Get all 3 Amy Kohn releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of PlexiLusso, I'm in Crinoline, and The Glass Laughs Back.
1. |
Styrofoam
01:49
|
|||
2. |
1977 Swimming Lessons
02:48
|
|||
|
Unpunctured sheen
pristine and healing
reflects a checkerboard
Light blue, dark green
chlorine to ceiling
Entrust the lacquered floor
to keep us from careening
into the phosphorescence
of 1977 Swimming Lessons
Dip your toes in!
Dip your knees in!
Dip your belly in!
Dip your head in!
|
||||
3. |
Sweet Cacophony
02:58
|
|||
|
He likes the way they make him feel
The waves
Crashing through his skin and out the other side
He’s invisible
Threaded music rushes in
Even his city-thickness can’t keep it out:
Radio
Quiet, he seems
but in his blood streams the day’s ecstasies, elations
combined from all the city’s stations
Sweet cacophony
Sweet cacophony
Do you feel?
Do you feel the waves?
‘Cause you got 'em too
Rushing right through you
That’s what’s so special
That’s what’s so sweet
Everywhere we go: Radio
Crashing through his skin and out the other side
Crashing through his skin and out the other side
He's invisible
You think you can see me I think I can see you
No way, there’s no way
Sweet cacophony
There's no way
Sweet cacophony
Do you feel?
Do you feel
sweet cacophony?
|
||||
4. |
He's on Vacation
02:44
|
|||
5. |
Glacier Lady
03:36
|
|||
|
When the dawn peeks its head over night's wide shoulder
I know it is time for me to be one day older
As light draws me slowly home through the city mountains
I stop to make wishes in waterless fountains
Glacier Lady
Sits on the buffet
Gently drips away
Features fade
Face down the body
Drenching the pâté, filling the plates
Spilling: a woman waterfall
Rising below the tiring night
Waking the aching feet with delight
Soaking up brightening chandelier light
Watering breathtaken instrument lungs
Wetting the panting saxophone tongues
Higher we climb on black and white ballroom rungs
Glacier Lady
Sits on the buffet
Gently drips away
She pours under doors and out through window tops
Sopping the city, sprouting sky-bound crops
Evening begins as soon as the dreaming stops
Citizens waken with quick inhalations
That float them to surface amidst constellations
Bathing in history, time's slow rotations
|
||||
6. |
My Epoxied Rose
02:48
|
|||
|
My Epoxied Rose
Made of leather
but held together
by the kind of glue that you make in the moment,
combining two components
My Epoxied Rose
Brushed from weather
A warm, red heather
Sits on my lapel so well, picking up the sun
Almost magnification
You pinned it there
with so much care
as we stood brow to brow
I want to seal
the things we feel
I wish you'd tell me how
My Epoxied Rose
Petals feather
I wonder whether
It is approaching their Spring, or as Summer cracks
they now un-bloom and relax?
|
||||
7. |
Michigan
03:01
|
|||
|
Snowed-in,
Michigan
Cross-country skis
please keep me circling the inside of a pillow
Exhausting, beautiful white
Can history repeat
as two feet
carve uninterrupted lines?
Midwest spines?
Can now and then meet
as snow-sheets,
massive with compacted light,
curve space/time?
|
||||
8. |
August Wedding
02:19
|
|||
|
for Peter and Tori
As you put this ring on my finger
you are covering me with gold leaf
like I am a harp
and each note plays out into the future
|
||||
9. |
||||
|
Take metal stylus times 1.1
Take brush times 2
Take wood block times 3
Take moveable clay type times 4
Take printing press times 7
Take typewriter times 30
Take computer times 160
The characters stop here
I can't remember them
Brush is blackened with unwritten,
but hesitation from head to hand becomes an inked ocean
A slow erosion.
A language under water,
wave after wave
So when there is storm at sea,
is it just screaming at me?
Or is it talking to itself,
words that don't know where to go?
|
||||
10. |
Signature
02:30
|
|||
|
Signature
I move over it with my hand
One line from your start to your finish
One second to you
To me, a whole life
|
||||
11. |
I'm in Crinoline
03:55
|
|||
|
Open my kindergarten eyes
and I'm in crinoline
Half in her dress,
wrestling against clasps,
the Singer is fastened in
And the Kindergarten Circus is about to begin!
Hands above my head
Coral in this endless underneath
Legs twirling below
Peppermint stick in a child's mouth
Torso to and from
Wrapped-up butterfly, kept by threads
Glints of classroom light hint through the silver filaments
turning me into a figurine
Wafts of theatrical perfume lift from this whispering costume
kissed by moths who've featsted here unseen
Animal-cackles ricochet
Their chuckles are hushed by the fabric
But in here, my solo song boomerangs
Practicing, I am ecstatic!
Hands above my head!
Legs twirling below!
Torso to and from!
Half in her dress,
wrestling against clasps,
the Singer is fastened in
And the Kindergarten Circus is about to begin!
How many girls twisted blissfully here
moments from their turns to bloom?
Wistfully I re-sing my circus tune...
|
||||
12. |
Is that the Moon?
02:02
|
|||
|
Is that the moon?
The same one I used to see
emptying repeatedly?
It seems closer to me
Is it the weight of billions
of hearts with new resilience,
able to hold more than before?
Are we bound to collide?
The moon in our side?
A casualty of war?
No, one day we will be too full
and the earth will lessen its pull
Hearts empty when they break -
gravity for the moon to take
|
||||
13. |
Mistake
03:45
|
|||
Amy Kohn Padua, Italy
Amy Kohn is applauded by some of the top composer/producers in modern song: Van Dyke Parks says she’s “Brimming with such talent!” and legendary Producer Arif Mardin dubbed her a “Musical Devil in a Red Dress." Amy always seeks sounds she’s never heard, and it comes through in the “oddly structured beauty” of her highly arranged, effervescent music. ... more
Amy Kohn recommends:
Fagra Veröld
by Sunna Gunnlaugs
Joyous songs in Icelandic that always put me in a good mood. The drummer, Scott Mclemore, is the drummer and designer on I'm in Crinoline too!
go to album
Akiko is one of my favorite songwriters. We first met because our CDs were sitting next to each other at a Brooklyn music shop, and since then I've been inspired by every one of her releases.
go to album
We met on Myspace (loved her music) and on her trip to NY she practiced on my piano then invited me to do a co-bill in Italy with her. Thanks to that I now call Padova my home. Fiery, gorgeous music.
go to albumIf you like Amy Kohn, you may also like:
The debut album from Maria Basel is electronic-tinged chamber pop centered around the artist's gorgeous piano playing.
go to album
Spunky songwriting wrapped up in luscious vocals and beautifully baroque-pop arrangements.
go to album
The new album on Z Tapes is the perfect blend of wry, witty lyrics and warm bedroom pop.
go to album
