The Fourth Step
Book, Serafim Publications, 2021
I have always tried to somehow preserve life: moments of life, thoughts, feelings, experiences, descriptions of the sky,
meetings with people, fragments of conversations; all and everything was too precious to be forgotten, to be left unnoticed, unconfirmed.
Yet life was constantly proving to me otherwise, that nothing is to be preserved; everything is temporary, transient and nothing is to be caught and held.
It is from the colliding of these two forces that this book emerges. From life that doesn’t hold anything and from me trying to keep everything. From something that is borderless and unlimited, and someone who restricts it with uncountable borders and limits. From life trying to break through and live in its wholeness, and one who is too scared to allow for it, who wants to stay where he is in the name of his own existence and its superficial and illusory profits and gains. From attachment to that which in itself is unattached. And, ultimately, from that which is undivided and that which separates it, and then, desperately seeks unity.
Prose, poetical prose and lyrics combine in an unusual way to tell a story of love that bridges mystical experience and human affection. The borders of love blur, stretch and expand, or contract and enclose, freeing us or enslaving us. They extend from boundless and selfless to personal and narrow, from bliss to sorrow, from joy to pain. They can make us powerful or powerless, limit us or make us limitless.
Yet the most beautiful experience known to us, love, human or divine, is questioned. In the end, it is given an altogether different dimension and meaning. A dimension in which you do not participate.
Recorded to the music of 39 artists and 51 tracks, including: Airbase, AK & Direct, Andain, Atrium Sun, Azaleh, Azryd, Bluesolar, Blut Own, Brian Simpson, Cafe Del Mar, Christopher Goze, Cubist X Uknwun, Deep Space, Emiliano Secchi, Ferdow Feat. Julia Smirnova, Ganga, Jjos, Kisnou, Kisnou & Kaj, Kisnou & Michael FK, Kazusa & Shingo Nakamura, Kisnou & Silencyde, Kool & Klean, Lukas Termena, Lookz, Mathieu & Florzinho, Melodic Brothers & Bryan Milton, Menual & Phelian, Mike Shiver & Marc Damon, Phelian, RIB, Roman Pavlov, Sappheiros, Simon Le Grec, Simon Le Grec & Denise Guttenbach, Sternenschrei, The Last Fox & Xandra, Vangelis.
Voice: Daniel Sage
Somewhere at the edge of reality and dreams a man meets a woman.
Both are young innocent in a way untouched by the world.
What unfolds is a love story not so much written but painted with words.
Twenty individual pictures moments from the lives of the lovers.
Each leads to the last line that is always spoken by the woman
in a whisper, the scene a pretext almost for that line to exist.
The story has a depth of feeling and tenderness typical of love
and is infused with an illusive mood. It all seems distant dreamlike
and improbable. And may raise the question. Has it ever happened.
In a sense the answer is in the text. But perhaps that only takes us
further into the unknown.
fragment
I walked softly over the uncharted ground
drops stranded after the recent rain were falling from the trees
through branches bright light shone
I lifted my head up to the sky
and breathed in with full barrel chest the scent of the morning
with its life-giving taste
somewhere far ahead of me
at the very end of the road
I saw a figure’s faded shape
I walked at ease
but slowed down as I drew near
stopped and took my hands out from my pockets
you said nothing you faintly smiled
the wind danced about your blue dress
stray drops dropped from the trees one straight onto your cheek
I pulled out a white handkerchief and offered it to you
shyly you reached for it
then gave it back
and whispered
—tell me about yourself I want to ask
I told you about my travels
and loneliness on the steppes
you listened charmed like a little girl by an evening tale
time fled
hours hid themselves
how long the sweet moment lasted I do not know
you whispered
—I longed to meet you so
Whispered
CD; Serafim Publications, 20215
Music
weaves with the text,
deepens the mood
and
transfers the whole
further into the world of fantasy
and dreams.
As if the music is filled with its own poeticness
and its own magic.
Sometimes it makes up only the mysterious background.
At other times it emphasises and accentuates the fragments of imagery.
Words and sounds together create the enchanted space
which draws
and charms
and hypnotizes.
Within music,
the text,
the exquisite voice and the recitation itself,
exist
in inconceivable intimacy.
These elements all
found themselves
in the inexplicable act of a miraculous event
that
realised the vision
I carried
deep
within myself.
Contact
Jarema Sikorski
3 Cedars Road
Chiswick
London
W4 3JP
United Kingdom
jaremasikorski@gmail.com