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Seven Swords

by Shari DeLorian

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  • Book/Magazine + Digital Album

    Marshalling insights from religious symbolism, cinematic essentialism, and Russian literature, Seven Swords represents a material extension of the content, aesthetic and philosophy underlying Shari DeLorian’s eponymous album (Realia005). It invokes a variety of sources—video stills, photographic material, and poetry—to create a visual poetics where images and text realise the complementary potentials of music.

    Size: 11 x 17 cm
    Pages: 68
    Print: colors
    Cover: embossed in silver

    Stills: Alice Bachmann, Giuseppe Isgrò, Shari DeLorian
    Photographs: Alice Bachmann, Shari DeLorian
    Cover art: Martina Bruni
    Text: Arseny Tarkovsky
    Design: Lidia Ginga
    Shot by Filippo Castellano

    Includes unlimited streaming of Seven Swords via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Double Sea 05:52
Looking outside from a window When it’s too dark Just watching yourself like in a mirror Playing the beliefs with an ark The image of how you could be Pilgrimage on the street of sorrow Straight and narrow like a bow A double see of your mind’s son Blow the reflection Blood on the reveal Glass would give birth If the jump is over me Overtaking the need of stability Overtaking the need It’s not yourself who’s talking It’s the one you might not be
2.
My sight, which was my power, now blurs Two invisible diamond spears; My hearing subsides, full of ancient thunder And the breathing of the house of my father. The knots of tough muscles slacken Like grey oxen, lax in the ploughed field; The wings behind my shoulders yield No light when evening darkens. I am a candle. I burned at the feast. Gather my wax when morning arrives So that this page will prompt you How to be proud, and how to weep, How to give away the last third Of happiness, and to die with ease— And beneath a temporary roof To burn posthumously, like a word.
3.
Interlude 1 02:24
4.
We used to do poetry one day It was like dancing all the time But as in dreams as then We didn’t feel any fatigue Like if we had no legs Like if we had no legs Slipping on blood Swimming on blood Climbing on you To not drown And drowning To save you My bad I lost My bad I lost I lost all those things you sure don’t I lost all those things you sure don’t I talked too much About things I can’t understand Swimming in that slaughter Swimming in that slaughter I’d stay here for days Watching light making shapes on your hair Even under water Even under water
5.
Fragile 04:45
Did you feel my tears Slipped from my dirty nails I used to scratch you We were the only one In this blind abyss Watching each other Choking each other Closing my eyes they fall Fragile like your whispers I won’t listen anymore Hurting your skin Falling stars came out Hurting you until Falling scars came out I’ll amplify my heartbeat To make a slow dance Nobody will fear us now Nobody will fear us now Nobody will hear us now Nobody will hear us now
6.
Interlude 2 02:05
7.
Did we wake up Did we wake up Don’t let me go Don’t let me go (again) Again this falling slow Again In my dreams i killed you And I don't want to wake up I cant confess i killed you And then i just looked straight up There was a girl crying on me Like summer rain in a submarine
8.
Seven Swords 05:48

about

Realia is pleased to announce the release of “Seven Swords” (Realia005), the latest work from Milan-based artist and performer Shari DeLorian. With its gritty materiality, intimate atmospheres and liberating digressions––at times dreamy, often bloody, Seven Swords revolves around the impossibility of seeing yourself for whom you really are. It’s a concept album about self-knowledge and the sorrows deriving from the long harsh road to it. Admittedly, the record’s title pays homage to the well-known religious icon “Our Lady of Sorrows”, named also “Seven Swords Mary”. Depicted with seven swords piercing her heart or radiating around her, in popular culture “Seven Swords Mary” is the name by which the Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life. Reflecting the artist’s peculiar interest in cultic––mostly Orthodox––imagery, in the context of the album the suffering Virgin becomes a universal metaphor for the violent traumas that constitute the self.

The main idea behind the record came to Shari DeLorian in July 2017 during an artist residency hosted within an abandoned factory in Jura, Switzerland. There, the original plan of conducting a site-specific experimental work was soon discarded in favour of elaborating a more visceral and direct expressive language. Specifically, this was pursued by reintroducing the artist’s own voice into his practice and grammar some fifteen years after earlier formative experiences as a singer in punk rock bands. Overall, the production of the album has spanned a period of two years. Yet, most of it has been recorded in a mountain lodge in the heart of the Swiss Alps during two subsequent artist residencies.

In the attempt to transport the listener into the same places where the music was composed, all tracks, and especially the two interludes and the title track, incorporate background noises found therein. Stylistically, this is in intentional contrast with the overtly artificious, hyper-digital tropes dominant amid contemporary electronic music. Clearly committed to an experimental electronic sound, the album is nonetheless pervaded by feelings of loss and nostalgia evoked by the prospect of a possibly imminent return, or rather exile, to urban life. To capture the place-specific, sensorial experiences (the fabrics, smells, sounds, views etc.) inspiring the making of the record and yet susceptible to oblivion after the artist’s departure, in this work prominence is accorded to instruments capable of reviving that subjective mental territory––namely, analog synthesisers alongside acoustic instruments such as the harmonium and cello.

Released in digital format, Seven Swords is complemented with a printed publication of the same title.

credits

released June 11, 2021

Recorded between 2017 and 2020 at Les FAC, Saint Ursanne (CH), Glaucal, Courfaivre (CH), Milan (IT) and Cavrasto (IT).
All music written, composed and mixed by Shari DeLorian.
Additional synthesizers and harmonium on tracks 01, 02, 05, 07 and 08 by Jacopo Sacchi.
Additional cello on track 01 by Stefano De Ponti.
Additional FX on track 01 by Giorgio Sancristoforo.
All lyrics written by Shari DeLorian, except for track 02 featuring a text by Arsenij Tarkovskij.
Mastered by Emilio Pozzolini at Blau Studio, Milan.

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