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Heart​-​Shaped Scars

by Dot Allison

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - A Limited Edition Run of 300
    - Double LP
    - Standard Black Vinyl
    - Gatefold
    - Printed Inner Lyric Sleeves
    - Bespoke artwork by Michelle Henning

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    - A Limited Edition Run of 500
    - Only 100 Signed CDs
    - 1 x CD
    - Printed Insert (Credits)
    - Bespoke artwork by Michelle Henning

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Includes: 12" Vinyl + Signed 7” Vinyl

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  • Limited Edition Double 12" Green Vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - A Limited Edition Run of 500
    - Double LP
    - Transparent Green Vinyl
    - Gatefold
    - Printed Inner Lyric Sleeves
    - Bespoke artwork by Michelle Henning

    Includes unlimited streaming of Heart-Shaped Scars via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
I didn’t think you’d lie to me My love for you it was pure Like glitter on snow I cannot quite believe the deceit What a fool love brings... I held your memory high, encased in glass Nothing could shatter or tarnish your sacred remains But you came with your wrecking ball at last What a fool I have been... ‘Cos I called through the trees I called from the beach I waited for you Crying from all cliffs and the photograph That I held in my mind Had a long exposure Long exposure To the truth So I commit rare love to ink That very night saw my letter dropped onto her fire How could you turn so easily? What a fool love brings... For I called through the trees I called from the beach I waited for you Crying from all cliffs and the photograph That I held in my mind What a long exposure Long exposure To the truth Orchards of cherries lie bruised on the ground Bitten, discarded in grief all around You settle for such easy fruit What a fool that love brings… For you’ve called through the trees You called from the beach You’ve been looking for me Crying from all cliffs and the photograph That you held in your hand Had a long exposure But here I am, here I am, waiting Here I am, here I am, waiting… And that photograph of you It’s fading in the sunlight and that photograph of you It’s fading in the sunlight…
2.
The Haunted 06:20
Slip inside this haunted house Tiptoe silent, not a sound Oh, I feel ghosts Ghosts all around me… Sun cuts through this dusty hall Spray-can dreams across my walls With blood-red berries write in snow Sign to the dead, who only know Oh I feel ghosts Feel their breath Upon my neck Oh I sense ghosts Ghosts all around me Light dust particles like stars Seal my heart inside your jar Darling cut me one more scar Before we fall nowhere too far Listen to what this corridor said To love songs weeping from our bed Feel the beat of skipping clocks Hear the words this sweet hearth talks Oh I feel ghosts Feel their breath Upon my neck Oh I sense ghosts Ghosts all around me Let me lift that crown of thorns All quitting was once sworn Suture cuts, I’ll dry your eyes With words that hover like a sky... Place your hand upon my mouth Whisper ‘Ssh…Do you trust me now?’ You may burst through unbolted doors Spray can your love across my walls Haunt inside me forever more… Oh feel my ghost Feel my breath Upon your nape My ghost wrapped around you Oh feel my walls Oh be my ghost Go on…be my ghost Go on…be my ghost
3.
You win, you always will I lie still in the lake Floating on my back Gazing up at all the stars A love, toothless like silk I float free on the waves Divine bed of nails Gazing up at all the stars Break me, Waving crashing over like stampedes of horses That save me, Cooling ice sculptures that quench me quite endlessly Crave me, Teardrops and rain that fall down on me silently Bathe me... Do you see the Constellations? Do you see it now Are you looking up? Do you see the Constellations? Do you see it now? Are you looking now? 3 words, caught up in the sky Seasons turn 10,000 times Compressed love to diamonds In our minds 3 words, caught up in our sky Seasons turn 10,000 times Compressed this love to diamonds In our minds Break me, Waving crashing over like stampedes of horses That save me, Cool me with surf and foam quench me quite endlessly Crave me, Teardrops and rain that fall down on me silently Bathe me... Do you see the Constellations? Do you see it now? Are you looking up? Do you see the Constellations? Do you see it now? Are you looking now? An end, a single breath I float still on the mirror-verse Your eyes follow me back Gazing up at all these stars…
4.
Autumn’s touch, harvest worn Winter’s grasp beckons us on Hallowed seed, occasional thorn Unpick the wire around our dawn Can you hear nature sing A myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears A myriad of melodies? Can you hear nature sing Myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears? Acorns crack, upon the stone Blossom, sepals, calyx unfold Pregnant fruit, hanging low Thaws my form into the snow Can you hear nature sing A myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears? A myriad of melodies? Can you hear nature sing A myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears? Mother smothering With her favourite illusion A forest of borrowed white Evergreen devastation Mother smothering With her favourite illusion There’s a fire Within our dawn Can you hear nature sing A myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears? A myriad of melodies? Can you hear nature sing A myriad of melodies? Can you hear through her tears? A myriad of melodies Can you hear nature sing? A myriad of melodies Can you hear through her tears?
5.
Ghost Orchid 04:30
Sail to me, so gently Ink your words all over me I’m evergreen like the pine God knows I adored you God knows I adored you You’re my church of snow And everywhere was nowhere Wherever we would go I kneel down at my church of snow I pray, I pray Orchid ghost, all yours to spoil My heaven-reaching petals born for your soil Evergreen as I pined... For one drop of your sweet nectar To deepen the flower Your love the lectern, where I could have learnt God knows I adored you God knows I adored you You’re my church of snow And I’ll be your disciple until we’re old Kneel down at my church of snow You’re everywhere yet nowhere wherever I go... I kneel down at my church of snow Melt into the sun Kneel down with me, I’ll be your church of snow Kneel down beside me and... Melt into the sun Melt into the sun
6.
Entanglement 00:42
7.
Lathe of night failed you, I’m free Hollow your shadow cast cold on me Love’s snow it sleet, I betroth To love’s splintered streets Where the knitted-apartness of us sometimes meets… I miss you, like a dead man recalls life We had forever, seems it’s not much time Architect of war (lay down your gun) With love’s holy oil (lay down your pride) You delight as I toil (lay down your gun) Crying, I watch your sweet memory spoil (lay down your gun) And I miss you, like a dead man recalls life We have forever, seems it’s not… Much time Tick, tock, tick, tock Goes the beat Of a heart.
8.
Love we were broken Leaf skeleton frail Just memory needles To stitch up the sails Love scars imbue me Waves out of phase Crackling Pylons Silence no trace… The tree in our heart Remained in dark Where seeds cannot grow I shut out the pain I thought I was made Shut out the rain As you cast me her shade I didn’t look back I started to run Perhaps we just Did we shut out the sun? Did we shut out the sun? Prised apart by two guns Did we shut out the sun? Did we shut out the sun? (cue the tears) Did we shut out the sun? (cue the tears) Prized apart by two guns (cue the tears) Did we shut out the sun? (cue the tears) We were so fallen Leaf skeleton pale With just these blunt needles To stitch our torn sails Love reigns down on us Words that lost face Deadening silence Feigning as grace The tree in your heart Remained in the dark Where seeds cannot grow… I shut out the pain I thought I was made I shut out the rain As you cast me her shade I didn’t look back I started to run But with us perhaps we Did we shut out the sun? Did we shut out the sun? Cue the tears Cue the tears Cue the tears Cue the tears….
9.
One Love 05:48
I felt the breeze Your robe of God You left me broken On my knees My glass-blown dreams Ground into sand Tossed in my eyes But now I see My flower It had to lean toward the sunlight To pollinate Love don’t bloom in the shade My flower Fire Lily, Juliet Rose, Blood Camellia Stems arc towards the light My petals close in the shade No you need to shine, shine, shine here Focus your photons of light Shine on me On one love How can the one Etched in the stars Be thrown aside For spare parts? Your shadow glowed Along the road You pulled the blackout curtains On our shoots My flower It had to lean towards the sunlight Cross-pollinate Love can’t bloom in the shade My flower, Fire Lily, My Juliet Rose, Blood Carnellia Stems arc towards the light And my petals closed in her shade No you need to Shine, shine, shine here Focus your photons of light Shine on me On one love Through the prism of song Words unconscious, like petals fall Sepals close upon our day In the shade I will fade away No you need to shine Focus your photons of light On one love
10.
We’ve got blood on our hands We’ve got blood on our hands Love died in our arms Love died in our arms We got blood on our hands We’ve both got blood on our hands This love died in our arms This love died in our arms A little water, A little water It’s sure to clear us of this A little water, A little water It’s sure to clear us of this So this was love This was love I can’t feel the pulse now So this was love This was love Ssh, I can’t hear a sound now… This was love This was love Look but I can’t see my breath now So this was love, this was love And it’s gone, gone… Weaving in between these notes Whispering to me Creepers and climbers I can hear Love’s stubborn ghost… Voices through the trees... We’ve got blood on our hands We’ve got blood on our hands Love died in our hearts Love died in our hearts We got blood on our hands We both got blood on our hands This love it died in our arms This love it died in our arms So this was love This was love I can’t feel the pulse now So this was love This was love Ssh, I can’t hear a sound now… This was love This was love Look but I can’t see my breath now So this was love, this was love And it’s gone, gone… ….And (whispered B) I am a man I cry alone I triumph and conquer Here on my own But what is this That alters my path? (I can’t feel the pulse now) Shaking the tree Of such a great man (I can’t see my breath now) If being Godless Used to set me free (I can’t see my breath now) What is this alter I find here in front of me? So sweet is the taste So firm the shape This low hanging fruit Such succulent flesh On my skin to rest Lush low hanging fruit In orchards at night I steal just one bite This low hanging fruit We’ve got blood on our hands
11.
Goodbye 05:23
Return me my mind ‘Cos everything I see Telling me I’m blind Idolatry statues seem to move Whispering to me ‘I’m yours’ Somewhere the heart Of the pain We’ll find answer We’ll find it one day Until then, until then I wish you love I wish you love… Goodbye I see the sun Diffracting through the rain Your seeds and flowers blossom Through my veins Though I am the one Sails upon your gaze Everything I ever seem to do ...In vain Somewhere the heart Of the pain There’s an answer We’ll find it one day Until then, Until then I wish you love I wish you love... Somewhere the heart Of the pain There’ll be an answer May you find it one day Until then, until then I wish you love I wish you love... Goodbye

about

Dot Allison will always be identified with the band that initially launched her, One Dove, whose Andy Weatherall-produced album Morning Dove White became a downbeat electronic landmark, but her own albums and collaborations amount to a much more significant body of work, with a commanding range across genres and narrative ambition. “The records that I have made were more like a window into my world,” she says. None more so than her first album in 12 years, out today — Heart-Shaped Scars. Tranquil in sound and passionate in spirit it's Allison’s most personal record yet. Framed by a backdrop of exquisitely sparse and intoxicating dream-folk and Allison’s vocal at its most ethereal, the album is, she reveals about “Love, loss and a universal longing for union that seems to go with the human condition.”

Heart-Shaped Scars gathers many threads of Allison’s broad interests – not just musical but literary, philosophical & her interest in science and nature. Allison’s father was a botanist, and her mother a musician; eventually, the DNA of music took this former bio-chemistry student in a very different direction – and with good reason too.

Dot sees certain flowers almost like visual metaphors for certain organs that all species share. Through out the album she references plants, the seasons, flowers, fertility, cyclical patterns and a haunting that may follow a decay & some dark visceral imagery, all evoking Dot’s vision for “a pure kind of album that musically imbues a return to nature. I wanted it to be comforting like a familiar in-utero heartbeat.”

Recorded at Castlesound Studios in Edinburgh - Dot’s home town, the album is produced by Allison alongside Fiona Cruickshank. Recent Mercury Prize nominee Hannah Peel adds string arrangements to four songs that accompany Dot's imaginative lyrics, courtesy of a quintet of Scottish folk musicians.

On the album Allison not only oversees all vocal arrangements, she plays ukulele, piano, 12 string guitar, mellotron, keyboards, hubble kalimba & Phone-Home Xylophone, Treated Keys & Harmonium. Field recordings of birdsong, rivers and the ambience of The Hebrides - where Dot has a cottage - also played their part. A location for gatherings amongst folk musician pals (Sarah Campbell and Amy Bowman included on 'The Haunted'), “sharing ideas and passing instruments between us all, amongst friends and the island community,” says Allison. “It’s where I first sang the album's first single 'Long Exposure’ in public at a folk house-concert." It's the first song Dot wrote on a ukulele.

The sessions also include a collaboration with singer songwriter Zoë Bestel. Dot wrote a poem about a love ending with the metaphor of autumn decaying into winter. During that songwriting session she pulled the poem up and they harvested it very heavily for imagery and turned it into the albums' second single, ‘Can You Hear Nature Sing?’

The album's third single, 'One Love’ is a song about someone feeling unsure in a relationship, needing reassurance. "The flower metaphors are rare flowers used to signify a rare, precious, all encompassing love. Blood Camellia suggests flesh, veins and a pulse, Fire Lilies imbue a sense of passion and Juliette Rose seems to hint at Shakespeare,”she adds. A video for this single directed by PJ Harvey's longtime visual collaborator Maria Mochnacz will soon follow.

Heart-Shaped Scars may have the richness and metaphorical depth of poetry but it’s balanced out by classic tropes of singer-songwriters through the ages. The sentiments behind ‘Cue The Tears’, ‘Love Died In Our Arms’ and ‘Goodbye’ are direct appeals from the heart; melodically too, they chime with torch-singing and soul traditions.

During the years Dot has collaborated with a variety of musicians including My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, The Bad Seeds, Scott Walker (Sunn O))), Richard Fearless, Anton Newcombe of Brian Jonestown Massacre, Hal David, Paul Weller and 3D with Massive Attack who says Dot "Has a voice like honey."

On Heart-Shaped Scars Allison mines a deeply emotive seam. "To me, music is a sort of tonic or an antidote to a kind of longing, for a while at least,” she concludes.

credits

released July 30, 2021

Produced by Dot Allison and Fiona Cruickshank
Engineered and Mixed by Fiona Cruickshank c/o Air Management
Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC
Recorded at Castlesound Studios, Pencaitland, Spitfire Audio, London, The Shed, Edinburgh
Field recordings from The Hebrides by Dot Allison
Additional Recording and engineering Stuart Hamilton & Homay Schmitz
String Fixing - Su-A Lee

Artwork and Design - Michelle Henning

Portrait photography - (c) Essy Syed - All Rights Reserved

Management - Maggie Rodford at Air-Edel Associates Ltd
Licensed by Unboxed Music LLP
SA Recordings

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Dot Allison Edinburgh, UK

Since her debut solo album Afterglow in 1999, Dot Allison has strived to keep the listener on a journey – and herself too.

She revolts against what she has done before, to evolve and not just occupy the same space.

Her forthcoming, and most illuminating album to date 'Heart-Shaped Scars is out now via SA Recordings.
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