Ormonde Complete Lyrics Archive

B i o g r a p h y
(by Press Release)

Ormonde are Anna-Lynne Williams (Trespassers William/Lotte Kestner) and Robert Gomez, and Cartographer/Explorer is the Seattle band’s second album, following on from 2012’s Machine which garnered keen praise on both sides of the Atlantic for its delicate acoustic songwriting. Individually, the two members of Ormonde have impressive CVs: Williams toured with Damien Rice, Feist, Broken Social Scene and Explosions in the Sky during her time in Trespassers William (Nettwerk Records) and also co-wrote and sang Hold Tight London on Chemical Brothers’ Push the Button album. Gomez is a respected producer/multi-instrumentalist who has worked with John Grant, Centro-matic and Sarah Jaffe and was previously signed to Bella Union. Ormonde, however, is where the two locate their shared vision, and it’s a spellbinding place to spend some time.

In contrast to the debut album, Cartographer/Explorer is a much more ambitious affair. Primarily written and recorded in an immersive two week period, the songs have a late-night, narcotic quality. They frequently centre themselves around repeating guitar or organ/synth phrases and passages, slowly spinning out captivating webs of sound. Williams concentrates on her words and singing, whereas Gomez provides the lion’s share of the instrumentation, incorporating beats and processed drums into the mix, submerging them under liberal reverb and effects. Gomez himself takes lead vocals on four of the album’s ten songs - with the purity of Williams’ voice winding around his slurred, somewhat sinister tones - with A Grand Design being a perfect example of how the combination of their voices, together and separate, is one of the album’s strongest features.

It perhaps comes as little surprise that Ormonde spent time watching the second series of Twin Peaks during recording. There’s a similar fascination with the undercurrents of love, death, and trust, and the anxiety of whether our interactions with others are harmonious or destructive. The small moments that come to define us over time, a story unravelling: “After you go, I rest my eyes, it’s like they’ve been walking out in storms“ as Williams sings in Paintings, against a backdrop of Gomez’s Morricone-style twanging guitar and reverberant percussion. An entire world barely hinted at in just a few words. Ultimately, Cartographer/Explorer is a wonderful album, compelling in its subtle moves, finding its own sweet way as only the best records do.

I can't imagine the things you've done
But I'd like to think if you love someone
You'll come home

Dead bodies are heavy
Your letters say
And so hard to carry
But find a way home
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
You cannot say where you're going next
But I've held your place
And my hand's on my chest

Cherry Blossom

Tie that string around your tongue
Cherry blossom
Upsstream the swim northeast
Coursing your ancestry

Red wall against your back
The map's torn off its tacks
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Don't look up at the stars
Better to seek the sparks
That cut the blackest night
Golden skin morning light

The dirt is on our hands
The clouds are rolling in
The dirt is on our hands
The clouds are rolling in

Lemon Incest

(Serge Gainsbourg cover / English adaptation by Olivier Glissant)

Lemon incest (lemon incest)
I love, I love you more than anything (papa papa)
Naive as a painting of Nierdoi Sseaurou
Your kisses are so soft
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Lemon incest (lemon incest)
I love, I love you more than anything (papa papa)
The love we'll never make
Is the most beautiful and the most violent
And the most pure intoxicant

Exquisite sketch
Delicious child
My flesh, my blood
Oh my baby
My soul

Lemon incest (lemon incest)
I love, I love you more than anything (papa papa)
Naive as a painting of Nierdoi Sseaurou
Your kisses are so soft

Lemon incest (lemon incest)
I love, I love you more than anything (papa papa)
The love we'll never make
Is the most beautiful and the most violent
And the most pure intoxicant

Exquisite sketch
Delicious child
My flesh, my blood
Oh my baby
My soul

Machine

I think it's only us that breathe
Closed off curtains on the sea
The machine only works if all our parts give in
All the pieces of metal and wood all fit in

Love be mine
The stars are blind
My heart is pulsing in your palm
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
I could tear through walls this thin
Could you stick me with a pin
The machine only works if all our parts give in
All the pieces of metal and wood all fit in

The stars are blind
Stand outside
My heart is porcelain in your palm
My heart is porcelain in your palm

Secret

Can I trust you not to keep
A secret
Bring your cold ear to me
And listen

You can handle every breath
Color it in
Shout it from the rooftops
Repeat it
Repeat it
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
No, the turns are not the same
The end is
Would you put me in a box
Carry it
Far away

Blank Slate

A blank slate
Always makes me want to see your face
This one light doesn't try
It would get lost in the dark

Cast off, empty street
And I could scream
If it strikes me
My eyes adjust
To the phantoms and dust
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
So safe on the ground
I have this cable 'round my bones
Heavy hands
Pull me to the end of
Right outside the door

Gonna eat your bread
And breathe your air
I will take you down
I'll take you down

Sudden Bright

Some small flame starts and
Sudden bright gold on the hillside
Make their way with water
Hope it dies out by the night time

Safe in our houses
Ignore it
I would feed you roses
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Safe in our houses
Ignore it
I would feed you roses

No one in the garden
We're inside shining back the moonlight
Gray and blue sky blackens
Take us up in our paper houses

Shut up in the cellar
Ignore it
We're not in the open

Shut up in the cellar
Ignore it
We're not in the open

We can watch the end of the world from here
We can watch the end of the world from here

Some small flame starts and
Sudden bright gold on the hillside
Make their way with water
Hope it dies out by the night time

Safe in our houses
Ignore it
I would feed you roses

Safe in our houses
Ignore it
I would feed you roses

Hold The Water

I'd sit by you in the night
When you get those sharkes you get
Doesn't mean I'm damaged
That I find some peace in it

If you think I don't want you
I'll make a liar of you now
I'll have you sleeping
Your sheep all bleating
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
I won't let the fire get too high
Close all the shutters, keep you dry
Safe as long as you and I are alone

Hold the water
Nothing on the floor
Pin the dark against the wall

Unfold your body
The day has led to it
This wool was shorn
Just to have you inside of it

If you think I don't want you
I'll make a liar of you now
I'll match your beating
And join your breathing

I won't let the fire get too high
Close all the shutters, keep you dry
Safe as long as you and I are alone

Hold the water
Nothing on the floor
Pin the dark against the wall

Drink

You stand so proudly here alone
Spines spiring out
New fruit, unknown

These needles
Sharp enough to bring me back
And see just want you're made of

Shallow roots, easier to pull
Out of the ground, the ground
To pull out of the ground
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
When I come close to take you up
Will you soften your defense
Or follow through with pointed threats
And run your tender thorns through these old hands

If this is what you want
My blood is at your feet
So go ahead and drink
Go ahead and drink
Go ahead and drink
Go ahead and drink

I'll Let You Know

Frightened, love
All the loves you've had have busted up
If I let you know me, would you not be

Outlines I drew
Look at all the dandelions I blew
Hold my horses back
They do slow down

Gone are the days of not feeling it
Buried them in so much snow
I'll let you know if my heart turns
I'll let you know, but I know now
I'll let you know if my heart turns
I'll let you know, but I know now
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Sleep as sound
As though we had our arms around
Hold my horses back
They do slow down

Gone are the days of not feeling it
Buried them in so much snow
I'll let you know if my heart turns
I'll let you know, but I know now
I'll let you know if my heart turns
I'll let you know, but I know now

CARTOGRAPHER/EXPLORER

Beach

Rock beach
Walking carefully
The rocks won't expose our tracks
Or a path to follow back
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Black out
I can't see
And how you explained to me
The moon is behind something

A Grand Design

Today it's different
I opened up my eyes
For the first time
I can hear you speak

Sibilant noises
Shifting bodies from behind the wall
And it sounds like secrets
And it sounds like secrets
Are being kept
They're being sent
Back and forth
While I lie here dreaming in my sleep
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
It's making sense
The pieces falling into place
I was not listening
I wasn't listening before

Oh that ringing in my ear
That's always been there
You've always been here
Unnoticed for the most part

Hiding in the cracks
Sending messages
Gathering defenses
Under the table
Going unnoticed
Going unnoticed

Moving the furniture
Just enough to go
Just to go unnoticed
But you've always been here
(To go unnoticed)

And now I can't recognize
This house we live in
Today it's different
And you're not with me
(Today it's different)

I killed the messenger
(And you're not with me)
I killed the messenger
(And you're not with me)

I stopped the message
I stopped the message
I stopped the message
I stopped the message

Paintings

You sit beside and eclipse my orchids
Like someone has come in and hung a picture beside the window
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
We show each other all the little paintings
That we have made on our telephones

After you go, I rest my eyes
It's like they've been wandering in storms
After you go, I rest my eyes

After you go, I rest my eyes
It's like they've been walking out in storms
After you go, I rest my eyes

Collapse

I want us to stop for a moment
Gentle and still like nurses
Nurses touching compresses to each other's black eyes

I dreamed everything that I said was a sand castle in collapse
And I didn't know if you'd heard the right words or the falling of sand
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Maybe if we listen to your heart together like violinists
Violinists when they tune
Maybe if you let me tune to you

I dreamed everything that I said was a sand castle in collapse
And I didn't know if you'd heard the right words or the falling of sand

Explorer/Cartographer

In this room
I am burning your
Orange peel
The one you left behind

It's the only thing
To remember you by
Oh that way you were
On that first night
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
You can be cartographer
I can be explorer
You can still be cartographer
I can still be explorer

Lying here in this unfamiliar bed
I put my ear to your soft breast
And hear a dark and distant drum
Sound in this disappearing room

You can be explorer
I can be cartographer
You can still be explorer
I can still be cartographer

Threshold

I know how I'll remember this
In the soft light I loved you in
Something to wear to represent
All the dances and every kiss
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
I never got to carry you over the threshold
No one's hands should ever touch your skin, now it's cold

We left the covers on the couch
We left the covers on the couch
Turning the lights out in the house
Turning the lights out in the house

Strange Wind

We dragged ourselves
Down every street
In this town
In this town

You were found
Kind, broken-winged
On the mend
Still a machine
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
You and me
In the same cage
A couple of strays
In a one room maze

It's a strange wind
That's blowing through
The limbs of trees
Moving like beasts

They always come
On days like this
The least expected
Accident

It's a strange wind
That's blowing through
It's in your hair
Every part of you

Fast Forward

The day is hard
I think the light plays tricks
And someone might
Remind me of you a bit

Worse is the night
Black canvas is dangerous
Puts on a film
The things that it makes me watch
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Fast forward the sun
Across my room
Across my room
Fast forward the moon
Across my room
Across my room

Would you let me have
That little part between
Trying to sleep
And light in the morning

Snake

The soft tongue behind the teeth
Asleep in the weeds like a snake

I had a dream
I had a dream
You were me

A circle, a line of trees
I made a nest like a bird
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
I had a dream
I had a dream
Upon the leaves

Bled Out

Took my life
In the forest I bled out
It was night
So I'm not sure how real it was
Works the same for your hand on my hip
Or when I see my name on your lips
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
In the night, I'm not sure
I gave blood
And I'm not sure where it went
But sometimes
I wonder if a stranger's
Having flashes of you in their mind
If they shiver with love the way I
I do in the night

Non Albums Tracks

Angels We Have Heard On High

(Christmas carol / Ormonde Christmas EP)

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plain
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strain
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo

Shepherds, why this jubilee
Why your joyous strains prolong
What the gladsome tidings be
Which inspire your heavenly songs

Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo

Come to Bethlehem and see
Christ Whose birth the angels sing
Come, adore on bended knee
Christ, the Lord, the newborn King

Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo

See Him in a manger laid
Whom the choirs of angels praise
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid
While our hearts in love we raise

Gloria
In excelsis Deo
Gloria
In excelsis Deo

Blue Christmas

(Elvis Presley cover / Ormonde Christmas EP)

I'll have a blue Christmas without you
I'll be so blue just thinking about you
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree
But they're not the same if you're not with me
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
And when those blue snowflakes start falling
It's when those blue memories start calling
You'll be doing all right with your Christmas of white
But I'll have a blue Christmas

Silent Night

(Christmas carol / Ormonde Christmas EP)

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Robots and copy paste are so disgusting
Silent night, Holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven above
Heavenly hosts sing Hallelujah
Christ the Savior is born
Christ the Savior is born

Silent night, Holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth