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Bittersweet Place

from Luap Elk by The Upper Strata

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    12" transparent red vinyl.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Luap Elk via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      20 CHF or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

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  • Buy the Full Digital Album

  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    Limited screen print on Gildan Ultra Cotton shirt. Unisex. 100% cotton.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Luap Elk via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    edition of 36 

      15 CHF or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    7
    releases

    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. , and , .

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about

Bittersweet Place depicts Klee in his last days debilitated, bedridden and still wishing to contribute or create, but barely able to. It was inspired by several tiny drawings Johnny once saw at the Paul Klee Museum in Bern. The text panels described the works as feverish final creations from the artist. Mad little renderings of strange other worldly creatures about the size of a postcard. Johnny interpreted the image as an act of quiet desperation, a “fever to create that can not be vanquished of late.”

Forbidden to teach and exiled in Switzerland, Klee was alive but not able to feel fulfilled. Living through the violence and lunacy of National Socialism must have felt like the end of the world as if western civilization was once again in peril.

lyrics

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

credits

from Luap Elk, released December 18, 2020

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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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