Great news this past week, Collective Concerts announced that Scottish outfit, Belle and Sebastian will bring what looks to be their only Canadian date this fall, to our very own Massey Hall. Needless to say, we’re looking forward to this one.
Though I’m tempted to feature some of my favourite B&S songs in this weeks Listening Booth (check out “Stars of Track and Field” for starters…) the announcement reminded me of one of their relatives. Isobel Campbell, who was a longtime member of the Glasgow-based Belle and Sebastian, and part of some of their finest and most popular work.
The collaborative effort of Campbell and Mark Lanegan from a few years ago brought us the album Ballad of the Broken Seas and the first track, Deus Ibi Est. Its one of those songs that gets its claws into you. It’s a moving track that seduces you and creeps by slowly verse-by-verse…
“Against my will to these sad shores / An unknown force has drawn me / Bound unto a future shaped by ancestors before me”
The words, almost spoken by Lanegan in his typical low midnight drunken tone, come out so steadily that the character sounds as though he is reciting them in an effort to convince himself that he has some control of his, what I imagine to be, disturbing surroundings. You can almost sense the smoke clouds in the room as he whispers, “There’s nowhere left to run.”
As he comes to terms with his fate, the words drop off like an internal last confession:
“Impending storm rise up rise up / Oh demons I shall shame you! / Look down the barrel of my gun and one by one I’ll name you / Day on day my brothers leave go marching off to war/ Yet we never understand for what we’re fighting for”
And with that, the hypnotic momentum takes a breath and from above we hear Campbell’s beautiful voice explain in both physical and metaphorical contrast:
“Ubi caritas et amor / Ubi caritas / Deus ibi est”
Stephen McGrath is Soundboard Editor and Media Relations Manager at Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall
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