MEMOIRS & LYRICS by PAOLO D'ADDIO

TREES was produced in the autumn of 1996 at the TVA Studio in Velia, Cilento, in South Italy; a place with great professional recording equipment and a beautiful location on a hill surrounded by olive trees, with an amazing view of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

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1. IN YOUR HIVE 4'39"

was created on May 1st 1994 at the Orpheus music lab in Bagnoli, Naples, while jamming during a warm-up session held in the last minute before taking part in an open-air festival in Pozzuoli. We made it in just a few minutes at about 6pm and soon played it live for the first time at about 8pm. We have never changed its first-take arrangement over the years. The lyrics, written from scratch on the spot and never edited afterwards, are about an imaginary girl masturbating herself in the dark.

 

 

I see your body rise as the night comes in

Between your legs honey in your hive

Slave to the secret, damaged by fantasies

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2. THE FRINGE 4'16"

too was created at the Orpheus music lab, in January 1996, starting from a theme by the Candia cousins. The lyrics were inspired by a scene Paolo saw from the window of his Citroen 2CV while driving in the western suburbs of Naples at Christmas time: a couple of acrobats from the local circus were trying out their stunts on the grass beside the motorway. The fringe is intended as the outskirts of the town, where also a love affair was taking place at the time, as reported in the final verses.

 

Slip the breeze in large waves where the light shines ethereal

And pale over marshes the angels remain

Filled with grace, in life's prime, silent and open

Like the summer in the centuries you look like gold

And we stay like in November the leaves on the trees

Suddenly lifted and bound to the slight return

And in the skies above our heads the quiet passing of clouds

Gestures like clay for your looks like fingers

No more seaS to sail away but the velvet of your words

Like suburban acrobats morning to evening

And we shine like in November the sun through the bared trees

Lifted and bound to the slight return

Never let it be said ours wasn't real love

You've been sacred in my mind, tangled in my hair

Tomorrow forget that I used to kiss you

I've been the mirror in which you gazed, the lake so blue

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3. HEART 9'06"

was made in the spring of 1995 in the “Red Room” of the Ghost studios in Camaldoli, Naples, starting from a home demo by our guitarist Francesco who introduced it to the band as a “monster of feeling”. His arpeggios resemble The Cure’s style while Davide’s drumming is so neat and precise that sounds like a drum-machine. The lyrics describe the natural and emotional landscape of Paolo’s trip to Wales, UK, where he was on a sort of pilgrimage along the Pembrokeshire coast path as far as St. David’s cathedral. Real images of seagulls flying over the windswept cliffs alternate with fictional lines about a man taking a euthanasia pill in a candle-lit place, his body to be thrown in the ocean afterwards.

 

Sway the trees enchanted in cathedral's paths

Cemeteries of grey stones in the seas of grass

Sitting by lean your head over, all it taste like waiting, growing in the heart

Slipping into blindness, feel my eyes dim so naive

Dreaming with the black pill, candles burning by

Staring at their little flames, they rise

Lost and struck by vicious words growing in the heart

Ever there's a silence where no sound can be

Buried in he cold tomb of the deepest sea

Seagulls from the windswept cliff fly high

Watching waves of this tide growing in the heart

Slipping into blindness, so naive, little flames of candles burning by

Seagulls from the windswept cliff high watching waves of this tide rise

Ever there's a silence hidden by, all it taste like waiting in the heart

 

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4. CRIMSON 5'15"

was also written in the “Red Room” of the Ghost studios, sometime in 1995, with lyrics inspired by TV news reporting the children’s massacre in Rwanda. The ultimate mix session for the album version took place in the middle of the night, with Davide and Paolo driving back to Naples at dawn, exhausted but happy to finally hold its master cassette in their hands.

 

Kneel onto the sand

Men say this is the land where monkeys climb the trees swinging on the branches

And swallows fly across these marbled skies of ancient

Quiet pools seem to rise on falling crimson morn

The creatures carved like chaff lying in the fields for coal and ivory, bloodstained drying rivers

The creatures carved like chaff close their eyes so patient, lying and dream skies of ancient

The quiet pools rise on, and the falling crimson

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5. GONE 8'28"

is another track born in the “Red Room” of the Ghost studios in the autumn of 1994. The arrangement work was remarkably long and sophisticated for this song of lost love. After the album was released, a radio station from the north of Italy broadcast it in heavy rotation for the whole month of October 1997, and we found posters of its lyrics on the walls of a club in Pescara which hosted our concert in the following spring.

 

 

Hiding love, lost our beauty, let these tears join the rain there where it falls

Clutched at straws like the next truth, so much found wandering through the years, and it grows

Back for more, lips ache for your tongue, here alone, smelling on your clothes

Hiding love, how we used to glow

Hiding love, time is past and gone

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6. THE WEB 5'58"

(originally called “The pretty web”, a title Paolo regrets making shorter) was created at the Ghost studios sometime in 1995. The main theme came from the Candia cousins, and the way we arranged it together reflects our love for English bands like And Also The Trees and Cranes. The lyrics were inspired by the true story of a missing girl allegedly dead in mysterious circumstances.

 

Passing birds fly the miles always far too high

So your charming eyes now they're dead inside

No one hears your whispering voice as your summer turns to fall

And the grey and rainy lanes are the picture of your world

No one hears your whispering voice, no one breaks your fall

Your wings want to open wide, your heart begs for love

Chase the ever sombre sound that chimes in every road

By sin someone rise, so you ask for more

Spider fate weaves the web where the branches take a bow

Soon it wraps in silky death when the silence overflows

Spider fate weaves the web balancing at your door

Death will lay its soft caress upon your hair of gold

Like the trees' pleasant shade over a field of corn

Death will lay its soft caress upon your hair of gold

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7. NEAR 6'56"

was created in the “Grey Room” of the Ghost studios in the winter of 1996. It best shows the different use of the two guitars coexisting in the band at the time; Francesco’s arpeggios versus Davide Esposito’s e-bow technique which resulted in a sort of synth-like sound. The delay on Antonio’s electric piano marks the final part of a particularly oneiric song.

 

Is it too far? Too much to ask? There's a sun that shines all around us

Maybe it's a shame, too late to run

Is it near you will come gathering flowers for my mind?

 

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8. WHEN DAY YIELDS WAY TO NIGHT 5'12"

was fluidly made at the Orpheus studio in September 1996, just a couple of weeks before starting the recording sessions at the TVA. The title-verse clearly came from Paolo’s passion for sunsets

 

Away

When day yields way to night

 

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OUTTAKES:

 

AROUND HER PLACE

- performed live in 1994/1995

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

AT THE TWILIGHT PLAY

written and arranged at Orpheus. Lyrics inspired by a poem by Edgar Allan Poe. In a concert in Puglia we played it like shit but then the next evening in Basilicata we made a very tough version that excited the audience a lot. Come back to our live shows in 2019.

- performed live in 1994/1995 (and again in 2019/2020)

- released in 1994 on "Walking Trees" demo EP

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

- released in 2020 on "Serenades For Passing Strangers - Live In Rome" official live CD/DVD

 

BY THE GLENSIDE

- performed live in 1996

- unreleased

 

CREAM

only track created by Davide Esposito. Produced at Orpheus. The title was decided by Davide himself the same evening in which after the session we went to eat a hot croissant.

- released in 1994 on "Walking Trees" demo EP

 

DANCE IN THE RAINFALL

created in Francesco's garage in Pianura by the Candias + Paolo trio and then arranged together at the Orpheus. Lyrics inspired by a poem invoking the rain of Native Americans. We played it as a single at the Green Program festival at the Palapartenope in April 1994.

- performed live in 1994/1995

- released in 1994 on "Walking Trees" demo EP

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

ECHOES

- performed live in 1995

- unreleased

FROST UPON THE TREES

After a series of concerts at the Riot, the Energeia label contacts us to have our unreleased track for their sampler "Intimations of immortality volume 2". Born from a musical idea of the Candia cousins in And Also The Trees style, we recorded it at Orpheus with Davide della Monica dei Gatti Distratti Dalla Luce Negli Occhi. The lyrics tells of a woman who hears her own call for her lost lover repeated by the echo; deluded that it is the answer of her beloved, she continues to look for him in vain.

- performed live in 1994/1998 (and again in 2017/2019)

- released in 1995 on "Intimations Of Immortality Vol. 2" compilation

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

GARDEN OF EASY LOVE

 Title proposed by Nino. Lyrics describing an afternoon dream of mine in which an angelic girl in love took me away from the city towards the countryside. I remember it was the only nap ever taken in all the 90s. Productive.

- performed live in 1994/1995

- released in 1994 on "Walking Trees" demo EP

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

NIGHT CHANTS

first unreleased track ever by the band. Created by the Candias + Paolo trio in Francesco's garage in Pianura and then arranged together at the Orpheus. Lyrics inspired by a Native American poem in which an old chieftain remembers and tells his life to the villagers gathered around the fire.

- performed live in 1994/1996

- released in 1994 on "Walking Trees" demo EP

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

OVER THE MOORS

- performed live in 1994/1995

- released in 2019 on "Live At Riot Club 1994" official bootleg

 

SILO

 - performed live in 1995/1997

- unreleased

 

STARFISH

- performed live in 1997

- unreleased

- Davide Fusco's favorite Trees' track ever.