Apple Seed is a tribute to the little Iberian village where I was born. I remember this haunting song being sung by my aunt Chitas, who is now renown posthumously as a national Bard from my own village. I never knew the words, so I have honoured the village and its icon through my own. The drum that is played throughout is a traditional one found only in that little pocket of the world, called an Adufe. It is a square frame drum, distinguished from other frame drums because it is completely covered, with shells suspended within on twine, and a handful of native soil thrown inside.
This version of Apple Seed is a live recording that was taken at the Smiling Buddha in Toronto, October 2011.
There's a castle silhouetted in an antic light.
Can you see it under the silver canopy of night?
Even though its walls are crumbled in arcana,
It's a seed within the apple of nostalgia.
within the apple
There's a castle atop the mountain where I was born.
From that vista you can see olive trees and distant storms.
There, the devils sit on the clouds, spinning the dust below,
And the angels shoot flaming apples, their trails aglow.
shoot flaming apples
There's a castle: ancestral footmen guarding well their posts.
Generations: six hundred years living amid their ghosts.
I am named Ricardo Manuel Ramos Costa.
Like the apple, I fell here from Penha Garcia.
eu venho da Penha Garcia
credits
from The Wychwood Sessions,
released August 9, 2012
The melody derives from a traditional Portuguese song called Nossa Senhora d'Azenha. Words and arrangement by Rikki LaCoste. Vocals and adufe, Rikki LaCoste. Harmonies and guitar, Jenny Robert. Recorded by Jenny Robert at the Smiling Buddha in Toronto, October 2011, and engineered and edited by Rikki LaCoste at Super Moon Studio.
There is a YouTube video of Apple Seed that you can watch. The version of the song that appears on the following video comes from the studio version, found on the Panthea album "From The Fountain Of Lethe."
The song was arranged by Rikki LaCoste, and the lyrics were written by Rikki LaCoste. However, it is by no means an original piece. It is a very old traditional song sung in that region of Portugal. Apple Seed is derived from the song, "Nossa Senhora Da Azenha." I heard it sung as a child by my late cousin, and national heritage treasure, Tia ("aunt") Catarina Chitas. Apple Seed is as much an homage to her, as it is to the place of our origins and birth, Penha Garcia.
You can watch and listen to the original Nossa Senhora Da Azenha, sung by Ti Chitas herself, in the following YouTube video, as captured and rendered digitally for posterity:
Across these songs, Ethiopian jazz, African psychedelic rock and funk, Sudanese dance rhythms, and Tuaregi grooves mingle with the jazz and folk traditions of the Americas. Bandcamp Album of the Day Mar 19, 2019
