Silhouette of Man
Cracking
Cracking
Father showed me how to aim by narrowing one eye Suspicious of the clues the wind just changes how it flies His was the giant's bow the first that fell the caribou Mine was the child size but I could shoot it past the moon Crunching ice on the hull they promised us warm places Captain will get paid in full for six of us as cargo wages Museum gonna sleep us like a phantom in the basement Living statues while we're sick and laying dead from the pneumonia New York City raincoat don't fit right Shattered ground and sky, Meteorite I must bend without breaking Let it go the whole distance Cross the chasm while cracking Truth is when it falls on me We could die in peace and quiet if you move us to the farm I'm adopted as a wild child I found the secret room They split the flesh from the bone and bleach it for the study But I knock three times: Give Me, Back My, Father's Body Blankets at the funeral cover up the grief like a Screeeeeee-eeeeeeeeech My daddy woulda killed a man who laid a single hand Or stop me from returning him to rock piles and country men New York City raincoat don't fit right Shattered ground and sky, Meteorite I must bend without breaking… pull the string and point it Let it go the whole distance… may it reach the target Cross the chasm while cracking… let the arrow tell the Truth is when it falls on me Anchors up an empty man I sailed across the ocean Over frozen sunken ships the specters long forgotten Never got a burial he's warming in the underworld I learned to speak and learned to hunt in places that my father's from But that was seven years ago and now I swing my axe like a Screeeeeee-eeeeeeeeech Choppin wood in nowhere land a blade from giant iron rock And every log looks like a man who's blanketed in blizzard fog New York City raincoat don't fit right Shattered ground and sky, Meteorite I must bend without breaking… pull the string and point it Let it go the whole distance… may it reach the target Cross the chasm while cracking… let the arrow tell the Truth is when it falls...
Walk the World With Me
Footprints fading, as I’m walking away Our journey is one, but our path is not the same Snow drift speaking, as it points the way Aningaaq flickers, like a flame in the shade Path made living, on the edge of what is known Fruit is on the vine, and the waterfalls are warm Kept my promise, now my children are all grown Inuksuk gathers us, to places we come from …Traveler I know you …My dear one I see …My dear one I trust you …Walk the world with me Oh where our sea meets our air Oh my chosen kin I will greet you there With the last of my magic Son of my son, thank the beast who was torn Toast with the twin, of my old drinking horn Summers I could see you, in my spirit in my mind The green and the yellow, and the walrus in the sky Kicking at the fallen, to the beating heart of time Homeland shaping, like a changing ocean tide Oh where our sea meets our air Oh my chosen kin I will greet you there With the last of my magic
Whirlpool
Minerals in hillsides glinted so the War tanks emerge and train tracks are sinking In soft soil cleaving the Lapland ridges People fight people and burn the bridges They dam a river in the valley for a hydro electric Light a pipe at Point Zero in a tent to protest it The wild life dies in the land contested Power is displacing a clan subjected Off he, goes to, migration school without a guide Great big air ship comes to take my son Learning a new life, helicopter twirling I got half a mind to push one over Rows of towers block the corners Of pasture feeding and breeding grounds Give me coffee or booze to obstruct my route This is the permanent loss of my mountain song Now the whisper of my skis swish on permafrost Until old age degrades the wind farm blades They get choked in frost or blown up in air raids Stay put, herd moves, the traders come with a quota Dancer took a drink, too far getting thin Reindeer pulled into the whirlpool she is spinning The new grows old the old becomes now Wind keeps blowing where there's no one found Conquered by the monastery killed in the prison by the Spiral stone maze waits a million more days of Radioactive moss on ancient graves decayed these are Immortal mistakes and the seasonal change But I could slow pace to have a meal with you Impermanent me, Impermanent you In a mirror world beneath a White Sea Where we could be equal somehow Why, why are we enemies Circle the things we need and Afraid we won't get to keep them Tourist, on the land, my fathers walked And showed me where to move Green space replaced, metal in the mountain Big drill go into rock, kicking the dirt it goes Can't stop those Thens and Nows
Land of the Midnight Sun
I don't ever wanna give up
On the home I know
Where the sun will
kiss the ground for us
When it moves so slow
Have a little bit of courage
Have a little bit of patience
I will wait, overwinter,
where you want
I don't care, I don't care
How cold it gets
Find me, thaw me by the fire
Raise this frozen beast on your own
Keep me, teach me all that’s higher
Hide my claws and I will atone
Necklace
and a dark hand on my side
Know me
by the birthmark on my mind
They say all the little ones grow up
Get the envy of all around
Until they play too hard one day
Push the innocence down down down
I'll be your fisherman
And you can be my love
I will grow a thousand fold
Become a mountain
for the whole wide world
Find me, thaw me by the fire
Raise this frozen beast on your own
Momma tried so hard
to make my mind like yours
Momma tried so hard
to make my mind like yours
Keep me, teach me all that’s higher
Hide my claws and I will atone
Momma tried so hard
to make my mind like yours
Momma tried so hard
to make my mind like yours
Necklace
and a dark hand on my side
Know me
by the birthmark on my mind
Think Outside
Creep undercover while you're tracking on the tundra Keep up your eyes but not so high you get lost in the stars of your grandpa in the sky Oh my oh my oh my my my The mighty can be quiet And the quiet can be deadly And the threat can be near In the spaces open wide Strap on a rifle or tonight you might die Spin with the trigger look her in the eye When your neck raises on the back of your hair Behind you ten paces is a momma polar bear Better find a way to live another day Thinking outside, ready or not Will to survive, think without the box You can bet, there’s a threat, three two one, ready set I’m a camouflage, camouflage, camouflage Here I come Pull my kayak out to the edge of the shore Before the ice packs I can't stay anymore It's a dangerous trip she's a dangerous girl Singing catch me if you can and her legs are just a tail It's a tell-tale sign of slightly tall tales Tall men quake with every step they take but not too tall to drown in the lake Spirit of a bird if my strength should fail Highest eyes tell me where the mermaids can not follow Paddle paddle harder There's a wake where it's narrow Better find a way to live another day Ready or not ready ready ready ready Oh my my my Oh my Ready or not Because I Thought you were my kind I'm wounded Show up ready and I never let you do this Farthest island hear the whispers rehearsing Evil tupilak casting cursing Birth to the blood red lines On the ice no thicker than water When my sundown blends it orange I sleep alone but the memory is harder Can't avoid the hazardous warning Peril finds the ones who ignore it Better find a way to live another day Thinking outside, ready or not Will to survive think without the box Ready or not
Victor the Monster
Wh wh wh wh white death Wicked shaman says he's hunting An ogre who took a child Strange fellow stumbles Loose dogs running wild Hand stitch Tangled In the reigns of life and death Victor tells me in his dreams There's a cure for every end Strange howl rumbles Behind the white-out wind Hand stitch Tangled In the reigns of life and d d d death Can’t quite hold on Can’t quite hold on Master never named the creature Doctor never tamed it either Frost bit fingers beckoning beckoning beckoning Failed final reckoning What is this yet Never Land Undiscovered paradise Flightless coughing Peter Pan Fractured path or growler ice Hand stitch Tangled In the reigns of life and death Monster from the soul of earth Through the North West Passage hail Best of men was rotting first Winner goes the spoils Hand stitch Tangled In the reigns of life and death Can’t quite hold on Can’t quite hold on
Your Name is a Number
Hey you we'll call you mister We made a tax that can make you much richer Congrats seat at the table Give us an easement to make it all able Sign right here on the line Your culture your language and future is mine Move please so we can build pipes Your name is a number and land has a price No going back No motor sled Feverish pack All the dogs are dead Well boys this one looks thrush Found him half naked asleep in the bush Might be the vodka or whiskey Could be Diphtheria or Typhoid or TB Wake him Back to his labor We ran out of uses for corsets and sable Our law rackets for him War games of cowboys and robbers begin No going back No motor sled Feverish pack All the dogs are dead North slope slippery hope Stampede down hill for a baggie of gold Two giants muscle for power Nuclear tectonic ivory tower Distant Earliest Warning Don't stop the trample the turbines are churning Headaches Let's call it rabies License to auction or shoot will save babies No going back No motor sled Feverish pack All the dogs are dead
Throes
Little one learning to study them close Great grandma’s hands are strong and slow Watch the needle piercing below Lines on the chin of her big sister grown Sinew thread 40 mothers ago Dipped in the soot of the black lamp glow Dot by dot pausing the poke Sacred lines on an old spirit's home Last one hunted Last one sewn Can't stay under Swim with the throes So these need not be the Last of the last Last who will know The pains of the past remains crescendo Dot by dot, Dot dot dot by dot dot dot Ancestor agvik meant to give life Hunter lost aim and broke his knife Bowhead now he changed his mind Strike to the heart stead for the fight 100 years harpoon in his side Whale winces turns to the right Sleep without sounding breathe below tide The numbers recover the mouths the might Roar in the water Deep Deep Current Now she wears lines on sides of each cheek Also on thighs the baby will see Bracing for pain of a birth turned breech Echoes of bellows in a land kept free A roaming spirit the rest it seeks Left the waters to lay on the beach Countless tribes we must hear speak Not one noise but a voice for each Roar in the water Deep Deep Current Connecting the blood from one to the other
Whale Bones Ultima
Oh what are they feeding you Oh how are they bleeding you Skin is warm but my bones are dry Spend all of my time chasing dragon flies I’m just prayin for the winter to come Built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones Oh what are they feeding you Oh how are they bleeding you Skin is warm but my bones are dry Spend all of my time chasing dragon flies I’m just prayin for the winter to come Built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones I built my house out of whale bones I'm just prayin for the winter to come Bones are dry Bones are dry
Return of the Wanderer
There once was an epic And as it was told There blew a great gale That gave it a soul He sat as an elder A teacher of distance And when he shared shelter He'd tell of existence He spoke to younger stories and songs Who listened with care about the big Out-There A world of people and right and wrongs Of nature and man and joy and despair And then as they finished the last of their meal He told them to rest as a blizzard grew heavy He set out alone to hunt more seal And meet a new land that wasn't quite ready Me in my kitchen washing my pot Movement afar that caught my view I squinted to see that faint grey spot I opened my door as the harsh wind blew I welcomed him in a bit cautiously But we talked about dreams and had a few laughs He picked up his knife when he finished his tea And set out on an unmarked path Silhouette of man Silhouette of man The folk tales that live I ask their permission To speak them again Silhouette of man Kiviuq the legend Who visited my rock Where his map ends Is not where he stops Silhouette of man
Silhouette of Man (c. 2024)
Production
This concept album examines the cultural, social, and economic collisions that were the result of romanticized polar exploration in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The U.S., Norway, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia all had significant negative impacts on indigenous peoples, much of which is still felt in some form to this day.
Lyrical content on this album is wide in scope. Some lyrics tell of the tough realities of displacement and assimilation, some revive content from folktales, like Kunik the bear, and others empathize with people caught in the middle of everything from global powers fighting for strategy nuclear defense positions, to the local mad dash for natural resource acquisition, to the cultural clash of diet, the rights of dogs, language barriers, and idealogical impasses, to the hope of preservation found in perpetuating the practice of face tattoos.
Silhouette of Man is a product of both heart and research. It is genuine in its empathy and stops short of caricatures and stereotypes. While writing the album, Kern discovered a profound respect for the people groups who forged a way of life more than 100 years ago that would thrive on grit, ingenuity, self awareness, and compassion.
The debut track, Cracking, details the life of Minik Wallace, who was brought to the U.S. by Captain Peary along with a few other Inuit. Peary was on a conquest to discover the North Pole and secured funding through agreements with museums and social clubs of his day. This resulted in a dehumanizing of indigenous peoples which was amplified by media hysteria. Minik was just a child who got tangled up and orphaned between two cultures. You can read more on Minik's life in the book Give Me My Father's Body by Kenn Harper.
There is no one story that represents all who have been and still are effected. There are innumerable stories from so many places and people groups that it would take a lifetime to comprehend it all.
One of the goals of Silhouette of Man is not to act as the mouthpiece and speak for any one culture, but rather to introduce some realities to an audience that may have never considered them, and then be a simple pointer toward those who can then tell the stories better. See the map below and further reading.
Credits
All works in this album are written, composed, performed, produced, mixed, and mastered by Rich Kern.
Published and Distributed by Grandfather Paraducks, October 15th 2024
Publications
'Cracking' as poetry in The Miserere Review
Interactive Map
Reading
- The life of Minik Wallace:
Give Me My Father's Body by Kenn Harper - Erosion of traditional Sami way of life:
The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow by Elin Anna Labba - Revival of Inuit tatto Traditions:
Presentation by Holly Nordlum and Maya Jacobsen - Independent research on dog slaughters and more:
Qikiqtani Truth Commission - Travelogue along Arctic Circle:
Magnetic North by Sara Wheeler - Project Gutenberg:
Knud Rasmussen's preservation of folk tales - Travelogue of Northern regions:
Last Speaker of Bear by Lawrence Millman - Blog and info source:
arcticfocus.org - Nanny Ooyatohna House
Photos from Library of Congress
Society of Architectural Historians - Alta dam protest
Global Nonviolent Action Database - Northwest passage
Scott Polar Research Institute via thenorthwestpassage.info
Nasa - Northeast passage
NSDIC - Nuclear Waste at Novaya Zemlya
Nuclear-Risks.org