This is a song I wrote in 2020. I released a studio recording with three-part vocals and a variety of different drone instruments on my EP "Invisible Threads" in 2021, which you can hear and download at https://helenbell.bandcamp.com/album/invisible-threads .

This video is a slightly different arrangement, with just two vocals and two violas (whatever you call the viola equiavalent of "fiddlesinging", which I suppose is "violasinging"...?)

Lyrics:

Is the day over or is it beginning? Bright underwing, bright underwing Among the old stones given back to the moss And a memory of rain in a distant park Sending our smudges and chimes to each other Bright underwing, bright underwing You send me back parts of myself that I’d lost Bright underwing and a song in the dark

And how dare we take joy in a low sun brightening feathers As if ravages and cataclysms might be disowned? But while we still breathe, and while we rage and while we grieve We must hold these things close against our bones

The colour of eels paints the sky by the water Bright underwing, bright underwing Down in the kelp forest strange currents pervade And now we know time can’t be taken by force We are all growing in sparks from each other Bright underwing, bright underwing You send me back parts of the world I mislaid Bright underwing and the scent of the gorse

Round comes the dawn chorus too soon after sleeping Bright underwing, bright underwing Then it’s back to the bats in the last evening glow Now the clock is just songs trailing out of the sky And oh no we shall not get out of the river Bright underwing, bright underwing The fish are insisting we owe them our toes Bright underwing and a sweep of high cries