Monoprint cover by Bay Deane
Death is the most recent album in the Map series. Made without synthesis, Death depicts the struggle and movement of a family across a changing global landscape. Moments of divine intervention are coupled with intimate stories. It follows their spirituality, their calls-to-worship and the strength of blood-ties.
Synopsis:
dash iii - Dust sweeps through the land; a raging and burning. Weather stations are gone, buildings are gone. There seems to be only grey smog and dust.
Family calendar - among the ruins of the house, the children find the family calendar, miraculously untouched by the flames. The eldest son tries to turn over to the new month, but the others flip the pages backward, looking back and laughing at times and events now so long in the past that they feel as though they come from another world.
C_A_V_E - Whilst walking through the town, the eldest son comes upon a group of people fighting over a bottle of water. There will not be enough for everyone. He watches on and does nothing, feeling a sinking in his stomach. He wanders further, looking for his family among the ruins, remembering and shouting their names. He can’t find them. Then, at a flattened road junction, he sees his sister’s brightly coloured top through the dust. As he draws nearer, he see the family huddled around the remains of something, but what is it? He stops walking, and realises. It is their home.
The Sofa Factory III - Meanwhile, the father stands in the ruin of the Sofa Factory, holding a rag from the floor in his hand. He studies old machinery and thinks about how much has changed, and wonders how he could ever have worked in a place like this.
[iii] - People are lost and disillusioned, in the wake of the fire, walking around, their eyes are wide in terror and shock. Everything has gone, and everything has been reduced to ashes, and burnt ruins. Groups of people form circles of condolence, linking arms over shoulders and turning inwards to shield themselves from the flying dust. Inside one such circle, the daughter closes her eyes tight against the dust, and sings gently. Others in the circle join, mostly lower voices, until the sound of the raging wind almost disappears inside the circle.
by helicopter - navigating the dust clouds, and lost amongst the red, dry heat; specialist pilots are battling to locate the source of the city-wide blaze. Locked in the dust about 20 miles outside the city centre, it is difficult to get close enough to the ground to see what is going on. The helicopter pilot doesn’t speak, his teeth clamped firmly around a wooden necklace as he makes tiny adjustments to the joystick to keep the helicopter in the air.
Into that wide beyond - Looking very close, one can see that the DNA of the family is changing; whether it is for the better or worse at this stage is unclear. Strands of connective tissue and energy that have never connected are connecting; others are dying off, turning grey and falling apart into nothingness. The eldest son looks at his hands for a moment, but they do not look like the same hands, so cut and weathered by the storm and the dust. The younger brother has a self-styled dust mask on and is sketching a plan of the city on a scrap of cardboard. He announces that he is going to the Sofa Factory to find his father. They agree to meet him on the top of the tallest hill, at the city’s outskirts in 4 hours at sunset. He leaves.
Shuffle dance - The feet of the family are beating the ground out of the city, and up the hill towards the mountain. As they clear the layer of dust and smoke, they enter a serene upper-world of stillness and clear blue clarity. Spontaneously, their feet start to make rhythmic patterns whilst walking. We see close-up their feet connecting with the ground, beating a pattern of work, hope and determination.
released September 30, 2019