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  • CD album
    Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    'Travels from your armchair' is the first album by The Bookshop Band. It contains all the songs written for Season One of the author events at Mr Bs Emporium of Reading Delights. The songs were all inspired by folk tales from around the world.

    The limited edition bespoke case is designed by the band, is numbered, and printed on an old letterpress in Oxford.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Travels from your armchair via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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      £0.80 GBP  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses the Siren’s were the beautiful companions of Persephone, who, on her abduction into Hades, were given wings and destined to call out, eternally and hopelessly for her return, from their island in the sea. Unfortunately for passing sailors, the Sirens’ songs were so captivating, that they would be lured to the island, their ships dashed against the rocks and most would perish. Those who survived would swim to shore and clamber up onto the island. This was however the beginning of the end, as they would be destined to join the mountain of other sailors before them, piled high and starved to death.

It was said that the only way to kill a Siren was to hear their song yet pass the island without stopping. In Greek mythology, only one vessel has ever survived the Sirens, when Odysseus, one of Jason’s Argonaughts, asked the crew to tie him to the mast of the legendary ship, the Argo. The crew themselves, save for Odysseus, were to put bees wax into their ears so that they could not hear the Sirens’ song, and were instructed that on seeing Odysseus’s pleas to let him down, should only bind him tighter to the ships mast so that he could not escape. This was done, and Odysseus, on hearing the Siren’s call, pleaded with his crew to untie him, but they simply bound him tighter and tighter. Eventually the Argo sailed on out of earshot and the Siren’s plummeted into the sea and perished.

The number of Sirens varies from tale to tale, so if we assume the feat of Odysseus didn’t kill them all, then this song is about one of the many less successful adventurers since.

It was written when Panos Karnezis came into Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights to talk about his book 'The Convent' during Season One.

lyrics

Cast myself from here
I’ve heard of songs out at sea
I am well prepared, and
My boat’s sturdy

I know this plan of mine is not safe at all
The sound from Siren’s island leads me now

And my course ahead is clear
Sure I’ll pass her by
I hear her singing for me, but then
Watch the water rise

I know this plan of mine is not safe at all
The mass of timber bears all weight as it falls
Below the waterline it’s not safe anymore
Reach out for polystyrene and float for shore.

credits

from Travels from your armchair, released December 1, 2011
Written and recorded by The Bookshop Band
Mixed by Marco Migliari

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The Bookshop Band Bath, UK

The Bookshop Band write songs inspired by books and play them in bookshops. They started as a collaboration between a group of musicians in Bath and their local independent bookshop, Mr B's Emporium. Now they are about to go on tour, sponsored by Vintage Books and Independent Booksellers Week, around other bookshops and lit fests. Catch them if you can. Details at www.thebookshopband.co.uk ... more

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