and we laid down counting things, the leaves and the buds on buttercups. I still remember this, it is a dream I can't forget, the way you looked in the sun and you laughed and told me things about all the coming springs and the life we would know beyond the dusk. I still remember it , it is a feeling I can't forget the way your lens pointed at my face. We were so young and free, living irresponsibly, on that Easter in a field of buttercups. I still recall the taste of your lips upon my face, and the spring fell around us dropping puddles of honey. It is a delicious thought, all the memories you have brought me now in the cold of the Fall. Darling, I miss you, I miss the life we knew, the sun in your curls and the darkness of my eyes. Baby, where are you, so far away in that field of buttercups.
9.
For Valerie 03:18
For Valerie How fragile we all are, all the little bits inside. The boulder upon the shore crumbles shaking to the tide. And that is how most of us go, not a thunder-crack in flight but a chorus fading slowly into dark, unending night. It's a stranger thing to know than the cosmos in the sky, than the ocean depths below, than a newborn baby's sigh and it's a wondrous thing to see things we cannot comprehend, why the pyramids are standing, how a rainbow has no end. You are so dear to me though, sometimes it is hard to say. While we prepare for tomorrow, life is happening today. Come on now, let's not look back over all of our mistakes. Let's try only to look forward. What good come to those who wait. So hold me now and hold me close why we still remember why all the little things have purpose, while we aren't afraid of time. and love's a stranger thing to know than the cosmos in the sky, than the ocean depths below, than a newborn baby's sigh. And although I love you so, even stars, someday, will die.
10.
It's so strange, every time you come to me there is a familiarity in the cadence of your voice. And the rhythm of light that plays about neutralizes any doubt that we always met before. I couldn't help and imagine all the lives in which we made love before. Undeniable attraction and when you go it's always wet and keeps on raining. It keeps on raining. I recall, the first time you walked my way on that hot and sunny day when we first met each other's glance. Timing's trick, the fates did not yet intend for our lives to heave and bend towards each other's paths. But I couldn't help and imagine all the lives in which we laughed before. Now, I find you lingering around my door and when you go it's always wet and keeps on raining. It keeps on raining. The clouds are rolling. It keeps on raining.

about

Elizabeth Devlin releases haunting, lilting “ORCHID MANTIS”!
Album Release Party - February 8th, 2017, at Sidewalk Cafe, 94 Ave A, NY, NY on FEBRUARY 8, 2017 (New York, NY) – Performer and songwriter Elizabeth Devlin will release her third full-length album, ORCHID MANTIS, on during The Winter Anti-folk Festival at NYC’s legendary acoustic music venue, Sidewalk Café.

Offering an intriguing evening of ground-breaking musical exploration, Devlin has carefully curated the event to include performances by friends and musicians with whom she has collaborated over her last decade of living and working as a musician and artist in NYC. ORCHID MANTIS, Devlin’s first release in five years, is an intimate portrait of womanhood in a twenty-first-century domestic scene, intermingled with the lights and energy of Metropolis NYC. 


“The headliner Elizabeth Devlin, sang her densely packed and surreal verses about the stew of being a woman over an autoharp, her little girl’s voice riding coyly over the weirdly discordant harmonies she traced with her hands." -The New York Times: Artsbeat



“This album focuses on private lives and interpersonal relationships—it speaks to many of the challenges and questions one faces after adolescent life stops and a new life, beyond the chrysalis, begins,” says Devlin.  Collaboration with other musicians is at the heart of ORCHID MANTIS’ passionate grace. “We are all developing and growing…up, apart, together…it’s a hodgepodge of alternating expectations and creative processes and its exciting! The desire is to grab THIS, record it, keep it…a Polaroid of our collective moments, a diary entry of what our combined lives and creative experiences can be.” 

Recorded with Daniel Sanint, FLUX Studio NYC and mastered with Paul Gold, Salt Mastering Brooklyn, guest musicians on ORCHID MANTIS include: Emily Hope Price (Pearl and the Beard), Andrew Hoepfner (Creaky Boards, Darwin Deez, Houseworld, The Whisper Lodge), and Michael Wookey (French-Melancholic Pop Singer/Composer).

Devlin’s neo-artistic-feminine models, for men and women, contemplate untraditional roles within family and community.  “I’ll slip away while you are sleeping, murmuring something from a dream, and it’s not that my heart is bleeding, but there is something I have to see. Past the blinds, cab-faired towers, past the gates party-pumped after hours, past all your delicious human powers, don’t worry my love I’ll come back to you untainted, untouched, unslept, unfucked, re-enchanted, forever chaste, to you my darling I’ll make haste.” A Chorus Divine (Track 5)



Elizabeth Devlin has toured nationally and internationally, influenced by scratchy American and French phonographs, and combining bitter-sweet, haunting vocals with angelic, cacophonous Autoharp melodies.  Devlin has toured nationally, internationally, & performs at Piano's, Cake Shop, Jalopy Theater, Sidewalk Cafe, Webster Hall and other venues in her home NYC.

Contact: ElizabethDevlinBand@gmail.com - ElizabethDevlinMusic.com 

credits

released February 8, 2017

Elizabeth Devlin: Vocals, Autoharp, Electric Pump Organ
Emily Hope Price: Cello
Andrew Hoepfner: Grand Piano, Hammond Organ
Michael Wookey: Vocals, Pianet, Toy Piano, Mellotron: Vibes, Piano & Celesta, Pump Organ, Wurlitzer.

Produced by Elizabeth Devlin
Recorded & Mixed by Daniel Sanint at Flux Studio NYC
Mastered by Paul Gold, Salt Mastering
Written by Elizabeth Devlin

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Elizabeth Devlin New York, New York

Elizabeth Devlin, with her haunting combination of lilting voice and enchanting Autoharp, is a self-produced NYC singer- songwriter. Devlin defies traditional musical structure with many of her songs, building miniature narratives and magical worlds where characters, fantasies and time collide.
Devlin has toured nationally, internationally, & performs in venues throughout NYC's 5 boroughs.
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