Advent Liner Notes

Advent – Advent

Maginot Line

One of Alan's, originally written during his days with Tangent, another local prog-rock act. Its form and harmonic structure already intact, the song was arranged by the group—the result featuring cannonade percussion and Giant/Tubes-style vocals during the choruses. A sometimes ironic essay on the interior nature of true combat-readiness, as well as an alarming look at the face of contemporary warfare, using the unfortunate "invincible" World War II defense as a backdrop.

Alison Waits (A Ghost Story)

An Edgar Allan Poe-inspired lyric ("Annabel Lee," according to Arthur Hoffman) served as the springboard for this tale of lovers separated by death and the obsession (or hauntings?) that follow. An atmospheric sea chantey, "Alison Waits" takes on the dimensions of a tone poem, with a lengthy instrumental development section that seems to have made the song an early favorite among those already familiar with Advent's repertoire.

LYRICS

I can remember when I touched her hand,
It was warm and as white and as soft as the sand.
And the waves in her hair could submerge a man's heart
With an action that renders the genders apart.
But I loved her best under unclouded skies
Where the moonlight collected and spilled from her eyes.

She could not be happy; she lived with a doubt,
A terrible yearning that had to come out.
And she laughed at good fortune and pitied the rest,
But each of us thought that the other knew best.
So she bided her time, though it just made things worse,
And what started as drama turned into a curse.

CHORUS

Alison waits for me down by the sea.
She never knew what she wanted to be.
Sail away, there and back,
Up from the deep where the green turns to black.
My Alison's calling to me.
(I hear her calling, she is calling.)
Alison's calling to me.

(development)

She had her own reasons for leaving me then,
I prayed to the ocean to free her again
From the clutch of lost souls in their watery graves,
'Cause nothing kills time like the beat of the waves.
And once time is destroyed, there's no meaning to grief.
When a love has no future, it lives on belief.

Rear View Mirror

A lyrical melody, a bittersweet succession of harmonies in the underlying figuration, and unexpected turns in the bass line throughout provide the musical setting for another of Arthur's meditations on "love's labors lost." A moving and resolute "backwards glance" in miniature.

Trompe L'Oeil

"Trompe L'Oeil" was originally written to provide background music for a go-go bar scene in a movie planned and scripted by a friend of the band (the movie was never completed). Before dismissing this one as a mere '80s-era dance-music throwaway, we invite you to examine the vaguely Henry Mancini-inspired harmonic progressions in the string parts throughout, and especially toward the end. More than meets the ear?

Nowhere Else To Go

Advent's entry into the "songs of sea and travel" category. However, instead of romanticizing life on the go, the travels recounted all lead the traveler inexorably (and paradoxically) to the contemplative stillness of a Carthusian cloister. The rhythmic drive of the verses and chorus—contrasted with a solemn, four-part vocal motet typical of Renaissance polyphony—provides the musical backdrop for this updated retelling of the "prodigal son" story.

In The Tree

A child's-eye view of what it's like to be the "even man out." His precocious dignity in humiliation is ably (albeit playfully) brought out in the arrangement, with counterpoint, unusual chord punctuations, and frenetic three-o'clock playground activity in the development section. Drummer Mike Carroll penned the lyrics for what is probably the band's most complex offering to date.

Marche To The Fighte/The Retreat

(from The Battel)

English composer William Byrd (1543–1623) wrote a collection of virginal (no, not prenuptial) works entitled Ladye Nevells Virginal Book. Henry had initially heard a version of these two works on a Philip Jones Brass Ensemble tape arranged by virtuoso trumpeter and composer/arranger Elgar Howarth. Advent, in adapting Howarth's arrangement of this work, gladly acknowledges the debt to his genius.

Caminando

This work by 20th-century Spanish composer Joaquín Turina (1882–1949) was originally to be subtitled "The Haunted Circus" (hauntings seem to be in this year). The inspiration for Advent's treatment of this work was the deserted carnival at nighttime—in which all of the rides and concession stands are lit up (and apparently all being manned and operated by unseen hands)—that always accompanied the opening credits of the TV series "Journey to the Unknown." Special thanks to Annette Francis for providing the piano score from which the arrangement was derived.

BITB

(Boys In The Band; Bats In The Belfry; Bees In The Bonnet; Boy, Is This Butchered!; etc.)
including Knotes

Advent's doff-of-the-hat to Gentle Giant. In the middle section we have a bit of fun in homage to (at the expense of?) various English composers in a tribute to this very English band. For detailed liner notes, please see the "BITB" page on the Giant Tracks Web site.

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