I Could Read The Sky

Liner notes

Music written for and inspired by the film I Could Read The Sky by Nichola Bruce, produced by Janine Marmot and based on the book of the same name by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke.

An old man, at the end of his life, remembers. Alone in his bedsit in London his mind wanders, haunted by the past, its images of loss and isolation —growing up on the West Coast of Ireland, the women he has loved, his journey to London and his harsh life as the migrant labourer. The music written for this story traces this labyrinth of memories— from the nostalgia and beauty of the traditional rural way of life to the brutality and energy of modern urban existence.

I’m Stretched On Your Grave

I’m stretched on your grave
This is where you will find me
If I could touch your fingertips
I would never let you go

My little apple tree, my darling
It is time for me to lie with you
I smell of the cold earth
Have become
The colour of the wind
The colour of the sun

When your people
Believe me to be in my bed sleeping
I will be a spirit being
In the meadows before you

“When I hit the first notes my hands take off like a pair of birds. I can feel the tune spilling itself out inside me. I can see all the notes like they’re small coloured stones you’d find on the strand. I can look at all sides of them and find the right place for them to go…”

“We are the immortals…We have one name and we have one body. We are always in our prime and we are always fit for work. We dig the tunnels, lay the rails and build the roads and buildings. But we leave no other sign behind us. We are unknown and unrecorded. We have many names and none are our own. Whenever the stiffness and pain come in and the work gets harder…we change again into our younger selves. On and on we go. We are like the bottle that never empties. We are immortal.”

Excerpts from ‘I Could Read The Sky’