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Resonate Choral Arts Presents
Songs of the Sphere
Music by Kristin Gordon
Visual Art by Beth Lorio
— Performances by —
Resonate Choral Arts
Anny Celsi, Christine Barlow Reed, Debra Clemans, Elisabeth Allie, Ellen Bialecki, Emily Dziedzic, Hilary Boyd, Jasmine Novak, Julia Babcock, Julianne Sixel, Julie Rosequist, Karla Friesen, Kathleen Gabriel, Katy McQuinn, Lisa Goldberg, Liz Rusch, Marissa Thompson, Nancy Hashimoto, Pamela Bloch, Rebecca Harrison
Kristin Gordon, director
Ali Ippolito, piano & accordion
The Oracle Chorus
Ali Wesley, Amandalyn Friedland, Debra Clemans, Julianne Sixel, Karla Friesen, Kristin Gordon, Leina Naversen
Glam Country
Nik Kemmer, guitar; Kristin Gordon, keys; Nolan Gordin, guitar & slide guitar; Phil Krug, bass; Zoey Bourgazas, drums
Fifth Sunday
Alex Persing, Ali Wesley, Gerry Brenes, Ian Doescher, Jeanette Ehmke, Karla Friesen, Kristin Gordon, Tom George
Lucy Neary, director
Bex Beloved, violin, vocals, percussion
Nik Kemmer, drums
Phil Krug, bass
Avery Hill, vocals
— About the Artists —
Beth Lorio & Kristin Gordon have been creatively collaborating in friendship, art and intuitive endeavors since 2003. For years they have dreamed of creating something that connects people with the more-than-human world, and they are overjoyed to share Songs of the Sphere with you. You can continue supporting Songs of the Sphere by pre-ordering the album, oracle deck, or digital app, or by simply donating to their crowd-funding campaign here.
Resonate Choral Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to building community through creative collaboration. Our next season begins in early 2025. Visit resonatepdx.org to learn more about joining the choir.
Glam Country, fronted by songwriter, Nik Kemmer, is a glam rock/country band, most recently rocking the Laurelthirst, Rontoms and the weddings of good friends. Follow them on Instagram, and check out Glam Country’s next show, January 30 at Alberta Street Pub!
Fifth Sunday is a nine-voice classical ensemble, performing their favorite choral pieces, from Palestrina to Rheinberger to Lauridsen. Fifth Sunday presents their upcoming concert, In Praise of Christmas, December 7 at 7 p.m. at the Grotto, and December 10 at 7:30 pm at St. Ignatius Catholic Church.
Bex Beloved is an artist best known for her multi-genre violin and finger style guitar playing, as well as storytelling lyricism. Her ambient folk style blends a soaring whistle and an intimate voice that regularly quiets rooms. Bex’s soon-to-come second album is the tale of a voyage from the known to the depths of mystery across the sea. Explore her music here.
Avery Hill’s new album of original songs, The One Who Remembers, is out now. Listen and explore your own musical journey at Averyhill.studio.
— Concert Program —
Even the Cactus Must Breathe
Fifth Sunday
Lyrics:
Even the cactus must breathe.
Love Song of the East
Avery Hill, Ali Ippolito, Bex Beloved, Kristin Gordon
Lyrics:
Turn around, meet the ground.
Falling down is practice for picking yourself up again.
The choice you make and steps you take,
and each mistake will show you where and who you have been.
I am finding my place to feel the sun on my face--
new light in the sky.
Maybe I'll try.
Start again, remember when
I only thought of beginnings and feared no end.
I recognize with open eyes
that even light from the sunrise must find its own way to bend.
I'm hoping that I can be like the sun in the sky,
that changes the view
and makes something new.
Another Equinox
Oracle Chorus feat. Leina Naversen
Lyrics:
(In the middle)
It’s not yesterday.It’s not tomorrow.
I am not where I have come from, I am not where I will go.
Here I am, here I am, here I am, here I am here.
It’s not yesterday.It’s not tomorrow.
I am not where I have come from, I am not where I will go.
Clouds
Oracle Chorus, feat. Debra Clemans
Lyrics:
The storm that will not gather, potential that will not be,
The migration and separation, the cooling wind dispersing o’er the sea.
Spring
Oracle Chorus
Lyrics:
Everything's blooming.
The blossoms are looming.
The bees are assuming.
The frogs and the birds
are tuning their asking songs,
for someone to sing along.
The flora's awaking.
The soil's undertaking
to nurture the aching
of seeds that are splitting
and breaking themselves in two,
becoming something new.
La, la, la
Everything's cracked open wide.
Nothing can stay on the inside.
Stars
Oracle Chorus, feat. Julianne Sixel
Lyrics:
Lay your stories on me, if it helps you sleep at night.
I'll be your projection and still shine with my own light.
I can hold your wishes, and I can hold your dreams.
I can hold your wonder. We are all more than we seem.
And when you’re folded into shadows, cast by brighter day,
I will hold a light for you from galaxies away.
Love Song of the Air
Bex Beloved, Ali Ippolito & Kristin Gordon
Lyrics:
Let me hold you, Darling, and paint myself against your skin.
Let me always be with you, around you, and within.
I will give you everything, and you will let me go.
We will take in turns again, 'til we're basking in the afterglow.
I will hold you lightly, so you will still feel free.
But I will always be with you, and you will be with me.
I will give the sky to you, and you will give me form.
I will feed your hungry heart, and together we'll be warm.
Birds
Tom George, Ali Ippolito, Bex Beloved, Nik Kemmer, Kristin Gordon
Lyrics:
All I carry with me are feathers and a song,
and a map that's etched upon my bones and urges me along.
I can see for miles as I sail this hollow sea.
The stars have been my shelter, and I have friends for company.
Yesterday is far away, and tomorrow may never be.
I'll take the moment given and I’ll sing because I'm free.
Insects
Resonate
Lyrics:
I wake up in the morning, and I am what I am.
I do the job I was made for, and I do it again.
My sisters and my cousins, we all do what we do,
and in every little crevice, you'll find we are the glue.
And each of us is tiny,
and each of us is small.
And every little action
adds up to more than all you can imagine.
We turn the soil.
We eat the dead.
We seed the fruit.
We feed the web
that keeps the world alive.
(so we all survive.)
Grass
Resonate
Lyrics:
I will be a blanket to tuck the earth in tight.
I will be a gentle bed to rest your head at night
I will be a shelter to harbor and conceal.
I will give, as I have lived, comfort and a meal.
I will live into the earth and stretch up toward the sky.
I will bend in wind and rain, and then again, I'll try.
I will drink the sunlight and hold it in my cells.
I am the green of growing things, and I will wish you well.
I will.
Summer Solstice
Resonate
Lyrics:
I turn my face up to the sky.
I turn my face up to the sky.
Toward the light of the brightest star that I've ever known.
Toward the light, the one that calls me home.
The light.
The light.
The light.
I will remember in my darkest days
when the path is bleak and the world is gray
I will remember in my darkest days
when the path is bleak and the world is gray
the light that I welcomed in,
the light that I held within my skin.
The light.
The light.
The light.
Frogs
Resonate, feat. Julia Babcock & Julie Rosequist
Lyrics:
I’m not who I was yesterday, and I won’t be this tomorrow.
Holding on to “would be” is the surest path to sorrow.
Moving, changing, grooving, rearranging.
I was born to shake my tail in dark, backwater dives.
Then I grew my two left feet, and I learned to hop and jive.
Everything is moving, changing, grooving, rearranging.
Everything is growing into something else.
Everything is drifting, going, shifting, overflowing.
Everything will turn until it won’t turn no more.
Summer
Glam Country, Bex Beloved
Lyrics:
The bees are buzzing through the blossoms
making their way home, making something sweet.
We are dancing through daylight,
reeling 'round each other, reeling in the heat.
The sun is lingering lazy as the moon
draws her warmth, draws her across the sky.
Gravity pulls us to orbit,
spinning stories, spinning threads that tie.
And the days will go on forever,
and the nights will be full of stars.
Tomorrow belongs to whenever,
but now is ours.
Now is the belly that holds all things that delights in all things new.
Now is the bite of hunger, sweet, as time is passing through.
Now is the taste the tongue can catch, but cannot keep or hold.
Now is when everything new begins.
Now is when everything new begins.
Now is when everything new begins,
rebirth for the daring and bold.
Pollen
Glam Country
Lyrics:
One lone speck in a lonely universe,
one long shot, no time to rehearse
looking for you. I'm looking for you.
Looking for you, I'm looking for you.
If love's for sale, then you know I'm buying
a one way ticket, or I'm gonna die trying
Twinkle-toed and starry-eyed,
gonna hit the road, gonna hitch a ride
Gonna tie myself to the wind or a wing,
Gonna sail the skies if you'll pull my kite string,
I'm looking for you.
When I fall down at your doorstep,
will you let me in?
To share a secret that I've kept with me
I’ll plant it beneath your skin.
I will cross the deepest blue,
looking for you, looking for you.
I will stick with you like glue,
looking for you, I'm looking for you.
We're gonna make something new.
I'm looking for you, I'm looking for you.
And on and on it will circle through,
I'm looking for you, I'm looking for you.
I'm looking for you, I'm looking for you.
Agave
Glam Country, Bex Beloved
Lyrics:
I will be the needle and thread that stitches up your seams.
I will be the rooftop that shelters all your dreams.
When the streams have dried up and the rains have gone away,
I will pour my heart out to keep your thirst at bay.
When the dust has stuck to you, I can make you shine.
When things start to fall apart, I can be your twine.
Drink up my sweet nectar, if you're looking for a guide;
when I'm in your veins, give me the reins, I'll take you for a ride.
I'll take you for a ride, a ride.
A metaphor for what's in store,
so much needed is supplied.
I'll take you for a ride, a ride.
The veil is thin, when you look within,
you can see the other side.
I grow, I grow,
I grow for years
and I know that I'll know
when my moment appears,
I'll open myself to the sun
and blossom, just once,
just once, and then I'll be done.
Love Song of the South
Glam Country
Lyrics:
If you come through burning coals to knock upon my door,
you won't step back through ashy tracks to who you were before.
Yesterday has turned away and left you at my feet,
and when I'm through you won't be who you were before the heat.
I want the fire in your blood.
I want the torsion in your bones.
I want to melt your body next to mine and uncover the unknown.
I want daring in your gaze.
I want willing in your skin.
I want to strip you down to nothing--that's where you begin.
That's where you begin.
That's where you begin.
— Intermission —
Ocean
Resonate, feat. Ali Ippolito
lyrics:
The surface is all that you see,
reflecting the sky that you know,
and all of the mystery and all of the meaning
Is found by diving below
Fish
Resonate
Lyrics:
There are trillions of us in the pools of your history
holding the memories, keeping the mystery
Swimming the lineage where living began,
life born of water that covered the land
We are the legacy boundless and deep
from the fathomless bottoms where the bristleworms creep
to tides where sunfish and swordfish will roam
The earth is water and water is home
We’ve scattered our progeny over the sea
in spectrum of forms and patchwork of being
in dreams that flirt with miracle and chance
we are the tides, we are the dance.
We were made here
we remain dear
we belong.
Love Song of the River
Resonate
Lyrics:
I will follow you home to the sea, to the sea.
I will follow you home to the sea,
Where every molecule of you gets tangled up in me.
I will follow you home to the sea.
Equinox
Fifth Sunday
Lyrics:
The day has come to stand beside the shoulder of the night
in still repose,
to gaze upon the growing slowing,
and slipping with the sunlight as it goes.
The scales will tilt
and tides will sway their swelling course.
The fields will wilt;
decay will feed their fertile source.
But now, a moment hung in golden hew,
a kiss of fingertips as as they pass through.
Balanced here
in silent, fair embrace.
Before the dance begins,
the stillness and the grace.
Rabbit
Oracle Chorus
Lyrics:
Heart beating fierce, compelled by the thrill
of a predator's gaze, I hold perfectly still.
I am fair game.
I am followed.
I am hunted and chewed up and swallowed.
But oh, how I run.
I leap and I twist and dance for the sun.
For a short time here has been warm and dear.
And with friends close by,
we are born, we are born,
and we die and we die.
We are born, we are born,
and we die and we die.
But oh, how we run.
For a moment, a moment, under the sun.
Oh how we run.
Water
Oracle Chorus, feat. Karla Friesen & Julianne Sixel
Lyrics:
Moving, flowing, ebbing, going
rushing, roaring, flooding, pouring,
stirring, steeping, running, weeping,
raining, receding, sustaining, bleeding,
sloshing, sousing, washing, dousing,
coursing, streaming, condensing, steaming,
soaking, drenching, cleansing, quenching,
all that lives is circling through,
around and around, what's me is you.
Fire
Oracle Chorus, feat. Julianne Sixel & Karla Friesen
Lyrics:
Clay into vessel
Wheat into bread
Iron to knife
Living to dead
Gathering song and story
Blood beating strong and warm
We kindle and tend and linger
to catch the spark to transform
Clay into vessel
Wheat into bread
Timber to ashes
Blue into red
Thought into action
Time into skill
Darkness to sight
Knowledge to will
Bodies in friction
Pine cone to tree
Water to vapor
What will you be?
Forest Invitation
Oracle Chorus, feat. Ali Wesley
Lyrics:
Come into the wild,
where everything grows.
Enter the dance here --
quick, quick, slow.
Instinct will lead you
through steps improvised,
embraced by the gaze
of glimmering eyes.
Nature will gather
berries and seeds.
Teeth only pick-off
the nature they need.
Come into the wild,
where everything grows.
Enter the dance here --
quick, quick, slow.
Don’t Let Go of Me (Fall)
Oracle Chorus
Lyrics:
Daylight is looking at me sideways,
Like I did something wrong and it’s time to move along.
The birds have abandoned the treetops,
They’ve run out of songs to sing, they’ve taken bows and taken wing.
The nights are getting colder,
And we are getting older.
The rains are unpacking their suitcase,
Taking over the spare room with their damp and dismal gloom.
The trees are revamping their wardrobe.
They’re tired of the view. They long for something new.
The nights are getting longer.
The winds are getting stronger and tearing so much at the seams.
Don’t let go of me.
Winter Solstice
Oracle Chorus, feat. Amandalyn Friedland
Lyrics:
The secrets untold,
songs yet unsung,
choices unmade,
and deeds never done.
Paths untaken,
words never shared,
the darkness is deep,
and all is held there.
A blanket woven of uncertain wool,
infinite threads, empty and full.
The sacred unknowing, to be lost and aware.
The darkness is deep,
and you will be held there.
Snow
Leina Naversen, Julianne Sixel, Kristin Gordon, Nik Kemmer
Lyrics:
I can show you purity, as clean as it is cold.
I can touch you gently, or give you something you can hold.
Blinding beauty has a price, and I will take my toll
'cause that's how I roll.
I can build a wonderland, and I'll invite you out to play.
You know, it might be fun, and from time to time, you might lose your way.
Cause it's coming down, coming down, coming down, all around,
everything comes down until it can be still.
Create a little flurry, make everybody worry.
You were in a hurry? Now you better scurry.
Everything is freezing. I don't have reason
to make this pleasing for you are seasonal too.
We're all passing through.
Falling, swirling, floating, and blowing,
we don't know where we're going
'til we lie still on the ground, where rest is found.
Lichen
Lucy Neary, Kristin Gordon, Ali Ippolito
Lyrics:
Older than time,
more patient than death,
we blanket the earth.
We hold her breath.
Chafed in the wind
or baked by the sun,
we fasten the soil
where living's begun.
Though we perch on the leaves and the bark of the trees,
the sunlight and air provide for our needs.
With no roots to sate or thirst to abate,
we hold to the sky. We hold, and we wait.
On bare rocky slopes
or dry desert sand,
deep within stone
or on high frigid land,
through darkness and drought,
entwined to persist,
balanced and bound
and by the fate's kissed.
North
Gerry Brenes, Ali Ippolito,
Lyrics:
My Love will never come to me. Her love is true and [constant] still.
And every day I call and pull. And I cannot shake her will.
Though I can bend the rocks and light. And I can cause the seas to stir.
Everything I know of me, I have learned from loving her.
Winter
Fifth Sunday, Ali Ippolito
Lyrics:
The slanting sun slips swiftly through the sky
to rest in the long arms of Night's embrace.
Darkness holds our dreams,
and Cold, enchanting, sings
of shadow and of silence and of grace.
The deep and prying chill exposes cracks to fill.
We hold each other close against the chill.
Back to the Earth
All performers
Lyrics:
Under our feet, in the dark and the deep,
where the critters that creep and the company they keep
are cradled in heat and rocked to the beat of the
humming of silt and the secrets they eat.
And all As Above will become Underneath,
and we all come back to the earth.
We bury our bones in the sand and the loam,
next to seeds we have sown, where everything known
has been planted and grown, and met with stone,
caught in the wind and blown all alone
to wander and roam, but always at home.
We all come back to the earth.
We are the microbes that live in our hair.
We are the pores that hold water and air.
We are the carbon, the silt and the clay.
We drink in the heat to grow or decay.
We were born hungry to search and consume.
We will die yielding, our bodies the womb
where life will bear life in the root of all birth.
We are the seed, the soil, the earth.
And we all come back to the earth.
Everything is Singing
All performers
Lyrics:
Everything is Singing