(« The Sea of Ice » aka « Polar Sea, » aka « The Wreck of Hope » by Caspar David Friedrich)
« Derelict » is the fourth chapter of « Lifeforce » and is a completely instrumental section intended to evoke a dark, chaotic, threatening mood, and to suggest a painful descent.
In the storyline of the suite, the passage depicts the period when things start to go awry. Inspiration is ignored or resisted and activity slowly subsides. The goal is put aside, only for a while, but long enough for doubt to invade the process and destabilize it.
The first demo clip presents the transition from « Infused » to a first guitar solo which is intended to be angular and to convey awkwardness and difficulty.
The first part of the second demo clip presents what is intended as an accompaniment for the second guitar solo. The band's original lead guitarist (Louis Fiset) used to shine here with a very effective gut wrenching slide guitar solo that sadly very few people have had the privilege to hear thus far (but don't worry, I still have tapes). The ending of the section used to feature a distorted guitar playing a funerary melody, which has evolved with time and is now harmonized and arranged for two clarinets and a trumpet.
Hoping it's not such a day of dereliction for you, here's the associated poetry :
Defeated
Unwilling to go through
This door of innovation
Not knowing the courage
For more transformation
Disjointed
Unwilling to believe
This voice of intuition
Not knowing the virtue
Of its revelation
Defensive
Unwilling to concede
These proofs of divination
Not knowing the release
Of exoneration
Depleted
Unwilling to receive
This gift of inspiration
Not knowing the reward
Of the culmination
Delinquent
Unwilling to honour
These walls of limitation
Not knowing the insight
That they are instruction
Degraded
Unwilling to resist
This sweet song of temptation
Not knowing the setback
Stemming from transgression
Deflated
Unwilling to elude
This pull of gravitation
Not knowing the lightness
Of high elevation
Derelict
Unwilling to go on
This road of liberation
Not knowing the distance
From here to completion
As I reread the verses, I am reminded of this quote by Carl Gustav Jung :
The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.
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« Lifeforce » is the story of a personal catastrophe, an individual end of the world, beginning from a state of inspiration and hyperactivity, through doubt, destabilization, failure, consternation, collapse, and then on to relativisation, assessment, the return of hope, and renewal.
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