Stadiums & Shrines
Currently viewing the tag: "The Wandering Lake"
Dreams of Haiti
Dreams of Haiti

 

Swept out a calligrapher’s window to the end, to a cart en route to the dock, cargo for the open sea. A letter, now in the hands of Haiti, the findings of a crowd. Together they read:

Dearest Little World,

With a heart equally heavy & free, I must relay to you my imminent departure. At once & with permeance (sic), with the sun as it delaminates indefinitely beyond le massif des montagnes. Alas, no ship is able to fare me, nor sugar cane sweeten me, nor contention shuttle me to your embraces; a tidal, a mind’s conflicted chagrin & elation, a fugue on the shores of some concealed amnesia.

With affectation,
Josephine

The men stood blankly, under many moons and across much blackness, for her presence to indeed permeate. Ultimately, her consonants had been misplaced… her being very much departed.

____

The Wandering Lake is Fayetteville-based songwriter Brian Kupillas. It’s been a few seasons since his last solo effort (Brian stays busy with SW/MM/NG). More can be expected soon.

(hand lettering by Lynette Sage)

Dirty dishes and the distance from tomorrow, empty cupboards and the peacefully mundane. Drapes heavy with shame but still open just enough for a line like “everything I’m waiting for, is coming just around the bend”, to come beaming through:

The Wandering Lake | Laughing Friend
The Wandering Lake | Little Light

There’s always some catharsis in what The Wandering Lake does. His latest release seems even more comfortable in this space than the last, again tugging that Young Prayer-esq string, while adding a colder piano to the climate. It’s another beautiful and isolated listen, available at bandcamp.

 

The Wandering Lake is Brian Kupillas, a wise young soul from Fayetteville, Arkansas. His nine odes to a minimalistic life In Passage, or in transit, speak for themselves, quite beautifully, though one did strike up further correspondence:

The Wandering Lake | Spiritland (Thank You)
The Wandering Lake | People

Brian explained that everyone and everything, all that has hand in changing his life, any “guide of sorts”, is being thanked here. Spiritland, “the most personal song” in the collection, was inspired by a Native American myth where Coyote and Eagle cross over a lake to the other side (the land of spirits), and attempt to bring back their loved ones, only to discover that such interruption is impossible.