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Silent Crossings

from Global Search Party by Walter Ehresman

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This is a really interesting piece of flamenco-tinged progressive post-rock, with a vocal approach reminiscent of the solo work by ex-Japan singer David Sylvian.

Ehresman's thoughts on this song: "In December 2018, I rode with a friend from my home in Central Mexico up into Texas, and was amazed that trains crisscrossed all through the city of New Braunfels (where he still had a home) without blasting eardrum-splitting whistles.......Given that I have train tracks one block from my house in Mexico that run 24/7 with engineers that lay on the whistles with mad abandon, I had to ask my friend how the city up in Texas managed that.....He said that after years of negotiations with the railroads, an agreement was made to have only 'silent crossings' within the city limits."

"The phrase stuck with me, and later I sat down to write a song with that title, envisioning two people with a love affair that went bad decades before, now running into each other on the street......With the shock and flurry of feelings, and so much that could be said, neither ends up speaking and they pass silently on by."

Click here for the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2zk9KR0yF8

lyrics

Silent Crossings
(© 2019 Walter Ehresman)

Rumbles, but no blast……it could be so many things;
Accustomed to the klaxon when danger’s in the long grass;
The years re-weight the scale…….put filters on reflection;
But crossings of the paths unveil the wounds that last,
and strip away the pearl of healing.

Such a funny thing, this tangle of gray matter;
A maze that pulses softly……we cannot see the pattern;
Infinity of sparks relay—a lightning storm, to me opaque—
I trace into a dead-end street, too proud today for my defeat;
The universe ignores such clatter.

Silent crossings……….no disturbance;
Ripples will not cross the surface of the time so past between us;
Underneath the underplay, now softly (just a vibration) will I say……..

We lock our eyes before the time of strangers meeting;
Amidst the scrambled flash, I cannot read your face;
The closing space demands decisions in the instant;
Our lips, they make no sound……our eyes show words unfound
of fear or of entreating.

credits

from Global Search Party, released May 20, 2020
Walter Ehresman: vocals, nylon & steel-string acoustic guitars, electric guitar, keyboards & key percussion, 5-string electric bass, vocoder, finger cymbals.

Produced by Walter Ehresman at Snipe Bog Studios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

p. 2020 Walter Ehresman. Snipe Bog Records.

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Walter Ehresman San Miguel De Allende, Mexico

Called "the quintessential Austin DIY artist" by famed local disc jockey Charlie Martin , Walter Ehresman was an eccentric presence in the Austin music scene from the '80s until his 2015 move to Mexico. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording artist...and a restless musical spirit, always looking for something new, expressed with fearlessly honest, socially-conscious lyrics. ... more

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