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.

couchwalker

by Jenny Banai

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 CAD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Deluxe first edition 12" vinyl of couchwalker, pressed on baby blue with white marble! Funded by CIVL and Fraser Valley Music Awards!

    For the Vancouver folk, we could maybe arrange a pick-up spot to avoid shipping costs! Send me an e-mail!

    Includes unlimited streaming of couchwalker via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days
    edition of 166 

      $28 CAD or more 

     

1.
2.
There is much to cover. Do you have hours to sit and listen? I am told by my heart, intermittent, recall the once lived vision. I shy away from merely speaking. Intuition is to breath the same. I feel what began, instinctive, grown and lived in. Never unsee what has seen, knowing, insistent on being, on fleeing the impatient reason. It's a given, we won't think the same. Hours ahead I know what bleeds my heart. All save my stubborn clothes are torn apart. I open this woollen weighty cloak. Uncover the interlacing threads bound tight. Unwind the knotted head informed to flight. Nearest to me I strain to free fear. Hone me your thoughts. I'll swallow them whole. Cling to my robe. Cleave through my heart. I’ll open your soul. Swiftly we'll fall. Are we tenderly mistaken? Gentle in transgression? He craves real. I am real. I am knowing. He fought the silence faint and found in a frame unseen. He craves real. I am real. I am sensing. He sought the violence faint and found in a fable peace.
3.
It's his countenance, misinterpreted. A golden sustenance. We nourish our minds to exist. Are you afraid to ask questions? Are you afraid to doubt? Aren't you just missing out? Believe me, I know. I’m held too close. I can't justify myself, it's not about me. My words are superfluous, my breath irregular, when I try meaning what I say. Are you afraid to ask questions? Are you afraid to doubt? Aren't you just missing out? Believe me I know. I’m held too close. I’m held too close I'm held too close. I don't need to defend. I don't need to convince. I don't have the answers you want. I only have the glow of my eyes. Gleam through our shadow thoughts. Our shadow thoughts.
4.
Couch Walker 02:52
I want to tie up all the loose ends. But I feel to equally toss this braided pretence. I walked in, back and forth. Hold me tightly, slack remorse. Watch me fall, gently. I furrow my brow, pray, unravel the cryptic. Instead, I just yell. I hear the echo's nonsense. All my words lack explanation, proof or fact. I flirt with love and I question it. I'm left with threads and a heart unkempt. A frayed heart unkempt. I'm stuck in the middle, holding hands with both ends. Both sides slip through my fingers, and I cry for grace glue.
5.
Oh, why don't you call it what it is, you feel threatened, less important. What's obvious and clear to me, you're holding onto the nth degree. Well, you shouldn’t. But of course you wouldn’t. Who me? Are you talking to me? You don't think I didn't recognize that tone? Who, she? She's great. We'll get along just fine. Who, him? I didn't even mention him. You don't think we're just friends. Are you satisfied? Satisfied. Aha! So there it is. You admit it. Oh honey, you just barely hid it behind your smiley luscious teeth, sharp and prepared. It's only skin deep, if for some reason she should commit treason. I told you so. I don't feel this way. I'd only offer sympathy in spades. But if she were to deem it justified, I wouldn't hesitate to deny her. Are you satisfied? Satisfied. Are you satisfied? Satisfied. Are you satisfied? Am I satisfied?
6.
Lava 05:36
Lava in the sky, dense as it unfolds below dark light, rocking asleep all that was bright and hopeful, tucked away for the night. I tried to be clever, to be right. But my lips are frozen, my tender words stolen, from the cold- hearted pines. The trees unbound to palpitating earth's swollen ground. Red waters contend and rush in, the hollow ground, they fill, where the trees that fell spring ache. Oh, streams so red and deep, turn the smart and weak. Heal the shallow lame to life, save the wound and warn the willow's strife. Crack the clouds, prove their weightless might. Morning song, heal our tearless plight.
7.
Gold 04:35
I'm returning to you. To you. I'm exerting for peace and truth. Oh these hands, these weathered hands, forming and moulding the dirt in the land. Oh, these hands, these weathered hands, moving and softening the earth. I’m returning to you. To you. I'm exerting for peace and truth. Oh, these palms, these brazen palms, pulling and pounding the song in my soul. Oh, these palms, these brazen palms, rough as they cross ore' my heart. A covering of gold so soft, a glaze so old. I'm told, a flame by night, pressed cold. My form so tight. A line, I see in part, where the stiff clay shatters and the world grasped its heart. Will we find you there with hands in layers old? Will you lift us? Our forms inlaid with gold.
8.
Paper Plain 02:53
I noticed you. I'm not supposed to. I noticed you. I'll be honest, I don't know what to say. Am I searching for the right words to play? In this game that we fight, it's unfair, you unwrite. Am I crazy or just plain unaware? I feel un- heard, I can barely hear myself. I noticed you. I'm not supposed to. I noticed you. Old and re-sent letters scatter floors unanswered. Fill the glass in my face, my heart with thin paper. Throw the tree in the river, it won't fit in a bucket. This gift, this will win her. This love, yes I want it. I feel un- heard, I can barely hear myself. I pray. I wait. I listen. I wait. I pray.
9.
Daunting, your warmth, I need you closer. But I find so tender, a leisure in your distance. Stay far. But can I cling you slowly as if I never have? Tension. Risk the danger of what seems so unreal. I am presently desirous. But choose to stay out of the cold. The curious. I can't look away. I stare endlessly at the shambles, meandered lines and moulded monuments. Show me. Bring me. Hold me through stunning clarity, clever dazzler you are.
10.
Face Value 03:49
I told you once, I told you twice, I told you a thousand times. If you step one inch closer, you will understand, realize. I am so much other than the skin on my face and the air in my throat. Be careful what you think and what you say. You crave what you don't know. I am surprised by my emotional triggers, when I think about growing up into adulthood. It's no longer, no longer simple. It's no longer, no longer simple. All I thought of life, all I thought was so sinful has begged me to question my pride's own obsession for incessant wisdom. Yes, I'll admit I fumble over incoherent territory. Defensively dance to a rhythm uninformed to speak slowly. So, I breath quickly. One breath could separate face value what blows away from what falls to the ground. You claim to know me. I won't hold you to it. Only the wind knows my name. I am surprised I hold onto what withers. So, I'll drop my gold head to recover to face the ground. It's no longer, no longer simple. It's no longer, no longer simple. All I thought of life, all I thought was so sinful has begged me to question my pride's own obsession for incessant wisdom.
11.
Timshel 02:02
12.
Lois 04:06
I fell asleep as she had planned. The story still held the beginning and the end. I dreamt her eyes see at night, awake as her words move with tender sighs in her mind, where the wild white bird surely glides. From unsightly beginnings to pure flames at night. She used to play her father's song. I soon gravitate to pick up my own. I walked her home on open plains, sore and exposed, silent and underweight, in her mind. Thick memories found composed skies, slow moving and rising with rest in time, where the wild white bird surely glides. From unsightly beginnings to pure flames at night.

about

This album was a hard one for me to write. I felt uncomfortable often, stretched, if you will, lingering in the in-between. I don’t know if there has been a more honest and weak time in my life than now (but I only say that now) and I believe in the importance of sharing, in equal parts, both the consolation and desolation of this strange and beautiful tent I walk around in.

To the people I love and who love me, and help in all the seen and unseen ways, thank you.

Steve and Shelly Banai (Mom & Dad).
Nathan Ness, for your creative ideas and editing help.
Danny Olliver, for writing with me.
My bandmates, Toga D’Hoore and Scott Currie.
Trish Klein, Mandy Wheelwright, and Aaron Schubert, for dedicating time to this project.
To all the people who gave financially toward this project.
To the humans who listen. I hope you find grace in these sounds and words.

credits

released September 17, 2020

couchwalker was recorded at Afterlife Studios
Paper Plain, Gold, and Intermittent Heart were partially recorded in Jenny Banai’s bedroom, Scott Currie’s garage and living room, and at the Sound Suite Studios.

Written, arranged, produced, and performed by Jenny Banai.
Jenny performed lead vocals, background vocals, violins, and guitars.

Arranged, produced, performed, and recorded by Scott Currie.
Scott performed analogue and digital synths, pianos, drums, bass, guitars, clarinets, vibraphone, and background vocals.

Engineered and mixed by John Raham at Afterlife Studios.

Cello improvisation on Daunting Dazzler by Peggy Lee.
Stand up bass improvisation on Daunting Dazzler by Ben Appenheimer.

Mastered by Greg Mindorff at Suite Sound Labs.

Art direction and design by Jenny Banai, Jordyn Taylor-Robins and Lindsay Sjoberg.

Supported by Fraser Valley Music Awards and CIVL Radio
Supported by FACTOR
Supported by Creative BC

Vinyl printed and pressed by indiepool

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Jenny Banai Vancouver, British Columbia

"She is able to ebb her voice in dynamic with masterful control, rocking you gently into a dream, yet gripping your ears to keep you awake: lucid and loose" (SAD MAG).

contact / help

Contact Jenny Banai

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Jenny Banai, you may also like: