"The aqueduct is dry / And we are all afraid again / We read it in the trees / Where will we fish, where will the children swim? / What a timer for the hollows of our chests..."
The sharp edged dire consequences of "Aqueduct", by stalwart artist, singer-songwriter, musician Jefferson Pitcher, is a post art rock caveat full of intrigue and a spiralling down the drain atmosphere. I am loving the rolling bass lines full of questions and the electric guitars, one stabbing sharp chords on the down beat and another plucking noirish guitar lines against a rattling drum performance that feels deadly serious as it does potent. Pitcher's vocal countenance has grit but feels a bit bruised and battered here. The sense of politico meets environmental distress or the idea of nature in flux, the loss of flora and fauna, the death of things gives the entire song a kind of prescient quality, good or bad or indifferent.
Of the track, Pitcher shares:
"Aqueduct quite simply imagines a new world wherein people develop deeper and more spiritual connections with animals out of necessity. A world where human, machine, and animal overlap in new ways."
LYRICS
"The aqueduct is dry
And we are all afraid again
"The aqueduct is dry
And we are all afraid again
We read it in the trees
Where will we fish, where will the children swim?
What a timer for the hollows of our chests.
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
The people are all frightened
And they’re hiding in the caves that they have made
The copper birds and the makers with the cables and the radios
They are soaring over all of us
They will steal the ones with involuted hearts
The forest is all dry
The moss is dead beneath us
What will the beetles eat
What apnea will give us up gently
What timer for the bellows of our breath
Oh no! Oh take us away.
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
The people are all frightened
And they’re hiding in the caves that they have made
The copper birds and the makers with the cables and the radios
They are soaring over all of us
They will steal the ones with involuted hearts
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
We come to wash our feet
As in an old and cherished dream
But we’ve given up to the river’s rushing,
And its swift chicanery
It courses over all of us, promising a broken logic from above"
Where will we fish, where will the children swim?
What a timer for the hollows of our chests.
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
The people are all frightened
And they’re hiding in the caves that they have made
The copper birds and the makers with the cables and the radios
They are soaring over all of us
They will steal the ones with involuted hearts
The forest is all dry
The moss is dead beneath us
What will the beetles eat
What apnea will give us up gently
What timer for the bellows of our breath
Oh no! Oh take us away.
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
The people are all frightened
And they’re hiding in the caves that they have made
The copper birds and the makers with the cables and the radios
They are soaring over all of us
They will steal the ones with involuted hearts
In the thinning forest full of spotted animals eating animals
We come to wash our feet
As in an old and cherished dream
But we’ve given up to the river’s rushing,
And its swift chicanery
It courses over all of us, promising a broken logic from above"
The sonic rock presence amps up and as bigger distortions (musical and emotional) invade the space during the third act, the disarray feels like harsh radio transmission and metal storms, caustic in nature. Pitcher is able to create something that feels immediate but in the distance too, like a tornado that we all might be able to avoid.
"Aqueduct" exists on Jefferson Pitcher's new 10 track album, "The Bellows" that dropped April 11th (2025).
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://soundcloud.com/jefferson-pitcher
https://jeffersonpitcher.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pitcherguitars/
https://www.jeffersonpitcher.com/
Jefferson Pitcher is an innovative singer-songwriter known for his genre-defying music that combines intricate melodies with personal narratives. His previous works include the critically acclaimed albums: Of Great and Mortal Men and To All Dead Sailors. Pitcher has released music with Sedimental (USA), Attenuation Circuit (Germany), Jealous Butcher (USA), Striking Mechanism (USA), Standard Recording Co. (USA), Digitalis Recordings (USA), Camera Obscura (Australia), Tape Drift Records (USA), Lost Forest (USA), Moonpalace (Spain), Dutch East India (USA), Words on Music (USA), Tract Records (USA). He has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists including Radar Bros., Will Johnson, Denison Witmer, Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Okkyung Lee, Scott Amendola, Mark Dresser, Mike Bullock, Tim Keiper, Doug Van Nort, Jonathan Chen, Jason Robinson, Bob Weiner, Rosie Thomas, Christian Kiefer, and many more.
Pitcher’s work has garnered critical acclaim from outlets including Pitchfork, All Things Considered, WIRE, Blurt, Prefix, KQED, Brainwashed, and many more, for its originality and emotional depth, establishing him as a leading figure in the landscape of thoughtfully challenging artists welcoming you into a fully realized, unique sonic world.
Jefferson Pitcher, singer-songwriter and genre-bending artist, returns to conventional song from a long stint in the world of improvisation and noise with a triumphant, expansive, full-length record: The Bellows. Scheduled for release on April 11, 2025 The Bellows stands as testament to Pitcher's inventive approach to music and his ability to synergize disparate facets of sound.
Drawing sonic inspiration from the introspective and experimental tones of R.E.M’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Radiohead's In Rainbows, Pitcher and a team of collaborators craft a music that is both ethereal and grounded, sweeping and intimate. The album's atmospheric production and detailed arrangements will immediately appeal to fans of The National, while its lyrical intimacy and narrative quality will resonate with those who appreciate The Decemberists' storytelling prowess, as Pitcher investigates an imagined world where water is scarce, and birds are the dominant species. The album's songs are a journey through the corridors of angst and introspection, featuring Pitcher's signature blend of poetic lyricism and diary-like reflections. Each track serves as a chapter in a larger narrative, weaving together personal anecdotes with universal themes on parenthood, masculinity, environmentalism, and nature in a way that is both haunting and profoundly relatable.
Jefferson Pitcher, alt rock, art rock, progressive, fusion rock, blendo rock, jazz fusions, post punk, new album "The Bellows", single "Aqueduct" Official Video, Northampton MA, songwriter, guitarist,
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