Magisches Theater

Magisches Theater is an invitation. An invitation you're not quite sure is meant for you, until you really take a moment to read it and realize you wrote it yourself. Whether wrapped in gracious green grass, or learning to speak bird, there's discovery to be delved into in every nook and cranny. When perusing is all used up, you can turn off the higher functions and just breathe with the harmonies. Genre bending and yet cohesive, it is a work which stands on its own feet as an exploration of the condition of consciousness from a human-animal perspective in more different languages than you or I can decode.

Magisches Theater by Wild Animal

Tracks

  1. Green Fields
  2. Hip Bones
  3. Shock
  4. Silence
  5. Jungle
  6. Shuree
  7. Easy
  8. Phases of the Bridge
  9. It's Chaos, Drop me off

Credits

Guitar: John Patrick Therrien
Male Vocal: John Patrick Therrien
Female Vocal: Marie Therrien
Backing Vocal/Guitar: Terrance Heafner (Track 6)
Drums: Andrew Church (Track 1, 6, 9)
Percussion: Andrew Church (Track 6, 7) John Patrick Therrien (Track 2, 4, 5, 8)
Bass: David Gilman (Track 1, 6, 7) John Patrick Therrien (Track 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8)
Keyboard: Luke Palmer (Track 1, 6, 9)
Saxophone: New Orleans sax player (Track 1, 6, 9)

Written by John Patrick Therrien (All) and Marie Therrien (Track 1, 4, 5, 6 and 9), Felipe Chammas (Track 6)

Find all LYRICS here

Produced, recorded and mastered by John Patrick Therrien
Album Art: Marie Therrien

Thank you!

We would like to thank the following individuals for their invaluable contributions:

Lisa Zwinzscher and Lukas Stodolik: For graciously hosting us at the Schatulle Bömm studio and rehearsal space in Leipzig.

Andrew and Frances Church: Thank you so much for your support and for hosting us at the Aurora Palace while recording in New Orleans during our honeymoon. It is so wonderful to have you, Andrew, and also David Gilman, on board for at least a few songs this time!

Anita Goss: We really appreciate your help in promoting the album.

Mona Judith Zwinzscher: Thanks for the photo shooting in Bavaria which turned out so great.

Last but not least, we would like to thank our families and friends for their continued support and love.

All of your contributions have been instrumental in our journey to realize Magisches Theater, and we are deeply grateful.

And last but not least, we would like to thank Hermann Hesse for inspiring us along the way — Eintritt nur für Verrückte!

The Singles

Single cover
Green Fields

Green Fields

Green Fields (Single Version) by Wild Animal

Green Fields is an exploration of perspective. 'Who is thinking who?' Are we humans controlling and creating our world with our technology, or is the eye of the world, mother earth, staring right back at us as its youngest baby slowly comes of age. The song wears a quizzical smile; laid back, pulling itself ever forward and deeper into a dark but warm and colorful abyss. If we pondered this question of identity deeply enough, perhaps, like Ramana Maharshi and his Self-Enquiry, we would experience a sudden awakening: 'A blitz in the room'. Then, if we happened to be playing music during this play, we would realize the non-duality of the situation, and just keep on playing, because being human is just as holy as being a flower, mother earth, or the entire cosmos. The round at the end of the song, with many melodies simultaneously ringing together, can be taken as an experience of hearing the panpsychic voices of the rocks, flowers, fields, untamable fire, and wind that surround us daily but are rarely properly listened to.

Single cover
Jungle

Jungle

Jungle (Single Version) by Wild Animal

While Green Fields creates the invitation to listen, Jungle takes it further and starts to speculate on the language being spoken. 'Does anyone speak bird?' is another way of asking 'have you got a map to sell?'. Where can the rainfall run downhill? The song was written in the Amazon of Brazil, which is a truly awe-inspiring and unruly place. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to family holidays, but as far as nature goes, the amazon has about as many different characters 'having a yell' as anywhere on earth. But, believe it or not, there is 'peace underneath it' just about anywhere we go. Or at least, it was very helpful to write down those words while experiencing it. Musically, Jungle lives in a suspended space rich with highs, lows, and harmonies. Where 'all is just being, without a wall'. The guitar solo is just off-kilter enough to reflect the tension of a deadly space, while also maintaining its beauty, and bursting in its end into the talking stars.

Single cover
Silence

Silence

Silence by Wild Animal

Silence is a love song. It was born of appreciation for Marie's meditation practice. It's very purposefully left open what the silence is for. Is it really for anything? No, probably not. But then again, "That's what the silence is for". Sometimes one has to wonder what's really possible in this wild world of ours. For example, could two people write a song by feeling each other's presence without communicating physically? Thus tapping into an internet of the mind? The last verse contemplates just such a depth of distanced connection. As with Jung's synchronous acausality, sometimes words are just "diction adetermined by rhythm". Maybe that's what the Silence is for…

Single cover
It's Chaos, Drop me Off

It's Chaos, Drop me Off

It's Chaos, Drop me Off by Wild Animal

Sometimes the spaghetti needs to be thrown against the wall. The most delicious pieces will stick, after all. This song is a remix/combination of a few different songs from the album, relying heavily on backwards vocals. It's no crab canon, but when backwards meets forwards, nice things can happen. So we listened carefully to the wolf, and it said "stars are in morph". So naturally we howled along. What's a creature to do in such a situation? Musically, it's a harmonic tapestry of voices, set against a persistent beat that occasionally fights with its mirrored partner who is traveling back in time to meet it. In this chaos, if we are to be dropped off, hopefully we'll be willing to "go for a ride".

Single cover
Shuree

Shuree

Shuree (Single Version) by Wild Animal

Spoilers! But you would have certainly figured it out on your own, if you listened a bit, and let the artwork do its work on you. Easy peasy. Shuree is the westernization of the name of a bird in the indigenous amazonian culture/language of the Yawanawa. Really it's a particular bird which sang to me on many occasions from near the river over the cliff where I lived in the jungle. The melodies it had to offer were beautiful, like nothing I had ever heard, and the best part is that it would enter into musical exchanges when I would attempt to mirror its melody. Ok, maybe that would all be pretty opaque without this text, but you certainly would have gotten that it's a bird and not a lady. The bird is the muse. Offering inspiration. Each solo is an answer and an invocation of this spirit, and the three languages used in the song: english, german, and portuguese are a way of tapping into that space below language where the muses live. Musically it is a song which should make you want to nod along, or even break out dancing. The solos are prominent, encapsulating creative energy from a particular moment.