Throughout the video for Ascension, taken from Xylouris White’s forthcoming album The Sisypheans, director Shelagh Hannan captures the daily rituals of preparing food, knitting, writing, playing music. The video opens and closes with ants scavenging and surviving emphasising the cyclical nature of our daily lives and cleverly touching on the Sisyphean theme of the album.
Work is life; skill sets arise from repetitive actions. The cognitive assembly of daily duty is not merely how we obtain the essential things we need, it is also a path to higher consciousness. As in the song: Jim White’s drums and George Xylouris’ Cretan lute and vocal circle the melody, finding in the repeated pattern a hypnosis that leads UP.
Likewise, the video looks high and low, from acts of survival to expressions of craft, all ritually enacted to supply intention and meet needs. Our world is driven by these actions, and “Ascension” comes from the doing. Just hearing and seeing in your own eyes and ears isn’t enough for believing, either: you live life in the world with the rest of us! Xylouris White will be there too. They are headed on a tour of Europe and the states starting early next month and going on through the end of the year and forward into time.
“It’s not obsession, it’s persistence”
‘Ascension’ – Music Xylouris/White, Lyrics Mitsos Stravrakakis
Η μοίρα μου με στράβωσε, ή μ’άνοιξε τα μάθια?
Και βρέθηκα στο δρόμο σου ρόδο μου με τ’αγκάθια
Has fate blinded me or opened my eyes?
I have found myself on your path, my thorny rose”
The Sisypheans is out on November 8th
TOUR DATES
7/11/19 Parnassos Hall, Athens, Greece
9/11/19 Le Guess Who? 2019, Utrecht, Netherlands
13/11/19 Summerhall, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
14/11/19 The Blue Arrow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
16/11/19 Mirth Marvel and Maud, London, United Kingdom*
18/11/19 Headrow, Leeds, United Kingdom
22/11/19 Fondazione Feltrinelli, Milano, Italy
23/11/19 Transmissions Festival, Ravenna, Italy
3/12/19 Le Poisson Rouge, New York NY, USA
4/12/19 Columbus Theatre, Providence RI, USA
5/12/19 SPACE Gallery, Portland ME, USA
6/12/19 The Beverly, Kingston NY, USA
10/12/19 Zebulon, Los Angeles CA, USA
11/12/19 Zebulon, Los Angeles CA, USA
12/12/19 The Lab, San Francisco CA, USA
13/12/19 EXO, Tucson AZ, USA
14/12/19 Constellation, Chicago IL, USA
15/12/19 Trinosophes, Detroit MI, USA
18/12/19 The Historic Holland Theatre, Bellefontaine OH, USA
23/1/20 Out To Lunch Festival, Belfast, United Kingdom
26/3/20- 29/3/20 Big Ears Festival, Knoxville TN
*London Jazz Festival
Pre-Order https://www.dragcity.com/products/the-sisypheans
Photo by Kim Hiorth