Part Two: A Sky of Honey

[Lori]

Discuss 'Part Two: A Sky of Honey' as a whole.

[CopyOfCpt (just say Cor)]

Slowly I am getting an idea of what She might want to express with this album: the juxtaposition (correctly spelled?) of the passing of time and time framed (like in a picture).
Example: A painter may want to capture a moment in time, but will never succeed because while he is painting the time will have moved on and he is no longer painting that what he started to paint. The only way to do that is to keep the paint liquid and moving, but that is never the intention of the painter. He might even be disappointed, or even dishearted when that happens; even when something nice comes out of that (a beautiful sunset)...
Another example: the movement of time is constant, only between ticking and tocking there is only one fantastically short moment, but that only simulates non-time, since time itselve moves on..

However, these are only my first thoughts on the album for this moment.

[LilyWhite]

I've been talking to birds since I was a child. I wish my Grandfather were alive to hear Sky of Honey--he was the one who taught me how to talk to birds. "Prelude" actually shed tears to my eyes. I can hear my grandfather: "Lily, do you hear what the birds are saying?" I miss him so bad.

We have a hummingbird feeder on our front porch and I tried to communicate but hummingbirds are so buzzy and busy they cannot be bothered to sing a song for you. They are to the point of almost seeming more like bugs than birds to me.

Only 3 times in my life did I see this brilliant purple bird (last spring was the last time)--darkish almost blueish purple with the strangest song. You only see this bird at about 3-5 in the morning. And I swear I was talking to this bird. The first and last track strike me the hardest. (Maybe it's an Indian thing? ) When Kate listens to the bird and is laughing. I have done this with this brilliant purple-blue bird. I am still soaking in the painting and architect aspect of this concept, but can definitely relate to talking to birds.

[Neo Stella]

Hey there LilyWhite, you certainly have tuned in to our sweet darling blackbird! Such harmony has she connecting as she does with us all. "Oh its just so beautiful" Sunset and The Dawn

Do you still speak with your grandfather? Can he still cheer you from the other side?

It is a wonderful thing to connect!

[LilyWhite]

Although I deeply feel my Grandfather's presence, I have not been able to communicate with him, but would love to. "Rosabel believe" He was like my father to me.

[tabatha]

It has been a while, but having passed my A Levels I have much more time on my hands. So, I re-listened to Aerial, and there was only ever one concept that ran through my mind. It was that the second half as a whole is a ver vissual album, it has numerous images and colours upon colours, all of which seem to mix perfectly with the album's concept (of which I have no clue, still). Does anyone else think that Kate should make an extended video going through the album as a whole? It's just when ever I listen to it it's like reading a book, I get transported to a different world with very real images. It's always "the flowers are melting" that sticks in my head, that and Somewhere In Between. I have to go, I'm late for calss.

[Adey]

An extended video would be nice, but having the negative experiences she had in "The Line The Cross and The Curve" it's probably unlikely. It's also my guess that Kate has already moved on from Aerial. After all, there wasn't even a 2nd single..

Unbelievably, it's now nearly 2 years on since Aerial was released!

[Sto]

I have to agree Adey, I think The Line, The Cross and the Curve probably put Kate off visual arts for good. "King of the Mountain" wasn't much of a progression from the Sensual World/Red Shoes videos, to me it had the same feel (maybe it was just the use of the snow!). I think A Sky of Honey is so rich in visual/sensory imagery that a video could potentially ruin everyone's individual interpretation of the music. I guess it's the same with any song really, if you hear it before seeing any visual accompaniment. I think the album artwork is a key factor though -- that sea and sky of honey buzz around my head when I listen to the album, as do the birds on the washing line.

I can't believe Aerial was 2 years ago. The excitement of listening to it through for the first time seems like only yesterday. I need more!

[Adey]

Good to see you Sto.

Yes that 'first hearing of new Kate Bush album' rush is an all too rare experience..

[tannis]

"Sweet bird of time and change
You must be laughing
Up on your feathers laughing..."
- Sweet Bird, Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, 1975.

Passion always wins the fight;
Passion ravishes all;
You pass the night on the soft cheeks of a girl;
You wander over the sea and visit the
Haunts of those who live in the wild.
No immortal can escape you,
Nor that creature of a day - man.
All who are passion's slaves are mad.
- Antigone, Sophocles.

Aerial Sky is indeed a wonderful sunset and a wonderful sunrise... It is as never-ending as the cycle of death and birth, the sun and the moon meet... Shadows and Light... Aerial Sky captures humankind's fascination with the sun trip by day and at night... From Egyptian Nut arching across the big sky, to Newgrange and Stonehenge solstices, to eclipses, the everyday and the beyond, Aerial Sky is indeed a timeless and Classic masterpiece.

With Aerial Sky, KB is back in the sea, diving deeper and deeper... There is no sign of The Witchfinder General's Jaws in this Atlantic! ... She has become panoramic... Up there in the sky with Eagles in jet trails... away from 'Civilization and its Discontents'... becoming One with Nature... (but maybe wanting to swap places with a blackbird! )

"Birds are known for their songs, chattering away to their kind and talking to us too... if only we could understand them! In fact, there exists in mythology something known as 'The Language of the Birds' which is a text that contains the original language spoken by humanity. It is said that anyone who can decipher the Language of the Birds will have complete understanding not only of other languages, but of the mysteries of life itself... The Language of the Birds is also known as the Angelic Tongue, supposedly being the language the angels themselves speak..." (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art13600.asp).

Ah! Now I know... Kate Bush is a Botticelli angel!

[tannis]

On AERIAL: The latest album is as enigmatic as its creator. The cover contains a hidden message that is intended to keep people guessing. The mysterious star has included a cryptic soundwave on the artwork of double album 'Ariel'. The image is a visual representation of spoken or sung words over music.

An insider said: "Sound analysts and fans alike have been agonisingly attempting to work out the message. All the artwork on the album is interlinked and the cover art is supposed to get people guessing. The true message will only be revealed when you buy the album."

It says "All your base are belong to us."
see more:
www.kempa.com/blog/archives/001035.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us


EDIT: SOUNDWAVE OF BLACKBIRD SONG

"...anyway, i located the aerial cover waveform on the album itself. it's at 37:28 in CD2 (or 3:18 into track 9). it is, of course, a birdsong... the waveform as shown on the cover is just the birdsong solo'd, so you see the entire waveform in sharper detail. on the album itself it has other sounds around it, so the finer details at the beginning and then end of the waveform are obscured. but when you listen to the actual sound, you can hear those finer details and sonically they match up with the visual waveform as it appears on the album cover."
www.kempa.com/blog/archives/001035.html

[tannis]

REFLECTIONS IN A SKY OF HONEY

As I looked back for a farewell glance at him from the bottom of the next hollow, he was standing in the middle of his flock, cut out against a sky of honey gold, the most exquisite I have ever seen...
~ Wolf-lure, Agnes Castle, Egerton Castle, 1917.

Un Ciel de Miel...

the flowers are black with joy
the sky is lovely as a flame
I fly away on a day of honey
would you like to fly with me

would you like honey or lightning
would you like a flower like a sky
would you like flowers like lightning
would you like a sky of honey...

les fleurs sont noires de joie
le ciel est beau comme une flamme
je m'envole par une journée de miel
voulez-vous voler avec moi

voulez-vous du miel ou des éclairs
voulez-vous une fleur comme un ciel
voulez-vous des fleurs comme des éclairs
voulez-vous un ciel de miel

qui vole au-dessous de moi
vous belle journée de miel
qui vole au-dessus de moi
vous belle flamme noire de joie

Jean Arp
Jours effeuillés, poèmes, essais, souvenirs, 1920-1965
1966

The morning land with its sky of honey
lies and waits with closed eyes,
with all the flowers' closed eyes.
Beautiful like a woman, like a thousand women,
she lies with shut and flowery eyes,
lies waiting beneath its honey sky
for its king, the inconsiderate day.
~ Evening land, Pär Lagerkvist, 1975.

You fickle honey-bee, how I wish
I could break your wings,
immobilise you here for all time,
fill your sky of honey
with unmoving dark clouds.
~ Sri Radha, Ramākānta Ratha, 1996.

[tannis]

AERIAL: After the dark night of the soul...

John Wilson: Are their echoes of "The Hounds of Love" on this album? I mean, do you think people will see the second disc, "A Sky Of Honey", which is almost a song cycle, and takes you through passage of time, as the sun is going down we go through night there's a song called "Nocturn". And then we arrived back at the end of the album as the sun is rising again, there's a real passage there, similar, in a way, to that second side of "Hounds of Love", which took you on a journey.
Kate: I really enjoyed making "Hounds of Love". I liked the two different elements, and I think in a lot of ways I was trying to make just a larger version, a sort of "Great Danes of Love".
BBC4, "Front Row", November 4, 2005
www.gaffaweb.org/reaching/iv05_bbc_front_row.html

"Self-knowledge is a morning light revealed after the dark night of the soul in which consciousness slumbered, wrapped in the darkness of the unconscious, just like Hephaestus in the bottom of the sea."
~ Quadrant, Volume 19, C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, 1987, p.42.

After the dark night of the soul dawns the clear day and you'll be able to think clearly. Once your mind attains the capacity to experience the spiritual bliss personally and you begin to depend less on what others have taught you and what you have read, and when practical experience replaces theoretical knowledge, all your doubts will vanish and your progress on the spiritual path with accelerate.
~ Deeper Aspects of Hinduism: Jewel in the Lotus, Mumtaz Ali (2004, p.84).

And after the Dark Night of the Soul comes awareness of the light... like the day, in reassuring emergence after the night. It has been said, there is a direct correlation between the experiences[/b] of the opposites. Each and every time of emergence from the depths of the blackness, brings an expanded vision of the light in greater capacity and awareness than before. Each experience becomes sequential, ordered progression in the ascension of the soul and self towards the reality of that which we are...divinity...perfection of a perfect God. Like the sculpting of a figure, we are being sculpted by the hand of God...each time remembering more of who we truly are. It is both a physical and spiritual process.
~ Whispers to a Restless Spirit, Sunny Collins, 2008, p.38.[/color]

Much has been written on the obverse and reverse comparisons between The Ninth Wave and A Sky Of Honey. If TNW is "the dark night of the soul", then Sky is "the light at the end of the tunnel". St. John of the Cross explained that after the dark night of the soul, "there is union with the bride which is the wisdom of God." The sun rises; there is illumination, a bright, new dawn; renewal and awakening.