Raw and processed vocals to my lament for lost treasures everywhere.

Is it significant that the bees—symbols of resurrection—and their hives above Notre-Dame de Paris survived the recent fire? It is, to me. Perhaps one definition of a miracle is a moment when the hand of chaos is temporarily stayed.

There’s some headphone bleed in the raw samples: worse on Mic01 than Mic02, easily gated out. Instrumental samples available here.

Lyrics (cc)BY D A Ayer 2019-04-19
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Ashes Over Paris

The heat of ancient suns is now released,
their untold years unraveled by the rising flame
that fuels the forest’s long withheld decease
to fell its groaning timbers so they shake the earth again.

The cooling stones stand vigil through the night,
their empty bones half hidden by this writhing cloud
that stings the eyes still weeping at the sight
of ashes over Paris hanging like a winding shroud.

Cathedrals burn down every day…
None quite so proud but every one still precious in its way:
the grande dame on the Île de la Cité;
three tiny churches hidden in the southern USA…
Cathedrals burn down every day…

Blind faith in luck survives despite the odds,
betraying our convictions as but little more than fear,
while monuments we consecrate to God
all crumble into dust like everything we hold most dear.

And what the gods themselves made long before:
bold pinnacles of mountains; stormy ocean depths sublime;
the heavens’ starry vault whose arches soar;
will one day fall into the cold oblivion of time.

Cathedrals burn down every day…
like thunderclouds they vanish once the wind blows them away.
A sun explodes and all around it dies;
one hundred million years of ice melt right before our eyes…

Cathedrals burn down every day…
None quite so proud but every one still precious in its way:
the grande dame on the Île de la Cité;
three tiny churches hidden in the southern USA…
Cathedrals burn down every day…
Cathedrals burn down every day…