Episode 835: And She Moved Like Ice...

Just finished another draft for my PWP. I think it's actually a bit weak, so I might end up completely reworking it in a couple of weeks. The tone of the 'I' in this one sounds okay to me, but the content feels too slavishly derivative of the original Biblical story. It's based on Judges 19, where the Levite's concubine gets raped because her husband offers her up to the men of Gibeah, in a moment that echoes the story of Lot before the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis. In any case, whatever its quality, it's given me an idea for what the next poem in the sequence can be about, spoken by the virgin of Gibeah whose father offers up together with the concubine, but who ultimately is not stated to have been raped. I'm going to assume she lives with a heavy dose of survivor's guilt, so much that she runs away from home. Might write that one tomorrow. Anyway, I've been listening to the new Conjure One album, Exilarch, which has already been out for a couple of months, but I only realised last night. The first track alone, 'Like Ice', is gorgeous enough that Conjure One may have surpassed Delerium in my esteem, despite usually being labelled as the latter's poorer cousin. The musical style has generally skewed towards more Middle Eastern influences though, so I don't think the comparison is necessarily helpful. The track features vocals from Jaren Cerf, who has one of the most delectable female voices I've heard outside of a Sleepthief album. She's on a couple of tracks in the rest of the album as well. Apparently, she also sings for dance music tracks. A bit random, but hey, I suppose even trance music needs a good vocal track now and again.