Ashmouth Flame from Matchbook Sermons by AshChoir

The album closes with a re-entry into its opening regret. Reverend Marlboro's voice, worn from countless confessions, re-states the initial words of 'Ashmouth' over crackling tape. This cyclical return explores the concept of agency reclaimed, of confession finding a quiet end. Sparse rim clicks mark each staggered breath, counting off a journey's end. The sound draws from the dust of forgotten juke joints and the slow, heavy air of deep South Sunday mornings. Live, the piece reduces to a sustained hush, Reverend Marlboro holding an imagined ember, drawing the audience into a shared, heavy quiet. The chant 'Sleepwalk me clean, burn me bright' now answers him via a distant child-choir sample, not surrounding but responding. Hammond chords remain gentle, slide guitar faint, all enveloped in the soft hiss of the master reel. The final fade is not an end, but a suspended breath, compelling an immediate re-start.

Tracklist

12.	Ashmouth Flame	3:12

Lyrics

Tape hiss exhales the bar's forgotten vow
Slide whispers cinders across organ brow

Rewind hiss softly sips the bar's bruised hush
Ashmouth flame licks scars till the jukebox hush
Rim clicks count debts; each spark debates its glow
Child choir sifts smoke, returns the borrowed glow

Hold breath four beats, let the ember decide
If it fades now, our regrets sprawl too wide

Sleepwalk me clean, burn me bright, ignite me
Let ashes teach my lungs new hymns for me
Hammond stirs back the vow we called a flame
Child echoes float, guarding the final flame

Smoke writes its prayer, same hiss from hour one still
Spare spark in my palm learns to speak for all

Sleepwalk me clean, burn me bright, ignite me
Let ashes teach my lungs new hymns for me
Hammond stirs back the vow we called a flame
Child echoes float, guarding the final flame

Ashmouth closes; yet the ember pilots
Tape hiss fades slow, leaving ribs to keep beat

Credits

from Matchbook Sermons, released September 3, 2025

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