• There’s signs in this early morning

    As mindful you wake from your sleep

    Theres life in this early morning

    A life that you wan’t to lead

    If your not ready forget it

    Lay down and fall back to Sleep

    If your not ready forget it

    Lay down and fall back to Sleep

  • If you needed fire

    I'd dig you a well

    If you needed water

    I'd raise up hell

    The earth beneath us

    Is framed by the sky

    And as I look upon you

    I need never know why

    For I'm the opposite of you

    As one we balance two

    And after all that we've been through

    All I need in this world is you

    As I lay dying

    You taught me to live

    If in life I am selfish

    You taught me to give

    I beg if I hurt you

    Please try to forgive

    For no man is perfect

    In this world that we live

    This world we live

    If love was the jailer

    Then love held the key

    As I fell from the mountain

    Deep into your sea

    And fear cherished safety

    Unbounded you were free

    And if it was not for darkness

    This light I would not see

    for the voice in our heads

    Is all thats separating now

    As one we move slow

    Through this eternal night

    I know we are gonna make something of this

    Great longing called life

    Like my heart's been drunk on kerosene

    And you are my light

    For I'm the opposite of you

    As one we balance two

    And after all that we've been through

    All I need in this world is you

    ***

    Are you ready?

    To see this world open up before you?

  • I woke to a brave new world

    Where we'll fake anything to distract our suffering

    We live online, together alone

    Lost under heaven's automated light

    Why's your heart filled with darkness, baby?

    Why's your head filled with useless thoughts?

    We live our lives in neon darkness

    You know we are so much more

    No don't worry

    Don't worry about a thing

    This world isn't all that it seems

    All we are is just people trying

    All we are is just people trying to live

    Trying to live a life that means something

    Trying to live a life that means something more

    In waking life I am restless

    For every new day is caught in the same routine

    My body is a temporary vessel

    Reflected in safety's distant screen

    I don't want to think about it

    I don't want to keep y'all dumb and poor

    Look at this life as special

    Of greater worth than whatever lays beyond these walls

    You know it's a brave new world

    A brave new world to be

    Believing in something you can't see

    Believing boy in anything

    If we break these walls in this brave new world, you'll see

    This game is nothing, no baby you are free

    All we are is just people trying

    All we are is just people trying to live

    Trying to live a life that means something

    Trying to live a life that means something more

    And it looks like heaven from the earth

    But climb so high and you'll see what it's worth

    No don't worry

    Don't worry about a thing

    This world isn't all that it seems

  • They asked me in this life, what's true to you?

    And how to survive this world you were born into?

    I answered with someone's words I wish I knew

    For in the distance all I see is future blues

    I'm so bored of this reality

    Of fearful men trying to limit me

    I am so much more than this body

    A fading memory

    Of another day

    Sitting around in this place

    It's just another day

    Watching time turn to waste

    All that's lost, it shall be found

    In long forgotten towns

    Like blossom leaves

    In abandoned factories

    Speaks of infinity

    The silence speaks

    Of another day

    Sitting round in this place

    Just another day

    Lost in timeless space

    (If we don't leave this small town then we won't learn anything

    We are safe in this small town but our lives are stuck on repeat

    We live, love and die

    Yes we breathe all the same

    If we create winners or losers maybe we need a new game)

    The future is unwritten but it still haunts us

  • I couldn't even save myself

    From falling in love with you

    I couldn't even save myself

    This truth speaks no words to you

    No I cannot take it baby, I let this whole world slip away

    No I cannot fake it baby, you're the reason to breathe in this day

    Let's leave this world together

    When it rains, you know I'll find shelter

    When it's hot, hell knows I'll find shade

    Through this life spent dreaming of tomorrow

    We forgot how to live for today

    And if you don't want to hear it baby

    This truth speaks no words to you

    If you don't want to hear it baby

    Then this truth speaks no words to you

    If you don't want to hear it baby

    If you don't want to hear it bae

    If you don't want to hear it baby

    Then this truth speaks no words to you

    Let's leave this world together

    And I'm not alone when I am standing here

    I see your eyes

    I see the fear, but not a single tear for this world to hear

    Won't you hear my apology

    I know these words won't set me free

    But I found love in this world when you stand by me

    Why can't we live together?

    Someday comes forever

    Do you remember?

    When we used to play

    Down by the rivers now veins in this city scape

    Do you remember

    When we used to say?

    Nothing is more sacred than our mutual self respect

    Sha-la-la-la-la-babe

    This truth speaks no words to you

    The truth of this moment

    It's passing you by

    I can see the fear now in your eyes

    Let's leave this world together

  • I see money over everything

    MAYA is my mind

    This the mantra of my generation

    Living in end times

    You said drop one and I could rule like a king

    Yet through this ecstasy screaming

    Still my shadow it sings

    Who are we?

    No no no no, what have we become?

    No, we won't stop the party until the drink dries out

    (We only live once so take all that you can get)

    We won't stop the party until it is over

    (We gon' purge this world of love 'til there's nothing left)

    We built this kingdom for us

    Tell me why would I change it for you?

    You're just jealous of this game

    Sitting in the dark of win or lose

    And I know you're afraid

    That this culture is dead

    But I can't hear you over my money, babe

    For all the greed in my fucking head

    You don't know this work

    You don't know shit

    You're a slave to money that doesn't even exist

    I earn a life like this

    You know I deserve a life like this

    Once I lived, a life like you

    Jealous of the ease of a privileged few

    But I earned a life like this

    You know I deserve a life like this

    Singing

    Hey boy, you know the game is rigged

    Don't even try boy, the truth does not exist

    Well its something that you will never understand

    We are born free to exploit this land

    The world is structured for a privileged few

    There is nothing that you'll ever be able to do

    So keep quiet, live the life that you were born into

    I'm singing

    Hey boy, you know the game is rigged

    Don't even try boy, the truth does not exist

    Go work sleep repeat until you are fucking dead

    The world is structured for a privileged few

    You know you are the product that I consume

    You got one life so take all that you can get

    And gorge your soul with all the greed in your fucking head

  • Why does this darkness feel so black?

    And why does the black make me feel so blue?

    A black sun sets across your face, as silently you say

    Baba don't cry, all in this world is not a lie

    If I lived these dreams in a world that was true

    Would I still be here singing these songs to you?

    These songs, these words are all that I've ever had

    They cannot fill this void in the heart of man

    You see a shadow cast, twice the size of my hand

    Chokes the lifeless throat of this holy land

    So why don't we end this now, my soul is too tired to speak

    Our voices tell nothing to this new day's break

    I have seen it all, show me something new

    But just give me some hope to put my kerosene heart into

    For this kingdom is about to fall

    We can build a new world

    I know this city leaves you cold

    Without love's tender hold

    So triumphant we say

    It starts today

    Let the old fall away

    For the dirt is truly gold

    In your love's tender hold

    Your love's tender hold

  • Do you expect my loyalty?

    As a son his father's crown

    To this future am I free?

    Or by tradition am I bound

    Do I respect my ancestry?

    Or lose all they have found

    Or break blue melody and bring this down

    Let's bring it down

    We're gonna sail away from this town's darkness

    We're gon' to sail from everything

    Tell me where we go from here

    Tell me where we go from here

    In waking life you are not aware

    Our time has come, our moment's near

    So don't make a sound

    No don't make a sound

    We're gonna sail away from this town's darkness

    We're gon' to sail from everything

    And it's the moment you have left

    You see what's lost

    Can never be found

    It's with pride that I talk to you

    And with pride I ask you, hear me when I say

    Tell me how do you expect our loyalty

    With the disrespect you serve out everyday

    Still I have to ask myself why we go on living in this way?

    It is fear that they hold us with

    A fear of self that will slowly fade away

    The moment I hear you say

    I am no subject of this crown

    I walk with dignity

    And make no sound

    As we bring this down

    Let's bring this motherfucker down

    We're gonna sail away from this town's darkness

    We're gon' to sail from everything

  • I always knew it would end like this

    On a sinking ship

    The only lovers left

    In a world that’s lost all meaning

    Your truth got me believing

    We meant something

    A hope that there's a point to

    This big nothing

    Lost under heaven angels sing:

    Do you expect the blind to see

    What is yet to be

    My girl, my girl, I see beyond fear

    There ain't no home for me

    Now these eyes can see

    My girl, my girl, I know we don't belong here

    And if these eyes can see

    Is it reality?

    And we all know

    That it's bullshit

    Say it's just life

    And we live it

    And I always want

    I always want

    More than I have now

    And I am never full

    No, I am never full

    For I don't understand how

    You can never get enough

    Of what you don't need

    With all this desire

    How can I be free?

    I was not born to live like this

    And I know another world exists

    As long as I got my baby

    Our love as armor for our protection

    Lost under heaven angels sing:

    You are the earth, moon, sea

    You are the trinity

    My girl, my girl, don't you talk like that

    Close your eyes and see

    What is yet to be

    My girl, my girl, your words exact

    Close your eyes and see

    A new reality

    And we all know

    That it's bullshit

    Say it's just life

    And we live it

  • You are not supposed to die, you were my love

    If this king was of the sky, why didn't he fly away from here?

    Ambition it rises high before it sees what's lost

    The fall broke my fickle bones but it saved our love

    It changes everything

    And love itself can not be helped

    In the others arms,

    You know we shall survive, impatient one

    The struggle is our lives, we shall overcome

    For no-one ever said there was a problem

    No-one likes to admit why we're here so often

    Then you came to heal my wounds

    Guide my restless soul to wake the lost in sleeping tombs

    We let the silence say

    All we know of death is that you can't come back

    We stand united by our fates, formless black

    No it don't scare me

    For my heart it guides my head

    To miss the mark my only sin

    And love itself it can not be helped

    When you follow your true will

    If you can't live with yourself, how you gon' live with me?

    If you can't live with yourself, how we gon' set them free?

    So come on and lose yourself

    Come on and lose yourself in Ecstasy

    love itself can not be helped,

    when you follow your true will

  • No I

    Don't know

    Where this world is going

    For all this life is showing

    Breaks through

    The paper chains that hold you

    They hold me

    You know I try to stay sober

    But this feeling it's over

    Life in this coma

    It's hard to stay sober

    In this life

    Alone the struggle seems holy worthless

    So find your friends

    In defiance shows we are no longer helpless

    You made me forget my self until the moment

    I found I was something else

    My heart is good but believe me I could

    Watch these heads go blow

    I am so alive, I can barely feel fear

    I won’t let go

    Of this life I am going to free myself

    And I heard what the horsemen Say

    And I am waiting on Judgment Day

    I hear what they say

    But ain't life just a funny game?

    I make no apology for these words

    An understanding I can not escape

    I have no more love for this world

    If you hear me then let's break away

    So people come on, the world that held you now has gone

    Together the wolves will play

    Together alone the wolves will play

    You made me forget my self until the moment

    I found I was something else

    My heart is good

    Believe me I could

    Watch these heads go blow

    I am so alive, I can barely feel fear

    I won’t let go

    Of this life I am going to free myself

    And I heard what the horsemen Say

    And I am waiting on Judgment Day

    I hear what they say

    But ain't life just a funny game?

    So live your life

    I am so alive

    I can barely feel fear

    Live your life

    From this life I will free myself

    (When all is said and done there is still a part of me

    That wants your love inside of me

    Wants your love laid next to me)

    Lo' to the powers of old, to the powers that be

    You have fucked up this world but you will not fuck with me

  • I, I & I lay between my brother and sister the sea

    I, I & I hold nothing as real as what you believe

    So don't you ever cry for what's hard in this life

    You know the world over it's people struggling

    And when you stand alone your fight is our fight

    For nothing is given but what we achieve

    And so far away, so

    So far away there is somewhere

    Where sacred oro ain't a sign of being free

    So far away, so

    So far away there is somewhere

    Where my baby's boy is going to live in peace

    It's that longing pressure

    The great longing pressure when you say

    Baby come home

    No, it's the longing pressure

    The great longing pressure when you say

    You are my lover, no you're not my friend

    We start when this ends, now this ends

    Now this ends, now this ends

    Oh, we start today

    And I've got faith in us, so hold my faith as trust

    And let's start today

Spiritual Songs for Lovers to Sing (2016)

For as long as there have been lovers, lovers have serenaded each other. And for as long as there have been Gods, mortals have serenaded them, too. 

In that sense, Lost Under Heaven's debut Spiritual Songs For Lovers To Sing is familiar, but as a whole – an album, a band, and a concept – it's something totally fresh; a record built on ideas not influences, and it is as powerful and passionate as anything you'll hear this year.

Lost Under Heaven is Ellery Roberts and Ebony Hoorn, the lovers of the title. Ellery's name might be familiar as the frontman of WU LYF, the incendiary Manchester four-piece whose rhetoric, imagery and solitary album described a new model for the untamed fury of youth. 

Ebony and Ellery met in the band's dying days in 2013. Ellery returned to Manchester from touring and met Ebony (visiting from Amsterdam) in the derelict squat that a group of Manchester based musicians shared. They made an instant connection, "We're both lone wolf characters who don't often find much joy other people, but we found something we enjoy in each other," says Ebony. 

Both are artists in their own respective fields – Ebony is a recent graduate of the audio-visual department in Amsterdam’s prestigious Rietveld Academy – and the two quickly found themselves in constant contact over the internet, sharing dreams and inspiration. Eventually Ellery left his refuge in London to make a life with Ebony in Amsterdam, and they were able to focus on a shared life project in totality. 

"It's interesting living and creating together," says Ellery. "Fundamentally we had this instantaneous feeling that we wanted to do this together, to explore life together. And music for me is an instinctual way to explore, document life."

It was a tonic for Ellery, who was struggling with the notion of being the frontman of a band, a train of thought that led him to split the group. "When something becomes the performance of realness, the performance of passion rather than the actual emotion, you may as well be selling soap," he says. "But relationships are intense things, you know. Enough to get your blood boiling or singing. That realness gives an intensity to it."

The pair's crucible bubbles over. "We have a real shared interest in discovering all this world has to offer," says Ellery. "Ebony's really amazing at finding really new and interesting things – music, film, culture, she just has that ability to unearth them."

Discussing the project, they talk about the potentiality of post-humanist singularity and the collapse of capitalism. They cite as inspirations not just fellow musicians, but big thinkers like Buckminster Fuller, proponent of the geodesic dome and inventor of the Dymaxion Map. "Ideas that are now, more than ever, potent for implication" says Ebony. 

It's something that tallies with the aim of Lost Under Heaven – to unite listeners, to take people on a journey with them. "Culture now is people embracing and taking on a thousand identities, tastes, everything," says Ellery. "I really feel in the world we're living at the moment, there's a big us and a little them. The universality of life experience is dissolving all those boundaries. It's just the experience of life, you know."

One book, or one story, seemed to strike a chord for the pair, describing their experience of meeting and creating as well as pointing towards a structure for the album: Joseph's Campbell's Hero With A Thousand Faces, which pinpoints the reoccurrence of a timeless myth throughout human culture and, to an extent, can be found in each of our lives. "Everyone's got a choice whether they want to be the hero in their life or the person on the side watching," says Ellery. "I guess meeting Ebony in that moment was a moment of realisation that if I wanted to do what I want to do with my life, I had to get on and do it."

The hero myth – epiphany and power and triumph over adversity – informed the narrative of the album, a looping song cycle based around movement from impulse to experience and glimpses of enlightenment. "The record comes from a really alienated and materialist perspective that then reaches breaking point with the song $ORO. After that it rebuilds towards self-realisation, taking responsibility for your life and what you do with it,” explains Ellery. "Maybe you hit 12 o'clock and you're in not in too dissimilar place to where you started, but the experience has progressed you somewhere in your mind or your understanding."

In that sense, the first and last tracks, the anthemic I&I and the semi-acoustic The Great Longing, are companion pieces, designed to guide the listener back to the start. "The beginning and end of the cycle is the record looping perfectly," says Ellery. "It can just go round and round." The former references esoteric symbolism, "a notion of a oneness caught with a dualistic separation." The power and grandeurs of the great mystery are flirted with, yet one dogmatic message isn't overtly subscribed to. "Everything that's symbolic is presenting a truth. Religion based on certain perceptions of truth has been a system of authoritarian power for thousands of years," explains Ellery. "I don't think the teachings of the world religions are invalid, but the bureaucratic organisation of them has made them about control and power."

Another influence on this album – musical this time – is Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. " I really loved the idea of What’s Going On as a blueprint for an album, what it communicated, questioned. It was through reading about it I came across this notion of it being a song cycle, and it all seemed to fit together with the cycle of a hero and all the different stations and movements you go through," says Ellery. "It worked as a template for making a body of work, a record – and I think if you're making a record, you have to make a considered work from start to finish, not a bunch of songs that someone can stream."

Invoking all of the above is music that taps straight into something primal and forceful; Ellery's raw, distinctive voice, untamed since his teenage days in WU LYF, is counterbalanced by Ebony's cool restraint. Meanwhile, the instrumentation ranges from lush grandeur to jarring Auto-Tune – the latter most notably on the cataclysmic $ORO. "That song is a piece of shadow play, losing your common respect for humanity and your empathy towards others and living in this binary way, post-human. Auto-Tune on the vocals reflected that," says Ellery. Says Ebony: "It wasn't necessarily a self-conscious stylisation, we didn’t say ‘let's make zeitgeist contemporary pop music’. We're reflecting the times we are living in currently, things that are mirroring culture."

The two made the album in isolation between Amsterdam and Manchester, recording on Ableton. "It got to the point where it needed the ears of a producer," says Ellery. "We wanted to make something really bombastic. We didn't want something scuzzy and lo-fi – it had to be a blockbuster, so we needed somebody who could facilitate that."

Enlisting the British composer Bobby Krlic - known for his work under the pseudonym The Haxan Cloak - on production, Lost Under Heaven settled upon the idea of recording on the Island of Osea, a sparsely habited piece of marshland accessible only twice a day upon a decrepit Victorian causeway. "We wanted to go somewhere where we could just disappear and not have any outside input," says Ellery. "It was May, the sun was showing first light, the blossom was out and it quickly satisfied my idea of utopia – people [including engineer Ray Tovey] living a collective life, cooking for each other, working together. We were able to work 24/7 and allow the songs to open up and grow, take on new life."

So far, little is known publicly about the group except from the package they released via BitTorrent that included the track Lost Under Heaven. It was their appropriation, they say, of a Fluxus-style artefact for the modern age. A box to make you think. The album – due in spring – is complete, and the creative synapses are still firing. Ebony and Ellery are working on the live interpretation of the songs; something that they say over time will incorporate elements of immersive theatre and experiential art. "At the moment, the initial workings of Lost Under Heaven are quite conventional – it’s a band with a record on a label – but it's a functional necessity to get moving and develop with that support. Over the years we will follow this impulse to develop something we don't quite have a word for yet,” says Ellery. 

They're looking forward to taking Lost Under Heaven out onto the world stage, and feel confident about where it’s headed, avoiding pitfalls of the past. "WU LYF was very romantic and a big part of it was just growing up and seeing the way that the world goes around and functions in very exploitative ways. You're like, I feel horrible about this, but this is just what we do. I am complicit. A big thing with Lost Under Heaven is just understanding that side of the world and working out a way to live that we feel comfortable with. Lost Under Heaven becomes a process of mutual learning with me and Ebony and anyone who comes on the ride with us. It's inspired by developing ways to do things differently and progressively to live a better, more abundant life." 

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Love Hates What You Become (2019)