Everlasting Arms (l’aparela)

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Behind the lyrics of Everlasting Arms

The lyrics of Everlasting Arms are based on a montage of verses from Deuteronomy that reflect my personal faith story.  This story is about how, after messing myself up with abuse of my mind and body for years, “God’s hands reached inside my mind and sewed the fragments back together and breathed life into me”.

An image of a charcoal drawing that a dear friend showed me also influenced this song.  It sketched strong arms reaching through the darkness, holding a tiny baby.  The strength of the arms was unmistakable, as was the vulnerability of the baby and its need to be held firmly yet tenderly by strong arms.

Another image also played a part.   This was the image an eagle hovering over her young in protection, and then swooping them up with it’s powerful pinions soaring through the air.  This image became blurred with the charcoal drawing of cosmic arms reaching through the darkness and holding me forever.

Here are the montage of verses from Deuteronomy that inspired the song:  (New International Version of the Bible):

Deuteronomy 33:27

The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. 

Deuteronomy 32:4

He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just. 

Deuteronomy 32 :10-13

In a desert land he found him,
in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him;
he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
like an eagle that stirs up its nest
and hovers over its young,
that spreads its wings to catch them
and carries them on its pinions.

The LORD alone led him;
no foreign god was with him.

He made him ride on the heights of the land
and fed him with the fruit of the fields. 

These verses describe exactly what happened to me.  I was amazed when I read them and realised how they reflected my story.  After trying to dig myself out of despair, it was like God came down into the pit I was in, picked me up and carried me out.

There is another text from the Bible that also seems to speak of my own story.  These are the verses from the book of Psalms (New International Version).

Psalm 103:2-6

Of David.

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

 

Behind the music of Everlasting Arms

‘Everlasting Arms’ is the pilot song for the l’aparela album, a project experimenting with digital/electronic and acoustic sounds to play with the genre of Neo-Folk Rock Fusion.

I began the whole album project with Everlasting Arms by creating industrial thuds at Baker Street Studio (‘Studio B’ – AKA behind a computer), and putting this behind the acoustic folk elements I love – plucked acoustic guitar, some Japanese koto and of course my favourite, – the shakuhachi. (See also the making of l’aparela)

Everlasting Arms took the longest to create and even when I was so close to finishing it, I still knew that the percussion needed something. Ant then, the rhythms of Björk’s “Human Behaviour” influenced the placement of the staccato cello element. (Listen to Björk’s “Human Behaviour in the Music Lounge Festival of Fusion”).

Everlasting Arms can now be downloaded here or lounge members may download it for free in the free music corner