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Pure Fabrication

by Communions

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1.
Long live the sacred years That live on in every breath of air There’s a voice inside of all of us Singing prayers of the fates we’ve shared We made irrational plans And carried them out rationally Moving ships over mountain sides And our empires over seas In all endeavors It’s the architecture that survives In history People tend to recognize the statues Not the slavery I am nature’s bird of passage I don’t remember Who I really am And like a sphinx I’m born a prince I make my kingdom everywhere We’ve burned the candles at both ends For a fair crack of the whip With no solid ground to rest our heads upon We slept through the eclipse After a meaningless battle The trenches, they still remain in place We’ve solved the furniture But the fog conquers all of space Within all corners of diversity I’ve searched for unity But my memory Is just a tiny crack Against cruel eternity I am nature’s bird of passage I don’t remember Who I really am And like a sphinx I’m born a prince I make my kingdom everywhere
2.
Humdrum 02:59
Enlightenment Will save us from The pangs of youth And Middle Age As we float through the humdrum Through the humdrum Drummed out of town into space Washed away without a trace With the world at our doorstep We made a pact with the bright son of the dawn One by one in millions Surrendering fate for fortune At the cost of all of our souls Like the rising sun puts out the stars So hope can mean a lack of faith As we scroll through the humdrum Drummed out of town into space Washed away without a trace With the world at our doorstep We made a pact with the bright son of the dawn One by one in millions Surrendering fate for fortune At the cost of all of our souls With the moon rejected from the earth We’ve made our resignation clear We’ll trade genius for a tomb of ice Genius for a tomb of ice
3.
Cupid 03:20
Bah, bah, bah No more Giving in to back-seat drivers That claim to own the wheel No seeking mercy from the rain That falls at random Soon we’ll be out of space and time With every fleeting purpose lost A boy with wings Slings a torch and arrow To ensure Bees suck up the honey Spiders spin their webs Shapeshifting I’m asking for their sting So I can leap all the walls between us And my desire Is to flee from rambling influencers That offer blind advice For the better or for the worse They try to freeze what’s floating And it humbles me to hear They think I’m too clever by half A boy with wings Slings a torch and arrow To ensure Bees suck up the honey Spiders spin their webs Shapeshifting I’m asking for their sting So I can leap all the walls between us If truth be told Maybe we’re asleep on lion skin But I hope we’re not deceived Bah, bah, bah
4.
Go ahead and tell yourself That I’m wild And primitive Moonstruck And strange But you’ll never make me change You’re vague on my bright skyline On my own little planet You know the roads up here ain’t paved ‘Cause it’s a bare island And I’m an uneasy raging sea I was raised upon an ocean The primordial soup’s commotion Fluctuates in an isolated deep In and out of place Underground I’m a faint ripple in the fabric Of a highway Stretching outward endlessly And I’m wild Moonstruck Savage In no man’s land But you’ll never understand Speaking in a foreign tongue Behind a great wall You know that I see tragic flaws In a double mirror And I’m an uneasy raging sea I was raised upon an ocean The primordial soup’s commotion Fluctuates in an isolated deep In and out of place Underground I’m a faint ripple in the fabric Of a highway Stretching outward endlessly And that’s why It’s so messed up That in my orbit I still need to feel you near I guess I can’t abdicate what could have been real But please don’t block up my doorway Let go and let God Show me the trials that await me Within this tunnel
5.
In a city with a fever The temperature is rising Lost in endless pleasure Leaves run wild with sap In our exotic land The men are bright and handsome And the women are a wonder Balanced on a razor’s edge And there’s a flood Flowing through your window And a god has made us deaf And now we only hear His claustrophobic music As guests inside our own house Waiting for the recompense given to Job So if you get born on your knees, then learn to pray You get born on your knees and learn to pray Our money has disguised itself as nature Hope is our illusion And we’re restless ’til we rest in Seduced by darling idols of the polite world With a slice of fortune one night You’re nomadic in the next life Spying through a keyhole At those born in the purple At a needle in a haystack At stars in distant orbit Like jesters on a tightrope We stride to our disasters On unedifying highways We reap the whirlwind If you get born on your knees, then learn to pray You get born on your knees and learn to pray Am I a lonely one-man choir Confessing to myself? You know I’ve tried to read between the lines I’ve tried to understand the signs A witness to Rome’s decline If you get born on your knees, then learn to pray You get born on your knees and learn to pray Get born on your knees and learn to pray Born on your knees and learn to pray Born on your knees and learn to pray Born on your knees then learn to pray Born on your knees and learn to pray
6.
I’m coded like the verse you read ‘Cause I know when to stop and when to turn I’m the written word You can burn my Ancient pages But you’ll never be able to burn Out my mind, my body, and soul Programmed long ago Mind, body, and soul Programmed long ago My mind is a dancefloor With shapes on a chessboard Where the logic of love demands a sacrifice And I’m destined For rhythm in motion A 4/4 drum An oscillating pendulum I’m a grand tourist On an infinite scroll Programmed long ago Mind, body and soul Programmed long ago No one knows the first thing About what it’s like
 To be wired in my skin All they see are signs of life 
 No one knows the first thing About what it’s like To be wired in my skin Is there something real underneath All that’s been told to me of me? I’ve got unlimited access to Hyperreal versions of the past Instantaneously I’m a hybrid form A ragbag that’s nostalgically afloat In predecessors’ skin
7.
Splendour 04:16
When fountains spring Soak her in With what you see And what you say And what you dream Adorn despair Happily lost ‘Cause you long to drop a dime into the depths Of her wishing well ’Til your blood runs cold Slightly ill with heightened sensibility One with the mire Your soul’s on fire But you won’t sigh And you won’t care And you won’t cry Behold her splendour Her splendour Every night The more that people swarm Around her face The less her eyes resemble anyone But you might feel Chosen from A crowd of lovers waiting at her door Every night For a chance to play The game that’ll have them leaping in the grave With emotions purged And no sense of self Spoken by a language not their own Behold her splendour Her splendour Every night You’re crushed under the weight Of bubbling scum And forms of things unknown That flourish and fade With hesitating lights From distant planets That’ll swallow you And spit you out Cupid’s slings Have gone and made you blind And wilfully oblivious To the lurking pain behind each Exquisite frame You’re crushed under the weight Of bubbling scum And forms of things unknown That flourish and fade With hesitating lights From distant planets That’ll swallow you Splendour Her splendour
8.
Nature’s god of wine You penetrate my dreams Like a panther strolling through a china shop With eyes as blind as Lear’s I roamed through wilderness Dividing up my kingdom ’Til you roused me from my sleep From my sleep You came along And cured me from the siren song With Mona Lisa’s gaze Whispering ‘follow me’ You unpacked my thoughts just like a Russian doll And smiled You came along And cured me from the siren song ‘Cause history Had me caged in the rain And what is done Is done forever With no way to shake the ghost of the past From the orders of angels And down to the stones I was deaf All along Led astray And desolate And overcome ’Til you cured me from the siren song
9.
With mockery of luxury And hostility to all the powers that be It’s better to reign down in hell Than to serve the rules of taste We’ll burn our poems to keep warm So we’ll burn our poems to keep warm We’re a blunder in the street We don’t strive for happiness And there’s comfort in defeat Knowing that we believe that there’s more to nature than charade Ruins show that flourishes will fade away And trumpets will be blown For now the future is the fiction that we own What a wonder to behold We’re the sons and daughters With no call to arms To keep up in the race Show us to the nearest window Where we can throw our money out We’ll paint your walls and steal your clothes We’ll paint your walls and steal your clothes We’re a blunder in the street We don’t strive for happiness And there’s comfort in defeat Knowing that we believe that there’s more to nature than charade Ruins show that flourishes will fade away And trumpets will be blown For now the future is the fiction that we own What a wonder to behold Just strain your eyes and try and understand Could the monster make a man? Strain your eyes, try and understand Could the monster make a man?
10.
Only those Touched by mad divinity Will be let in At the port of the muses Once they hear a knocking The stone block contains all possibilities It’s shapes are endless And my will is like a hammer Beating and a’beating Is this how love should feel? Like a terrible blow You better hope you never get hit By that weeping stone Above us all Above us all Coming down Where no shadows fall Where no shadows fall In between The lilies on the field Wondrous man Bright eyed one Nature’s son Look in the mirror At the spirit of revolution Doomed to repetition All powerful Totem pole Of the soul Turn the lights on That shine from heaven’s ceiling When I’m in need of healing Is this how love should feel? Like a terrible blow You better hope you never get hit By that weeping stone Above us all Above us all Coming down Where no shadows fall Where no shadows fall In between The lilies on the field
11.
Hymn 04:30
Waltzing through the ghetto carried by the wind Her legs zigzag in leather skin Hanging from a bed in the restless sky Dangling on the edge Of a perfume cloud At night the fireworks outside Harmonize into a symphony In the cosmic hall Each applause and the thunder and the rain Sound like hands beating on an Indian drum I was homeless And I had to spend the night In the forest where I heard your music play On and on and on Two souls hypnotized You’ll forget your name When loving someone in the dark That never comes no matter how hard that you call Was there once a son, or was he all a dream? Dancing naked in abandoned district roads Through occupied streets Where the children go to grow While the red streams flow Through their ivory cheeks The rhythms of the trains They’ll synthesize into a melody While soft brown eyes gaze into the palette Of the programmed light Dripping from the slogans written on the stars I was homeless And I had to spend the night In the forest where I heard your music play On and on and on Two souls hypnotized You’ll forget your name When loving someone in the dark That never comes no matter how hard that you call Let me in And I’ll let you in Through the corridors Leading to a heart Weighed on a balance Against the feathers of truth Which side will fall? And what will remain unchanged? I was homeless And I had to spend the night In the forest where I heard your music play On and on and on Two souls hypnotized You’ll forget your name When loving someone in the dark That never comes no matter how hard that you call
12.
Androgyny 04:20
Nature speaks
 Through your body language And nature thinks Through your dreams Nature walks Each place you roam The mirror you hold up to your face It’s dark and cracked Coming to consciousness Of the ways All the paper ballerinas Become water Washing out straight lines in the sand In between tin soldiers Parading on And nature breathes Through the sounds of broken air Nature stares Through lights on the street Natures holds Her own display case The makeup that’s smothered on your face It sometimes cracks Revealing what’s see-through Underneath And all the paper ballerinas Become water Washing out straight lines in the sand In between tin soldiers Parading on Burning in the fire of life Burning in the fire Just to see And witness the make-believe Just to feel Imagined desires leave Our bodies now It feels so good
13.
Here And Now 03:59
Departing through The underground Where treasure chests Open with a master key No longer fooled By signs and wonders Dreamwishes turn to memories Reminding one of what was once held in esteem Before you found out things ain’t what they seem Here and now Are you an angel sent unto me A prophet, or a demon? And what cards are hidden up your sleeve? Now Striving for old ideals It should come as no surprise That we’re tramping in circles Bumping into trees If we could be free from desire Maybe we could live Weave tapestry Realistic to a child When one was four And Jesus was the trinity Here and now Are you an angel sent unto me A prophet, or a demon? And what cards are hidden up your sleeve? Now Hanging there By your golden hair With darts thrusted in your side Hanging there With darts thrusted in your side
14.
Celebration 04:18
I’ve been looking for revenge Though I’ve got no one to avenge I haven’t slept all night And a chemistry of stars Are slipping through my fingers Let’s find a hotel With room service and champagne We’ll hide a while from the sane But please fill me in When reality goes out of style Tell me, what’s worthwhile? Help me understand The celebration of this widespread malady I’m told If you emphasize life’s flaws Then nothing will leave you in awe But I haven’t slept in weeks And a chemistry of white sheets Are slipping through my fingers Let’s find a hotel With room service and champagne What move will you make? And what’s at stake? Now that destiny has become cliché What role do you play? Help me understand The celebration of this widespread malady How can you keep the pieces together Without knocking them over? What move will you make? And what can’t you live without having within your reach? I’m nature’s paradox With every treasure Overflowing the measure My cup’s either empty or filled up to the brim And in every endeavor Self torture holds the self together
15.
We share a special bond Chiseled on a slab of stone You taught me how to shave my face The old fashioned way And I do it to this day Somehow every hour spent Has become a testament To what you know and love I’m sure that you love your kids There’s something you love more The narcissistic wounds You hide They’ve gone and left a stain To me they’re all too clear They’ll never wash away They’ve been inherited by the ones To whom you handed down The gift of music A luminous trampoline That I used to leap off of Into the universe Straight into its avid mirrors Its tantalizing puzzles Placed at the center of the stars Riding the big wave You were graced with many gifts A martyr to your zeal in the cause of freedom You’ve given up your life The narcissistic wounds You hide They’ve gone and left a stain To me they’re all too clear They’ll never wash away They’ve been inherited by the ones To whom you handed down The gift of music

about

In their sophomore album of Odyssian size and scope, Communions weave an intricate tapestry from “cultural debris”. While Pure Fabrication follows the arc of a reverse coming of age story, Communions’ Rehof brothers have arrived at a point of bold artistic maturity.

“While the blueprint of the coming of age story traditionally involves a protagonist who enters the world seeking answers and emerges renewed, with newfound maturity, Pure Fabrication reveals that growth is tricky and may come at a price. The journey into the ‘real’ world only complicates and fractures any vague sense of clarity that one might have had to begin with.” - Martin Rehof

Coming of Age
Communions’ Rehof brothers have reached a new level of artistic maturity with their sophomore album Pure Fabrication. Communions effortlessly straddle the cerebral and the visceral; abrasive punk sensibilities from the artistic underground of Copenhagen’s Mayhem scene are married with anthemic indie- and pop-rock. Looking back on their previous releases (the first of which, Cobblestones, “was recorded into a cheap USB microphone”), Communions’ lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Martin Rehof reflects:

“We began Communions in the midst of the Mayhem heyday, where noise, punk, and hardcore were the standard ingredients. Within this context, we started making melodic songs based on fundamental pop-structures. When making Blue, we wanted to push this to the extreme, and made a record shaved down to the absolute essentials: simple melodies and driving rhythms. It was almost an exercise in banality. At the time, we thought that this was the most revolutionary thing we could do since everyone around us was making noise, power-electronic, and harsh forms of punk-rock. Strangely enough, this was our attempt at rebellion.

“I think Pure Fabrication is a more realized work. It’s a more mature realization of all of the experiments we have made, an album that, in my view, incorporates all of our best sides from each previous release. But we weren’t approaching this record with any intention of making a radical aesthetic statement, to stand apart from the rest of our peers, or to prove anything to ourselves. I think that Pure Fabrication might be the most genuine thing we have made.”

Reverse Coming of Age
Following the journey of a fictional protagonist, Pure Fabrication opens on the themes of liberation, independence, freedom, transformation—the ingredients of a coming of age story—and the character’s pursuit of them. Yet, “as the album progresses, strong ironic overtones in whatever praise of freedom was besung are slowly unveiled. While the opening songs represent a character with an—perhaps naive—assertiveness and unwillingness to be restrained or suppressed by the ways of the world, by the end of the record, the protagonist questions the entire notion of desire and freedom.

“Question marks punctuate the second half of the record. ‘Is This How Love Should Feel?’ asks whether giving one’s life over to passion is really worth the struggle, while ‘Celebration’ critiques of the modern world’s celebration of personal autonomy. Freedom here is portrayed as a myth, artificially constructed, and as a modern sickness of the soul.

“‘Signs of Life’ continues this theme and asks how much our behavior is governed by other people. The story is told from the perspective of an A.I. gaining consciousness of the fact that it has been programmed, ultimately asking: “Is there something real underneath all that’s been told to me of me?”, a pressing question within the modern world where we’ve all become “Grand tourists on an infinite scroll”.

“The album’s closer, ‘The Gift of Music’, acts as a scene of recognition: it’s recognized by the narrator that you can never create yourself completely freely. What’s more, the idea of freedom is exposed as a construct, and more significantly, an inherited one. Can one be forced to be free? The protagonist's wish to liberate himself from worldly obligation is described as a wound.”

Mythology
Pure Fabrication draws upon the Rehof brothers’ personal experience as much as it does from a collage of myths. The Danish brothers spent over a decade of their childhood and early teens in Seattle, only to move back to Copenhagen in the midst of their formative years. While Pure Fabrication is partly a bid at finding their place and self-understanding through the lens of stories and myths—a keen listener can spot traces of Goethe’s Faust, Shakespear’s Lear, Homer’s Sirens, and the Norse fate-holding Norns—at its core, it is something more: a meta-narrative on the human condition.

“Pure Fabrication can be understood positively, hinting at the fact that our lives are fabrications that we weave on the basis of desire and freedom. Or, more negatively, it can be taken to mean that the stories we fabricate around ourselves and use to understand our lives are in themselves only mere fabrications—myths or worn out templates that we constantly reproduce, and which perhaps ultimately conceal the powers of whatever is actually pulling the strings, whether that be other people, an underlying culture, or some metaphysical goddess in the sky. The lyrics function as kaleidoscopic mixes of different myths woven together. In this sense, Pure Fabrication can also be understood as a meta-reference to the use of mythic material itself; to all of the ‘cultural debris’, if you will, that gets processed over and over again in new and different ways, as it does here.”

Recording
The 15 track, hour-long album embraces creative production techniques, all without venturing too far towards the infamous harshness of their Mayhem milieu. On some songs “the guitar was recorded through a vocoder. When recording, we were open to the gifts of chance that occurred in the moment. For instance, when recording ‘Here And Now’, our producer’s son was in the studio and randomly started counting to 10 in the microphone. We ended up keeping it on the record, because incorporating a child's voice fit nicely with the theme of childhood.”
In addition, Communions have also broadened their instrumentation and creative approach from their strictly four-piece, stripped performance on Blue. “We experimented a lot with different drum sounds/ aesthetics. I think we used different snare drums on every song. On ‘Learn To Pray’ Frederik was using broomsticks, but he hit quite hard with them, playing like he usually would, which gave a really unique sound, like if a rock band were asked to play jazz without really knowing how.”

Fate, freedom, culture, love and identity are on trial in Pure Fabrication, as Communions question themselves and their world on this masterful sophomore album.

credits

released April 23, 2021

Communions are Martin Rehof & Mads Rehof
Produced by Mads Brinch Nielsen
Mixed by Mads Brinch Nielsen
Mastered by Emil Thomsen (tracks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15) & Tim Young (tracks: 10, 11, 12, 13)
Recorded at Sauna Recording Studio

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Communions Copenhagen, Denmark

Communions' indie rock is marked by sharp cultural criticism, self reflection, and artistic commentary of a grand scale. The Danish band's new music takes the signature indie rock from the dark clubs of their youth in Copenhagen and merges it with full-fledged cerebral critique and symbolism. ... more

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