Like a soundtrack to Coleridge’s poem The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner, this epic movement forms the dark centre
to the album. A hypnotic piano melody, and otherworldly
vocals, swell, loom and envelope, like a terrible storm at sea.

– Story –
Beneath the inky depths of Sunda Strait rests his ship: the
HMAS Perth. A bundle of Arthur’s dearest possessions and
letters, afloat in a cabin locker: a silent, watery grave for Mirla’s
gentle words.

Above the howling winds and booming waves a sole Swallow
wings around a bobbing group of sailors, as they hold onto
salvation.

Whispered on feathered wings and on winds of salty spray
comes a hypnotic and meditative piano, rising, then falling, in
time to the awful oil-black swelling of the sea.

And in her room Mirla wakes from her nightmares, the wind and
rain at her window, sweat upon her brow, a skittering thump in
her breast, and she swears she can hear the calling of her name.

– Conversation Notes –
I wanted a central piece to express the dire situation: Arthur
fights a physical battle for survival; Mirla fights the mental
anguish of not knowing Arthur’s fate and simply waiting.

I was interested in writing a musical expression of an ocean
storm, given its use in art as a metaphor for the tempestuous
nature of love and / or as a force for destruction.

I also understood that as much as the ocean was a barrier
between them, they also linked Mirla to Arthur. I wondered at
their letters (their words and love), moving back and forth on
winds and waves.

There’s the whole fascinating cultural background of salty
sailors and nautical stories, of ghosts and strange creatures,
sirens and mermaids. I added the ghostly female vocals to
express Mirla’s calling out to Arthur in the storm.