Listen to the New 21-Minute Composition from Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Efrim Manuel Menuck

'STARLING TROUBLES SPARROW' was "built out of one simple looped piano phrase"

BY Josiah HughesPublished Aug 19, 2020

As promised last weekGodspeed You! Black Emperor mastermind Efrim Manuel Menuck has released a stunning 21-minute instrumental composition for Longform Editions.

According to a statement on the release page, the song was "built out of one simple looped piano phrase. Filtered mechanically and electrically in real time while running through a pair of rattling guitar amplifiers, re-amped and re-recorded, until dust ensued. All of it happened while the sparrows and starlings battled in a pair of trees across the street from here."

The write-up continues: "The starlings intent on stealing the sparrows nests. The sparrows call out and a gang manifests quickly, yelling and poking. The sparrows are better organised, and all the starlings have is brute strength. Song is dedicated to any all who rise thusly, together in spite of or not at all."

The song also arrived with a seemingly autobiographical poem, which reads as follows:

born 1970 in Montreal, Quebec.
son of a doctor and a nurse.
mother left in 1973.
came back briefly 17 years later,
and then left again.
hebrew day school from grades 1 through 9.
kept kosher
but did not believe in god.

grew up in toronto, and left home at age 17.
only punk-rock from age 15 until 20.
high school dropout at grade 11.
no jobs and no home.
student welfare then grown-up welfare.
first love.
too many drugs, and then a nervous breakdown at age 20.

quit the drugs.
moved back to montreal.
no music from age 20 to 24.
found good people.
pre-internet.
many beers.
started the "godspeed you black emperor!" band at age 25.
started the "silver mt. zion" band at age 29.
drove many miles.
been on the road since 1996.
times have changed.

hate the industry.
hate all industries.
no more beers.
co-owner of thee mighty "hotel2tango" recording studio.
recorded good and bad bands there.
a loudmouth sometimes.
and can be a moody motherfucker
and a total drag.

stubborn.
worried.
out of step.
ezra's father.


Listen to STARLING TROUBLES SPARROW below.

 

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