We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

All Living Can Anyone Be Here

by Steven Ball

supported by
dideldei
dideldei thumbnail
/

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Cassette + Digital Album
    Released in Linear Obsessional's Cassette Imprint. Professionally duplicated cassette with black shell with labels and full colour 2 panel jcard. Image by Nigel Ball, design by David Little.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Living Can Anyone Be Here via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Living Can Anyone Be Here via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

1.
And On The Heath 13:36
lyrics
buy track
it’s bound to fail this impossible landscape it’s over there always the past out of place and out of time we can’t observe the boundless heath all we do is point to things the heater’s on the windows are thin I’m trying hard to to keep this warmth in smile with us in the morning the best music we play it all for you again the same car driving more slowly and other traffic moves toward camera before indicating taking left turn stationary cars pedestrians all grey up on the black heath low edge of cloud shallow depth of field forms rectangular metallic sky green underneath and seen between oblique squinting ochre sunlight dull glow diffuse overcast and on the heath sirens, police crows, ducks, and geese a Tuesday in the afternoon up on the heath early winter crisp and chill mounds in circles bus rattles past sirens and geese crows and police mind how you go raven or crow light on a branch skeletal tree on Whitefield Mound birch, fir and gorse camera pan speeding van rain falls in grey far away back on the heath I try to write the sense of site invoke the place the here and now and back in time in 88 or 73 or 99 it’s bound to fail this impossible landscape it’s over there always the past out of place and out of time we can’t observe the boundless heath all we do is point to things it’s bound to fail
2.
Crossfields 04:00
buy track
3.
Even on a Wednesday 04:47
lyrics
buy track
time here in the front room at the zero hour in an extension of the vertical time everyday is Wednesday even on a Wednesday it’s all happening on unrecorded time and when the ticking clock comes to a stop dickory dock just in time floating in the front room surrender to the day bare consciousness in unencoded time drifting through a Wednesday then another Wednesday at the centre vertical time one hundred miles from here earlier than now listening to the space of time one two three four five six lasting through the front room everyday is Wednesday seven eight nine ten ten seconds from the bedroom even on a Wednesday conscious in the kitchen bounded at the front door extensive duration flowing across it’s all happening out of time
4.
Private Ambulance 12:00
lyrics
buy track
counting breaths six seven eight nine and ten isolate other people marking place avoiding contact supplanting space minutes hours days and weeks boundary situation minutes hours days and weeks quarantine an abject nation close to far and vice versa about the chest in the tightness outside inside inside out touch the handle touch the phone minutes hours days and weeks boundary situation minutes hours days and weeks quarantine an abstract nation words and language pass too close oral transmission round the corner stepping back a cough too close a sneeze too far minutes hours days and weeks boundary situation minutes hours days and weeks quarantine an abstract notion if I can smell you you’re too close sweat, perfume, vape or spliff fabric softener detergent cigarette you’re too close minutes hours days and weeks boundary situation minutes hours days and weeks quarantine an abstract notion
5.
All Living Can Anyone Be Here 10:50
lyrics
buy track
all living can anyone be here a woman who abruptly faced acute mania all looked away and he sells anti-depressants as anxiety levels anxious withdrawn apologise appreciate and I write being released benefits cut blinkers her blood trickling down on childhood happiness closer to home the daily torment the data decline the days are too long death syndrome depression bullying died of starvation early in the morning fake fur lined end of the street every day every other day find this very hard feed herself heat the place hope I’ll be OK a horror film how will I cope hypnotics I try to note in a dark place horror film in his sixties insomnia it gets worse leaving her house less secure living in a car lost all hope mascara tears meds for anxiety mental health mostly stay shut near a heating vent observation on Creek Road open curtains overwhelmed on the tube read this letter read on Twitter she couldn’t turn smartly dressed starved to death so hungry social network someone had written spare any change sudden arrhythmic taking the time thanks to you the people rest of my life under a bridge walks slowly welfare support there was a man washed in a puddle I wrote to her yesterday

about

All Living Can Anyone Be Here contains four songs and one instrumental. All but one of the songs were written and recorded during April and May 2020, two of those ('Even on a Wednesday' and 'Private Ambulance') reflect the coronavirus situation of that period, concentrating in particular on the attendant shifts in the subjective experience of space and time. The album’s title track is more an abstracted meditation on what might more broadly be called 'the state of society’, a bewilderment of news reports and the author’s own observations. 'And on the Heath', was written and recorded before the crisis, and considers spatial and temporal dislocation in attempting to evoke the place known as Blackheath in South East London as a 'landscape', wherein the song's narrator is resigned to admit that "...we can’t observe the boundless heath, all we do is point to things".

"Recorded during lockdown, the album has a sleep deprived, meditative feel - opener "And On The Heath" is a sparse warp of bent chorused guitar over which Ball's observations from Blackheath in South East London are gently exhaled, heavy with echo and ennui, the song's narrator ultimately only able to suggest that "We can't observe the boundless heath, all we do is point to things". "Crossfields" is the only instrumental here, what sounds like a robot didgeridoo cycling through its drone as counter-notes and melodies slowly get threaded through. "Even On A Wednesday is Colourfield-like nonspecific nostalgia filtered through a very Barrett-esque barely controlled mania, "Private Ambulance" is distressingly short of breath, a plague song for plague times, an almost documentary snapshot of waiting for your last ride, and a devastating look at lockdown's traumatic tricks on our sense of time and purpose. The title track is the most wide-ranging (and non-Covid dominated) track here - Ball digging into his own anxiety and the societal chaos we've been calling normal for too long, over a mordantly inert set of sifting guitar and reverbed footsteps." - Neil Kulkarni 'The Wire' September 2020

credits

released June 22, 2020

Written and recorded during January, April, and May 2020
Cover image by Nigel Ball @_nigelball

originally released by Linear Obsessional LOR143

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Steven Ball image

Steven Ball London, UK

Steven Ball has been working as an artist since the early 1980s, in film, video, sound, installation, and performance, and has been a member of the post-punk DIY group Storm Bugs. In 2014 he started writing and recording songs as a solo project, being particularly concerned with experimenting with which kinds of texts might constitute a song lyric. ... more

contact / help

Contact Steven Ball

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Steven Ball, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now