Lighthouse by Zanda Myrande

Gestalt are a fictional band from six thousand years in the future, when good music sounds very much like it does today. Since they can't sell their stuff here due to retrotemporal copyright problems, I recreate (i.e. write) their songs and perform them myself, sometimes with help from my friends. This is one such album of songs.

THE FARHAVENS LIGHTHOUSE

The lighthouse off Farhavens Point, practically on the north-westernmost tip of Argenthome's northern continent, was first built five years after the founding of the colony, when the original construction, mostly of plastic and light metal brought on the colony ships, unexpectedly blew down in a winter storm. Elwyn Garstang, one of the first colonists, chose to use local materials in his reconstruction and based his plans on old Earth designs, and the lighthouse has been kept, maintained and repaired where necessary by his family ever since. In gratitude the Seigneurie granted the Garstangs landholder status in perpetuity, though their holding, which comprises basically the lighthouse, is far smaller than would normally warrant such a title. A descendant, Kyro Garstang, tried to parlay this into a seigneurship in the year 323 by Argenthome reckoning, but was unsuccessful.

The purpose of the lighthouse is, of course, to guide seagoing vessels into Farhavens harbour, avoiding both the rocky coast to the north and the Maelstrom to the south. This is a large whirlpool, caused by tidal action and the shape of the sea bed at that point, which has claimed over seventy ships even with the lighthouse in action.

The current keeper, Hillman Garstang, and his family, very graciously allowed us to stay at the lighthouse for a week to come up with the songs for this album. To make it more interesting, I suggested that each of us write a song for one of the others to sing. This produced some variable results, but on the whole I think it worked well. We've left who wrote what for whom as an exercise for the listener, but it's purely optional.

We also discovered some interesting walks in the area, and some of us went out in Mr Garstang's boat to explore the surrounding sea and outlying islands. Nobody fell into the Maelstrom, though Orville and Suncat did get lost and end up back in Coldsands. Sense of direction my elbow.

There is, as you'll have guessed, a strong maritime theme to this album, more so than to any of our others. From there we progressed to songs about wandering, about choices, and finally to a spoken piece Suncat found in a book of old Earth poetry, about a character who's still the most famous wanderer of all. Well, that's who the poem was originally about.

We'd like to thank: the Garstang family, obviously, for their courtesy and support, our friends Gattis Meldrum for the pictures and Feargal Jamis for once again stepping in as copter pilot for the one on the front, Laban Roper Krakendeeps for finding us the ship, and lastly you, our listeners, for making it all worth doing. Love to all.

Zanda Myrande is still recovering from the trauma of being Zander Nyrond for several decades. She has only come out online at this point, for reasons which may be apparent from the picture above, but she proudly embraces her trans identity while still giving house room to Zander and the rest of the deadbeats who populate her head.

Lives in Wiltshire and has better friends than she deserves.

patreon.com
avevale.org
nyrond.altrion.org