Get all 7 The Upper Strata releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Hue, Luap Elk, Fog, Fog (Instrumental), Neon Glitz, Cabaret Wartaire, and Shadow Upon The Snow.
1. |
Starting from Zero
04:58
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2. |
Floating Free
02:38
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What happened to me?
My flying dreams have
Faded and gone from me
I have lost the connection
The golden thread
To the cosmos wild
And the boundless child
I long to be floating free
Long to be floating free
like a present from the sky
That surprises beguiles
And all the while
I am unbound by gravity
Distant horizon something washes over me
Like memory of floating free
I long to be floating free
Seems an age since I simply watched the clouds go by
Sunlight is a rare commodity
Who can tell me, who can tell me
What it's really, what it's really worth?
Close my eyes
Feel its healing warmth
It feels just like some sort of rebirth
I long to be floating free
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3. |
Presents from the Sky
03:25
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Believe it or not they were floating free
Despite the obvious improbability
There is always a myth and some reality
A different standard
A discrepancy
Nothing says that better to me
Must have been something to see
Those presents from the sky
Coming down from on a high
Presents from the sky
Not for the cruel or naked eye
On a quest for flimsy whimsy of
Twittering machines or a bittersweet place
Life a gift and a curse
While the universe just takes
Presents from the sky
What they mean you must decide
Presents from the sky
When they come down you don't ask why
You say I should learn to speak plainer
As if there’s some secret that I seek to hide
But why does one go on singing about
Something ludicrous whimsical like parachutes presents bringing
Wondrous flying machine soaring on high
Mythical golden creatures there aloft
Raining treasures from above
That we can never earn
Like life like love like life
Floating free
I long to be floating free
Imagining a link from the cave to the cathedral
Preferring to see beauty over cruelty or evil
Noticing that which seems a common thread
Between the wild eyed child and the long dead
Mosaics masks and a myriad of things
That disguise our nature but bring forth other beings
And those presents from the sky
Coming down from on high
And those presents from the sky
Presents from the sky
But not for you or I
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4. |
Luap Elk
03:22
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How can people wander blind
To the simple wonders that abound?
Autumn leaves wind rustling
Crashing waves a gigantic sound
Colors shadows light
With awe fill
Forms pull from ancient memory
Alone alone and still
Alone and still
There’s a majesty in the minutiae
A hidden world waiting to be found and seen
Tangled web of life ending
Yet somehow always beginning
Grain of sand or the raging sea
All the daily battles of heart and will
You find ourselves alone and still
Alone and still
Never knowing
Exactly who or where we should be
Are we ever helpless to life’s inertia
Can we ever be free?
Broken wing creatures can’t rescue carry you and me
For they’ve turned to stone in the winter’s chill
And we are left alone and still
Like some forgotten child
Not lost but not wild
Surely someone comes to soon collect
Alone and still
If we could only recollect
The vast mind of endless possibilities
Alone and still
That the rational seek to trample and kill
And leave us all leave us all alone and still
Alone and still
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5. |
Pearl in the Shell
04:03
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Chance spins you this
And goes and takes away that
Nightly proverbial
Pulling a rabbit from a hat
Pearl in a shell go on lock those treasures
Lock them up tight
Don't let them wander
Lost in the wild hot night
Nervous sweat
Find yourself loss of breathe
It’s like every minute wasted
Is kind of quiet death
Pearl in a shell
oh safe and secure do tell
You’re not sick but surely you’re not well
Pearl in a shell
Is it paradise?
Or your own private little hell
Often we are entranced
But we can’t seem to simply dance
You know the timing, the timing
is all kind of wrong
And the question it took too long
Hide away something befalling you
Or do live your life like it’s your last breath doesn’t
Matter what you do
Pearl in a shell lock those treasures lock them up tight
Don’t let them wander lost in the wild hot night
Pearl in a shell you can put in all the effort
But somehow you are never found
Deep down in the ocean without a sound
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6. |
Bittersweet Place
03:40
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The fever to create
Can not be vanquished of late
Scrawl some little antidote
On anything that happens to be handy
Mind racing out pacing this frail pale cruel mortal coil
Will soon give up on me
Can not return to relevance or function
Like a cog broken
Part of me is relieved to leave these
Dark thoughts unspoken
Watch the end of the world
From the safety of my window
But alas it is a bittersweet place
Frantic end some mad race against time
Making my peace with the
Great sublime
All the questions unanswered and pupils untaught
All the hovering and lingering filled with sorrow distraught
All my fighting ambitions were really for naught
Watch the end of the world
From the safety of my window
But alas it is just a bittersweet place
On this island we can weather the storm
While my body crumbles from its design flaws
Oh irony how it beckons and claws
Watch the end of the world
From the safety of my window
But alas it is just a bittersweet place
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7. |
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Can we turn this ship around
before we all run aground?
Can we turn this ship around
Before we all run aground?
These are the days that burn in your brain
Who can make harbor or sink neath the strain
The things that shape history
Are never easy or sure
Moments that define while we fumble for a cure
Uncharted waters and the captain’s gone mad
Over the edge of the map where the monsters abound
Illusion crashing what an awful sound
Can we turn this ship around
Before we all run aground
Frantic end to a mad race we weren’t really meant to run
Living with a crumbling facade neath the shadow of a gun
Neath the shadow of a gun
Uncharted waters and the captain’s gone mad
Over the edge of the map where the monsters abound
Illusion crashing what an awful sound
Can we turn this ship around
Can we turn this ship around
before we all run aground
You bought your ticket but you know you’ve been had
Uncharted waters and our captain’s gone mad
You need something of substance raised on fluff
The captain he is hiding his hand do we call his bluff
Can we turn this ship around before we all run aground
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The Upper Strata Basel, Switzerland
Soaring atmosphere, cinematic, trance-inducing hypnotic.
Layering vocal harmonies, sequencers,
thumping bass and spacey guitar, the duo creates a unique mix of audio flavors and hues. Poetic lyrics and passionate vocals meld with bold and catchy synth melodies. Songs that defy the gravity of genres.
... more
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