We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Octopolis (featuring Kristin Slipp)

from Black Inscription by Rabbit Rabbit Radio

/

about

Natalia is, in every way, beyond the point of no return. She comes to a giant heap of scallop shells on the sea floor. This is Octopolis – a community of octopuses living in relatively close quarters. An octopus spies her and is fascinated by her articulate body, her lack of fluidity. The octopus addresses this alien interloper.

An octopus’s nervous system is structured very differently from ours. Their sense receptors are not confined to one central place. They taste with their arms. They see not just with their eyes, but with their skin. Their minds are not separable from their bodies, and their bodies are infinitely variable. They are able to stretch, contract, and shape-shift, making their sense of ‘self’ inherently different from ours. Though octopuses are usually solitary creatures, Octopolis is a real place in Jervis Bay off of the east coast of Australia. This song and it’s title are inspired by Peter Godfrey-Smith’s book Other Minds; The Octopus, The Sea, and the deep Origins of Consciousness.

lyrics

Yoo-hoo…
You… Who?

Gangles of angles and elbows and bends,
everything kept in its place.

So fine, so finite.
So staged and stagnant.

You taste just with your tongue?
And see just with your eyes?

You know too well where you are… and where you are not.

I am all tongue, all taste,
I am receptors, reflectors.
I am layers of light.
My body, a canvass, a mirror.
I see with my skin.

I am a pulpit, a pulpo, a paramour.

You know too well where you are and where you are not.
But you are everywhere.

Your salt, your sorrow,
disbelief, oh, your disbelief
carried to me in waves.

I am a pulpit, a pulpo, a paramour.

Every cell, a tiny sea within
a memory, a solution, a conundrum.

You are not a who, a what, a where.
Oh you! You are a boundless, seem-less yes.

Shape and reshape,
let the sea in.
Turn and return,
sound and resound.

Let the sea in,
Let it see in,
Let me see in…

credits

from Black Inscription, released January 11, 2018
Music by Kristin Slipp & Jeremy Flower
Words by Carla Kihlstedt

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Rabbit Rabbit Radio image

Rabbit Rabbit Radio Falmouth, Massachusetts

Rabbit Rabbit Radio is the song-spinning duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. Collectively, they are founding members of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, The Book of Knots, and Fred Frith’s Cosa Brava.

Drawing on their love of both art & folk song, industrial & improvised music and heart-wrenching balladry, their songs are raw, beautiful, sparse and rich. ... more

contact / help

Contact Rabbit Rabbit Radio

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

Rabbit Rabbit Radio recommends:

If you like Rabbit Rabbit Radio, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Fabiana Palladino stops by to talk about her mesmeric debut LP.
listen now