Album art for Lasse Mathiessen

LASSE MATTHIESSEN Carry Me Down

In water and salt And you - where did you hide?

Crossing through the country in the flickering lights Trembling with the thought of touching your skin Are you too fallen through with the thought of it?

I was falling into your arms and you into mine I was falling into your eyes and you into mine In water and salt Was it on your breath?

Was it life or the sudden fear of death?

The way the wind blows through the trees We were two fallen through with the thought if it I was falling into your arms and you into mine I was falling into your eyes and you into mine

Looking for a reason

Tonight, we drink to die

I saw you picking up apples that fell down from the tree We laid next to each other in the shadow of the leaves

Tonight we drink We drink to die We drink to the dead

I hear the fall is coming I see it in the sky With stories to be told on cold November nights And if you’re looking for reason be sure, I’m not to tell I’ve been falling out of season I know that very well I fell in love with you and you with my soothing voice when I sang if you’re looking for a reason you won’t get it today All my pride and honor slowly decay You saw it in my face as it began to fade I hear the fall is coming I see it in the sky With stories to be told on cold November nights And if you’re looking for reason be sure, I’m not to tell I’ve been falling out of season You know that very well I fell in love with you hear my soothing voice when I sing if you’re looking for a reason you won’t get it today

Tonight we drink to the names of our families Tonight we drink to the ones who will sit here tomorrow instead of us Tonight we drink to the women that we love Tonight we drink to the ones we used to love Tonight we drink to the women that we could have loved We could have loved Tonight we drink We drink to die We drink to the dead Tonight we drink drink to those who are dying Tonight we drink to the ones who will sit here tomorrow instead of us and drink to us

Tender was the night

Travelling song

Tender was the darkness before the morning light Did it come like a thief in the night?

This place has a darkness to it something here resonates in me Did I aim for the right coordinates?

On a night like this everything fades

Tender were your eyes in the days before Now I call upon you judge this fallen man

When fall comes soon I’ll buy my self a corduroy jacket from that shop in Marais I’ll wear it ‘till it gets really cold with that scarf that my grandma made before that late late summer day four years ago when I sang Nat King Cole’s Papermoon to her in her hospital bed By then she was dead

Help me to forget Help me to forget Help me to forgive Help me Tender was the softness of not knowing the truth Now everything shines with darkness Help me to forget Help me to forget Help me to forgive Help me She’s gone away Tender was the night before she found out

This place has a darkness to it something here resonates in me Did I aim for the right coordinates?

On a night like this everything fades

Carry Me Down Where the mountains fall into the sea Where the ever changing color of the sky only answers to me only answers Carry me down to the frozen ocean Cut a hole in the ice for me to rest my bones Lower my body into that dark blue water Where the current is strong enough to take me off shore to the place where it took my father and his father before him Where the mountains fall into the sea Where the ever changing color of the sky only answers to me

Oh, Ulysses Oh, Ulysses how did you escape When the sirens called your name?

A fable for the good A fable for the blind A fable for those who missed the signs Muscles were torn Bones were shattered Tempted by love Tearing me apart Laughing in between swigs of my silver flask This is not the wine you promised me!

Blindfold, you fool!

Oh, Ulysses how did you escape when the sirens called your name?

Capricious Athena what sacrifice will make the seas safe?

From luring calls and blinding beauty they’ll run us a ground into the reefs where the ships go down Oh, Ulysses how did you escape when the sirens called your name?

Where the Silence Begins We were caught in a whisper in some distant place It still resonates Though everything dissolves it still stays the same just in different ways This is the place where the silence begins.

I left pins on a map painted numbers on random buildings I marked the rives by swimming across I left my footprints on the banks I left out words in my songs This is the place where the silence begins

Lasse Matthiessen, vocals & guitar & glockenspiel Halla Norðfjörð, vocals, harp, glockenspiel & banjo Ian Fisher, vocals, guitar, thumb piano & glockenspiel Produced by Lasse Matthiessen, Halla Norðfjörð and Ian Fisher Mixed by Lasse Baunkilde, Ole Matthiessen and Lasse Matthiessen Recorded by Rasmus Opsahl Photos by Antje Taiga Jandrig This album was recorded thanks to the loving, cooking and caring, Anders Gaarder Karterudseter.

Lyrics and music by Lasse Matthiessen and by Halla Norðfjörð & Ian Fisher www.lassematthiessen.com

In the summer of 2011, I went to a livingroom-concert in Berlin with my friend Ian. Since we arrived early, we had time to talk about my most recent album, Dead Man Waltz. I asked him what he thought of the recording of the song “Oh, Ulysses”, which he had heard me perform solo often, but had appeared on the album with a band.

He said, “Lasse, ‘Oh, Ulysses’ is a great song, but on this recording it sounds like a fucking christian band!” While laughing at Ian and his straight-forwardness, I asked him to tell me how he thought it should be recorded. He told me how he’d do it, I liked his idea, and so I said, “well, why don’t we record the song together for my next album?”. You’re holding this album in your hand right now, so I guess his answer is obvious.

Several months passed and Ian and I found ourselves at yet another livingroom-concert. This time it was in Copenhagen at my own apartment. Ian had invited this Icelandic songwriter named Halla. As soon as she opened her mouth to sing, Ian and I knew that her voice was exactly what the album needed.

Another several months passed and the three of us started rehearsing. I instantly began tailoring the songs I had previously written to fit this new trio. Conveniently, all the songs that I would write soon after our formation seemed to fit themselves to our constellation of three voices and guitars.

I had always thought about recording an album in a remote and isolated place. Though Berlin and Copenhagen were the first two logical options of places to record, the crazy thought soon occurred to me that we could go to my friend Anders’ cabin in Norway. Crazy enough, it happened!

In early March of 2012, somehow we all ended up in a little cabin on the southern coast of Norway. It was bitter cold and snowing, the harsh Nordic wind was whipping, and just beyond the trees you could hear the waves splashing against the rocky shore. What better place to record songs of winter, fall, ice, death and broken love?

Lasse Matthiessen, March 2013