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Sleeper

by The Aether Tree

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1.
Prelude: Sleeper 08:12
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(instrumental)
2.
The Comadream 04:56
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Vincent: We were so young when we fell into this void Turning and twisting together like desperate magnetic strings of light So many promises made Each one a scale of the skin That kept us locked away inside this diseased comadream Vincent: And we were so in love Asha: And we are so in love Chorus of Doubt: If life is a dream, in whose bed do I sleep? If life is a dream, in whose bed do I sleep? Vincent: We fell so fast we thought we were flying Amorously stumbling with clasped hands, drunk on endorphins So many promises made Each one a droplet of my soul That kept us inundated beneath the sheets of this comadream Vincent: And we were so in love Asha: And we are so in love Chorus of Doubt: If life is a dream, in whose bed do I sleep? If life is a dream, in whose bed do I sleep?
3.
Memory Ignition 03:46
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Vincent: Cast your heart like molotovs and burn me alive We sail by your sight alone, we sail and ignite We are dreamers, full of secret dread Just one more step, just one more breath Love under the threat of your coldest edge Cast your hooks like anchors and lash me to the mast We sail by your stars alone, we sail a shameful path We are sleepers, full of secret regret Just one more step, just one more breath Love under the threads of your cruelest nets Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free Asha: Tell me you love Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free Asha: Promise me Vincent: I promise you that I have not forgotten the lightness of your touch Your warm embrace on summer nights spent sleeping soaked in love Where are these things? Where are these things? Ikelos: Memories won't save you She is ballast Cast aside this comadream Breathe no breath you do not love Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free No breath is free No breath is free No breath is free Ikelos: Pour whiskey onto the wound Hold on to yourself Cast yourself into blades Bleed no blood that brings not pride Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free Asha: Tell me you love Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free Asha: Promise me Vincent: I promise you that I have not forgotten the lightness of your touch Your warm embrace on summer nights spent sleeping soaked in love Where are these things? Where are these things?
4.
Conspirator Amnesiac 03:45
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Vincent: Was it a dream or something worse? That looped my love like a leash Around my neck in frantic lust To drag me to the sea Crossing the ashen dunes My guiding stars have all been snuffed out Who is this temptress So familiar, soul hidden behind silver shroud Strings of light fraying, amorous orbit degrading The color of whiskey that spills from your skin compels me to choke again Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: Conpirator amnesiac, don't bleed the blood that you won't get back Vincent: I will eviscerate this comadream And claw my way out through writhing shadows of blood I have forgotten the love that stitched our souls together But from you I learned the cruelty to rip them apart Strings of light fraying, amorous orbit degrading The color of whiskey that spills from your skin compels me to choke again Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: Conpirator amnesiac, don't bleed the blood that you won't get back Vincent: Was it a dream or something worse? Will I drown or just be lost? The waves crashing at my cheek The sea screams for my blood Smothered in the impassioned kiss I see her soul through my closed lids I dream of egress, I conspirator Hiding daggers behind drowning lips
5.
Flicker Breath 05:51
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Vincent: I thought I knew the shape of your soul from the shape of your skin But clarity could only come crashing through the curves of the waters I drowned in I'm seduced by the darkness that sparks across my vision and burns in my restless limbs Screaming "no breath is free, love is yours to leave" Falling is all I know Flicker breath, flicker feet Whisk me away to the waking dream Bitter love, withering Watch me fly as I break free If life is a dream and no love is pure I'd lose myself and drown in decadence just to be cured Asha: Flicker pain, flicker eyes Plunge the blade into my side Bitter truth breaks brittle bonds Conspirator, still your heart Vincent: If no breath is free, and no dreams are safe I'd throw myself into the sharpest darkness to escape Asha: You promised me... Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free... Vincent: Stay at arms length, don't look me in the eyes Just leave me, derelict, dispossessed... Dispossessed, but so goddamn relieved Asha: You promised me... Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free... Vincent: Stay outside my door, don't say the words Just leave me here, forgotten, fragmented... Fragmented, but lost in all the right ways I am not yours to keep Blind and bound beneath delusion Something so sick should not be spared Taste the truth, bleed for yourself Asha/Vincent: We were so young, and our love seemed so strong Have we forgotten who we are? Do we burn our wings just to stay warm?
6.
Emulsion 06:20
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Vincent: Drifting Atrophied and breathing the sour air A red fog misting from my pores Falling In perpetual emulsion The dream disintegrates, loves ashes flay my eyes to blind me to escape So few promises were kept You and I dream not the same dream Breathe not the same breath Vision returns to me a stranger How long I slept cradled in the miasmatic meniscus of your love Longing to shed the shroud of shadows You cast on me Asphyxiating volition Desire, design, despair, deja vu The fire burns but knows not why, dying wisp by wisp and wish by wish with me Is this all we have left? A drive to bury malice in each others bodies Asha: Come take your medicine love Vincent: Sparks turn to cinders, love to lies, the sharpest desires give way to rust Asha: Why has the spark gone from your eyes, love? Why does your touch feel dull? Vincent: I hold you close and pretend that I still believe in what little we have left Asha: Come take your medicine Vincent: Love turns to lust, sex to shame, oh how my hopes glow in throes of death Asha: Why has the passion gone from your kiss love? Why does your breath feel pale?
7.
Orbit Degradation 03:28
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Vincent: Count them all Calculate the mass of your escape To autumn's dreamless shadow On the crest of broken waves What awaits me worse than death? What awaits me worse than this life? Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: Withering, wilting, did you ever see the sun? Vincent: Drown them all, raise a toast Speak a truth no one knows To autumn's sleepless spirit On the edge of sweet oblivion What awaits me worse than death? What awaits me worse than this life? Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: Withering, wilting, did you ever see the sun? Vincent: I've got seventeen shimmering angels with the power to chew up my insides And dissolve my mangled spirit into memories But what awaits me better than death? What awaits me better than this life? Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: Withering, wilting, did you ever see the sun? Vincent: Everyday I practice the words that burn on the backs of my lips Waiting for the devil to catch me when I fall from grace
8.
Entropy 06:41
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Vincent: We knew no good could come of this Entropy borne on angels wings Slicing through the air like a lover's tongue First tasting luscious cinnamon sweat Simmering with the heat of blood That knows not the difference between life given and death taken Wish by wish, lick by lick Luna/Vincent: I have seen your face in the shadows A sacred light that makes flowers blossom at dusk Vincent: We knew no good could come of this But we stood by fools in the fog Chemically silenced, writhing in rhythm All pheromones and sugar Whispers and whimpers filled our ears Til the beating of wings sang songs of mercy We promised the sun the stars and love All a cruel joke Luna/Vincent: I have seen your face in the shadows A sacred light that makes flowers blossom at dusk I have seen your face in the shadows A sacred light that makes flowers blossom at dusk Vincent: Flicker breath, flicker blood Not quite dead, but come undone Eyes like stars never seen Your faded scars match the cracks in me Luna/Vincent: Flashes of violet warmth and silence Reaching across eons unleashing violent absolution And fusing the fragments forsaken to sacred temptation Your touch never left my lips Vincent: We collide in the dark we don't see we just feel Moonflower breezes and cold black silk We entwine in the dark; flickering breath, hands are shaking My blood is racing at escape velocity Luna: Flicker death, flicker time Restless hands ache for mine Eyes like flames burning cold The faded breath we breathe alone Luna/Vincent: Flashes of violet warmth and silence Reaching across eons unleashing violent absolution And fusing the fragments forsaken to sacred temptation Your touch never left my lips Vincent: We collide in the dark, we don't see we just feel Moonlit silhouettes and desperate skin We ignite in the dark, gasping cold black air The tides are rising at escape velocity
9.
A Dream Come Undone 04:16
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Vincent: What dream is this that dances cross my skin? And lays down to sleep on the tips of my lashes Such beauty does not belong in hands so broken as mine What cruel joke is this that things thought dead yet linger? Hope and doubt buried in my heart; stitched into my soul Such beauty does not belong in hands meant to die alone Asha: It used to seem so beautiful When you said that falling was all that you knew What a fool was I For I have seen the shadows in your face Eyes aglow like newly lit moons And the taste on your lips like some secret flower Whispering, "escape..." What devil awaits to catch you when you fall from grace? Vincent: What light is this that dances on her lips? Her smile paralyzing me Her touch like smoke and silk Such beauty does not belong in a heart so atrophied as mine Chorus of Doubt: But your hands though broken have not forgotten the light of the sun The warm embrace of sky Nor the ambrosial vapors of love Vincent: Such beauty is all of these things Chorus of Doubt: Such beauty is all of these things
10.
Fata Morgana 07:57
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Vincent: Someone pull me down from these hooks and teach me how to crawl Someone hold me down to the dirt before I climb into the sun Maybe I just miss not knowing the sharper edge of love Vincent/Asha: Do I miss you?/Do you miss me? Or do I just miss myself/Or do you just miss yourself? The person I was post-breakdown/The person you were post-breakdown Pre-addiction/Pre-stability I used to look up and see the stars/I used to look up and see your smile Now I only see the next fix/Now I see you don't know the strings you tug I've never felt so great/I've never been so great I've never bled so much/At holding on to reality I never meant to stray/I never meant to break Into the bramble/Addicted to the gravity Vincent: Someone pull me down from these hooks and teach me how to crawl Someone hold me down to the dirt before I climb into the sun Maybe I just miss not knowing the sharper edge of love Pull me apart, magnetic vengeance Weigh me down, mendicant penance I am not a liar, I'm just so scared To take a chance on wings, abandon my anchor Vincent/Luna: I must cast out beauty/No breath is free, cast out beauty Patch up the breakage/No breath is free, patch up breakage Eject the ballast/No breath is free, eject ballast Try to find the sun again/No breath is free, find the sun again Vincent: I could insulate myself from a world beckoning with tipped glass and smokey eyes I could blindfold myself to the beauty that unfurls itself in front of my insecurities I could stop chasing the vapors of vipers, un voix celeste to these vociferous butterflies Or I could stop waking up pretending she's worth it I'm derelict on the wrong side of the surface I've always been mere inches from home Vincent/Luna: I must cast out beauty/No breath is free, cast out beauty Patch up the breakage/No breath is free, patch up breakage Eject the ballast/No breath is free, eject ballast Try to find the sun again/No breath is free, find the sun again
11.
Bloody Anchor 03:34
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Vincent: Her hair falls on my face like barbed wire Dug in deep; anchored in marrow If I must rend our flesh to buy my breath Oh violet star, guide my gaze that I see no blood
12.
Hegire Vaporeux 06:55
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Luna: Just pull me through the silver skin of moonlit ocean waves Into your arms where every breath is better than the last Vincent: Moya vsigda, moya lyubov Prahstitye menya, please don't let go Your touch never leaves my lips Your touch never leaves my lips Luna/Vincent: Flicker breath, flicker tongue Drank the fire, burned the blood Biter hearts, pulsing slow There is no shore for rippling souls Vincent: We found the violet blossoms of moonlit memories In the frost where every touch is warmer than the last Luna: Mien pour toujours, mon amor Je suis desole, I cannot follow Though your touch never leaves my lips Though your touch never leaves my lips Vincent: What fractures are these that crawl under my skin? Severing hands from the heart, heart from the soul Such beauty falls through my flesh like rain rippling in my bones What light is this that drips betwixt my ribs? My ballast bleeds and I evaporate, and swim into the sky Luna/Vincent: Please follow me now through writhing shadows of blood Your touch on my lips could never be enough Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free No breath is free Vincent: Whither go I? Oh how I wither Ikelos/Chorus of Doubt: No breath is free No breath is free Vincent: Whither go I? Oh how I wither
13.
Elegy: Wither 07:11
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(Instrumental)

about

A post-metal opera in three acts scored for guitar, bass, drums, keys, strings, and voices.

Act I - Sleeper

Prelude: Sleeper
The Comadream
Memory Ignition
Conspirator Amnesiac
Flicker Breath

Act II - Dreamer

Emulsion
Orbit Degradation
Entropy
A Dream Come Undone

Act III - Waker

Fata Morgana
Bloody Anchor
Hegire Vaporeux
Elegy: Wither

credits

released February 1, 2015

Original score and lyrics by Donovan Tousignant
Performed by The Aether Tree
Donovan Tousignant-Guitar, bass, keys, vocals (as Vincent)
Taylor Thorne-Percussion, vocals (as Ikelos)
Lee Maux-Keys, vocals (as Luna)

w/special guests:
Rachel Mallin-vocals (as Asha)
The Collegiate Shag Brass Band-vocals (as the Chorus of Doubt)

Recorded by Donovan Tousignant at The Litter Box and Centro Cellar Studios. Mixed by Wil Reeves at Centro Cellar.

Artwork and design by The Aether Tree

To our friends, families, mentors and muses:
Thank you for all you have done for us.
-The Aether Tree

All sounds, words, images, and concept (c) 2014 The Aether Tree. All rights reserved.

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The Aether Tree Columbia, Missouri

The Aether Tree was an experimental post-metal band that made music in Missouri from 2008 to 2014. Their third and final album Sleeper was released February 1st, 2015.

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