Returner, by Closed Circuits

Returner

by Closed Circuits

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

Purchasable with gift card

name your price

1.	Returner 05:36	lyrics	buy track
Come shake the hand of fate And start to commiserate with your life Your life Now focus upon the shades That slowly proliferate Through your mind All this time They’ve been returning Hide the pictures that still hurt Away from your gaze Kept under lock and key So harmless and safe A star-shaped fortress left unseen Built to outlast a siege Filled with masks and reveries Let’s see how that works out for you And when there’s nothing left Then we’ll see what we can see When there’s nothing left Well then you can come to me I’m sure we can arrange a fee In keeping with your means Isn’t that how it goes? The way you see the world Turning oh so slow Isn’t that how it goes? The way you see the world Tell me that’s the way it goes Adrift again amongst the words Your heart is filled with pearls The weight too much for it to hold Without abandoning the world Searching all the sky for stars That might show you who you are As the ground beneath your feet Hides beneath the falling leaves But you’d do well to understand As the sand runs from your hands That from dust you have come And to dust you will return You would do well to understand As you try to plant your flags That from the dust you have come And so you will return
2.	Unclean 05:39	lyrics	buy track
They come and look for me Beneath the cypress trees Say that I’m unclean They come and look for me Beneath the cypress trees Say that I’m unclean Corrupted Obscene And sometimes I hear their words And I choose to let them hurt Remembering Has its own weight Unfolding Across the days Collecting Upon my fate The weight of An empty space In my arms I carry you In my arms I hold you They come and look for me Beneath the cypress trees They say that I’m unclean They come and look for me Beneath the cypress trees They say that I’m unclean Long fallen in between And I wanted it to hurt And I wanted the pain And I wanted to feel sorrow And I wanted to feel shame And I opened my wounds And I opened my heart And I opened my eyes And I opened my arms And in my arms I carried you And in my arms I held you And in my arms I carry you And in my arms I hold you They come and look for me
3.	Ciudad Juárez 04:10	lyrics	buy track
That woman that was bleeding She said you were a factory man Running off the lists of numbers Washing clean both of your hands That woman that was screaming She said you were a dangerous man Keeping track of all the figures Keeping quiet the ones who ran But you supply it if it’s wanted Neverthe less You can supply it if it’s wanted You will supply if it it’s wanted Is it a life or a profit That girl standing under streetlight Said you were a penitent man Taking care to make your offerings Making sure they’re paid on time That boy standing at the window Said you were a powerful man Wanted you to give him favour Heard you might run this land And you’ll supply it if it’s wanted You’ll supply if it’s wanted If there’s a deal to be made You will supply what is wanted Put another number on a body Is it a life or a profit Heard you were a factory man Heard you were a government man Heard you were a gangster man Heard you were a law man
4.	The Winding Sheet 04:19	lyrics	buy track
There are no surfaces here No edges that can cut The words have been turned over and over Until the consonants ran out And all sensation is woven into The threads of a winding sheet So closely bound together No pattern can be seen And you say Things aren’t quite what they seem So please forgive This moment of relief Led astray by the comfort in defeat Won’t you please Allow me this relief And the ink runs across the margins Along the lines of your palm Mapping out all that you’ve held But nothing you’ve touched And the prints you leave in your place All blur into one A palimpsest of being Fading in the sun And you said that things Aren’t quite what they seem But is this peace? Could this be peace?
5.	Omertà 05:01	lyrics	buy track
Broken pieces on the tarmac Shattered glass beneath your feet Scarlet rivers in the pavement cracks Lights and sirens in the street Pass the message to the runner Find a place to plant your flag Better learn to keep your mouth shut If you want to be a man Come wrap your hands now It’s time to play the game Come wrap your hands now boy It’s time to play the game Come wrap your hands now It’s time to play the game Don’t turn your back now The day is coming Collect the details that they give you Put the faces to the names Understand you didn’t start this But it has to end this way Cleanse yourself from all distractions And focus solely on the act If you can balance out the numbers Perhaps you’ll find comfort in that Come wrap your hands now It’s time to play the game Come wrap your hands now boy It’s time to play the game Don’t turn your back now It’s time to face the day Because the day is coming Better learn to keep your mouth shut
6.	Blood Requiem 05:44	lyrics	buy track
Separated now Underneath the waves Crossed the channel Crossed the channel Did not hesitate Running past the wire traps Feeling the sky fall Blind from the adrenaline Can’t make sense at all This soil won’t take more colour See pieces lying round Collecting in the holes Hear the voices shouting out Screaming for their home Can’t make out the clouds above Breaths mixed in with smoke Calling out now Calling out now The wound begins to flow This soil won’t take more colour Mother remember me This soil won’t take more colour Father remember me Metal flowers taking root here Eager to be fed Drinking full the realisations Of journeys at their end Trying to find a point of focus Trying to hang on Now come the pictures So fast and fleeting Now that the time has come This soil won’t take more colour Mother remember me This soil won’t take more colour Father remember me Do you remember me
7.	Sundials 05:50	lyrics	buy track
Well then it’s set The path divides And so we walk Into the night Stand with you in shadow And hide your face inside my arms Against the day like broken sundials Waiting till night returns Collect the pictures I remember You lying naked on your side Beneath the light fallen through the windows I let them burn into my mind Stand with you in shadow And hide your face inside my arms Against the day like broken sundials Waiting for night to return And so our paths carry us onwards Away from who we were before And though I hear our ghosts calling My feet still fall and fall Stand with you in shadow And hide my face inside your arms Against the day like broken sundials Waiting for night to return
8.	Ithaca 03:01	lyrics	buy track
I think I remember you Though it must have been so long Memories of nights come in fragments As ghosts move in time to their songs Tell me the stories now To help me locate my place And find my way back through the mists that have darkened all of my days And if the meaning is lost I’ll try to comprehend But the words never end The words never end The lines of my hands are worn And webbed all across my palm A labyrinthine map that leads nowhere at all Except back to its start So sing me your song once more Remind me how I have come To be here with you at this time of our lives Despite all that we’ve lost And as the night moves to day I’ll try to comprehend But the words never end The words never end The words never end The words never end

about

You would do well to understand
as you try to plant your flags
that from the dust you have come
and so you will return.

Returner is a work of Earth, and completes the 5-album elemental cycle begun with 2015's Breaker. Written and recorded as the World was shut down, its focus draws on the myriad pressures placed on the body, working through ghosts, violence, death, and how we can live with them.

Amongst these themes, Ciudad Juárez highlights the femicides perpetrated in said city, now spread across Chihuahua state, as 'fictionalised' in Roberto Bolaño's 2666, and elucidated in the podcast Forgotten : Women Of Juárez.

Blood Requiem speaks of the sacrifice of so many young lives in the fields of Europe in the Great War, as the soil rendered all in the same earth-tones.

Omertà investigates the code of silence exemplified as honourable by the mafia and others, and whether it is possible to live with loss in an inherited system.

And finally, Ithaca finishes the journey that began in Breaker's Heavy The Beat Of The Weary Waves, returning the voyager back to his home, still carrying the story with him, endless and repeating.

But here the songs remain. And so we return, and begin again.

IN FINITE RECORDS 010

With love and thanks to Violeta Page, Danny Lowe, Tom Sewell, Andy Holden, Andrew Anderson, Alkistis Dimech, Peter Grey, Autumn Richardson, Richard Skelton, Stephan Mathieu, Dale Cornish, and Chiara.

For you

credits

released October 30, 2020

All songs written, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Chris Page in Sintra, Portugal, April to September 2020.

Cover photo by Tom Sewell

Cover layout by Chris Page

license

about

Closed Circuits Tomar, Portugal

Chris Page is a musician and poet based in Portugal. He makes apocalypse pop for electronics and voice.
theeclosedcircuits@gmail.com for contact

Recommendations

shows

Apr 27

Rca Club

Porto, Portugal

contact / help

Contact Closed Circuits

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

Closed Circuits recommends:

A Colour For Autumn
by Lawrence English

Masterful tones from the Antipodes. Closed Circuits
go to album
Siren
by Sealionwoman

Aches like being tied to the mast when you long to be shipwrecked. Closed Circuits
go to album
The Complete Landings
by Richard Skelton

Endless saudade. Closed Circuits
go to album

If you like Closed Circuits, you may also like:

Aicha
by Maalem Mahmoud Gania

supported by 9 fans who also own “Returner”

trance music is evergreen honeyant
go to album
III
by Witnesses

supported by 9 fans who also own “Returner”

1st listen: love how it seamlessly switches between registers: from tonal to atonal, from (apparent) free time to regular meter, from ambience to song form. And back. nofatclips
go to album
Cruel à l'amour
by Frank Ene

The enigmatic Frank Ene's solo record lives in a magical world where Serge Gainsbourg fronts Yellow Magic Orchestra. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 17, 2022
go to album