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.

Among the Living

from Among the Living by Marketa Irglova

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      $3 USD  or more

     

about

Among the Living

This song is an elegy. An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. In writing this song I tried to call upon compassion and loving kindness toward the living as well, those left to mourn. Those who’s hearts are broken, their souls floating somewhere outside of their bodies trying to unite with their recently passed loved ones. Frozen with grief, struggling to find meaning in anything. Carrying a heavy burden and not knowing where to turn in order to find some relief.

With as much loss as people all over the world have experienced in the past year, I wanted to write a tribute to the people who have died and to pass on some words of comfort to their families. I am hoping this song can spread some healing to people who are in pain. To help them feel a little better. To be reminded that they are not alone. To feel embraced and held in a safe space. I hope for their burden to be lifted even if it is just for the 13 minutes it takes to listen to this song.

lyrics

All I could have, would have, should have told you,

All I never even thought to ask you,

Plays on my mind like a broken record,

And I can not bring myself to speak.

All that there was left for you to teach me,

All you’d try to make me understand,

Isn’t lost on me now that you have left me,

Proving nothing ever goes as planned.


Since you’ve been gone I have been frozen,

Unable to feel,

Your leaving stripped the world of meaning,

Tell me how do I go on,

When I see nothing but fog now,

All around me pillars of smoke rise,

Where our dreams burned to the ground,

There is no light to be found.

I’m swimming in a deep lake of memories,

I walk when I can’t sleep,

And all I do is think about you,

And wish that you were still here.


Tell me it’s all been a terrible dream.

The kind where you want to, but

Can not scream.

Tell me I’ll wake up and all will be as before,

I’ll be back in our hometown, and

You will walk through the door.

I never knew I had so much to lose,

Until I lost you…


And I wonder if you can forgive me,

For all the times I have done you wrong,

I’d give anything just to embrace you,

Among the living, where you belong.


Somebody tell me how to make peace,

With circumstance begotten of mistakes,

How to accept that there can be no second chances,

When your soul escapes for grief and your heart breaks.

Breaks into a thousand little pieces,

Shatters like a cup that used to keep,

Your memories, your dreams and your desires, and

Now all you want to do is go to sleep, and

Sleep until the living nightmare is over,

Sleep until the pain of it is no more.

Until the thought of facing the world doesn’t petrify you,

And you can pick yourself up off the floor.


Mother Mary, won’t you keep me steady,

For my mind is weary and heavy is my heart.

I’m still not sure if I can even do this,

Could you bring me right back to the start?

There is so much about the past that I’d like to change,

To take all of the pieces apart, to re-arrange,

The complex puzzle that is life,

Ever-changing with each choice one makes.

I was young, I was foolish, I was restless,

I made many mistakes.


Azrael, take good care of my baby,

Raphael, help ease the pain,

Gabriel, will you give my message to him?

Chamuel, let us know peace.

Jophiel, please illuminate this dark and lonely time,

Zadkiel, let compassion grace each step of this steep and rocky climb,

Jeremiel, mercy of God, will you be his guide?

Help my brother journey over to the other side?


Out of my reach and into your arms,

Profoundly calm and peaceful a place.

Life on earth can be so hard,

They are better off there in some ways.

And though I grieve now, though I cry,

This is not our last goodbye,

We will meet again I am sure.

Another time, another life,

Brother, sister, mother, wife

For love does even death endure.


May the love between us allow me to find you,

When we are reborn in another form.

I shall live the days,

I have left on this earth in honor of you.

May God bless and keep you.

credits

from Among the Living, released November 2, 2020
Markéta Irglová, featuring Siggi String Quartet and Aida Shahghasemi

Music and Lyrics by Markéta Irglová

Recorded, Mixed, Mastered and Produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson
at Masterkey Studios, Iceland in 2020.

Performed by Markéta Irglová, Siggi String Quartet and Aida Shahghasemi
Piano, Organ, and Vocals by Markéta Irglová
String Arrangements by Markéta Irglova
With Una Sveinbjarnadóttir on violin,
Helga Þóra Björgvinsdóttir on violin,
Þórunn Ósk Marinósdóttir on viola,
Sigurður Bjarki Gunnarsson on cello, and
Aida Shahghasemi on Vocals.

Cover art by Lena Bushart
Photography by Lena Bushart & Sion Fullana

Thank you to;
Maria Rawlins, Howard Greynolds, Tarina Aumiller, Claire Leadbitter, Marek and Jana Irgl, Zuzana Irglová, Emil Irgl, Antonín Váňa, Þórir Kristinsson and Vilborg Árný Valgarðsdóttir, Karítas Árný Sturludóttir, Linda Björk Eiríksdóttir, Catherine Hansard, Sion Fullana, Anton Kawasaki, Lena Bushart, Andrew Armstrong.

God and the archangels, Mother Mary.

My everlasting love to my children with endless gratitute for all that they are.

Dedicated to those who are no longer with us. May they rest in peace.

Released on Masterkey Sounds 2020
Marketa Irglova Music
Admin by Warner Chappell Publishing (ASCAP)

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Marketa Irglova Reykjavik, Iceland

Markéta received The Academy Award for best song, Falling Slowly, Irglová released her solo debut, Anar, in 2011, followed by Muna in 2014. Today she creates her music at Masterkey Studios, built by her husband, producer Sturla Mio Thorisson. Recent releases include a trilogy of singles titled Quintessence, Among the Living, and Mother. Full length album “Lila” will be out on August 19, 2022.
... more

contact / help

Contact Marketa Irglova

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Marketa Irglova, you may also like: