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We Have Tigers- Inga Liljestrom and Michael Lira

by Inga Liljeström

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Lute FP
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Lute FP This is a true work of art. I don't know if I will find it in constant rotation, but I think it is so good for what it is that I bought the signed CD instead of the cheaper download because I wanted to pay my respect to the artists.

Sweet, sensual, dark vocals with a sort of poppy, folk-rocky Americana backdrop. They say there's an Ennio Morricone nod in the songwriting, and I definitely hear it. This is a truly artistic piece of genius, I just have to be in the mood 'cuz it's very mellow.
Hassles
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Hassles This is fresh as summer rain at midnight, unpredictable & just as magical.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    16 page collage artwork booklet by Inga. 6 page digipack.

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1.
2.
Leaves 04:31
Leaves that have known The pressure of your feet Your weight and your women Your laughter my sweet Leaves that have blown Across your beautiful face And undressed you like winter And you, you full of grace When you and I are finally no one The weight from our hallowed bones We will run, we will run When you and I are finally no- one The weight from our hallowed bones We will run, we will run Darling, I remember You in your sunday best Your old car yard Our rusted hearts Tin cans blowing a din In the tatters of my autumn dress How in your arms i was blessed In a song that only knew us Only knew the notes of us
3.
In The Pines 03:37
4.
I shout it to the stars I sing blind And the wound in my heart Cause the wind to cry In the darkest night I will be lost I'll drink her wine At the foot of her mountain Where you lie You with a heart like mine You whose heart would beat like mine I challenge you to love I challenge you to come now For the devil tries to tempt you away But my widowers will Is you'll stay And how the dogs bark and howl here at night You, you would be smiling They lament for you And you whose blood is dark like mine You slept at the foot of her mountain And drank her wine I challenge to stay with me I challenge the air around you I suck the life from it For it's you Who haunts me here For the devil Tries to tempt me to stray But the widowers will is to stay You who sang with a heart Like mine I'm buried here with you
5.
This is all I've known This is all that is How could you love me With words like that It's the kill, it's the bloodstain It's the kill, it's the bloodstain Words with no mouth And you touch with no meaning With sure footedness I'll crack the heart of him Beautifully human I'm crying out for him now I thought I'd lost all meaning I'm crying out for him now I'm crying out It's the kill It's the bloodstain It's the kill It's the bloodstain It's the way he says my name Over and over and over again It's the kill It's the bloodstain It's the kill It's the bloodstain It's the way he says my name Over and over and over again
6.
Coo-Coo 03:58
7.
8.
9.
Horses 04:29
Where have I gone without the one I let myself go You around a part defined And now i'm lined my face erased It wasn't time It wasn't time we could have spent And leave without a trace One day I'd like to be with you The sad man The sad man Ride our ponies on the wind again We're riding our ponies on the wind again Ride our ponies on the wind again We're riding our ponies on the wind again Bring your wild horses home to me You're the drunkard in a storm Bring your wild horses home Bring your wild horses home to me You're the drunkard in a storm Bring your wild horses home Horses home Horses home Bring your horses home The boy that made me want to cry And it wasn't out of sadness The boy that made me want to die And it wasn't a car crash or anything like it He made me feel alive He made me feel alive Ride our ponies on the wind again We're riding our ponies on the wind again Ride our ponies on the wind again We're riding our ponies on the wind again Bring your wild horses home to me You're the drunkard in a storm Bring your wild horses home Bring your wild horses home to me You're the drunkard in a storm Bring your wild horses home Horses home Bring your horses home
10.
The smell of fire on his clothes I'm wearing them to carry him home His high draped pants and shoes so worn Oh my lover from me has gone He was my man of the wandering eye Gave me love on the bye-and-bye Only my pretty heart he took My autumn man of ash and smoke Oh my man of the wandering eye Took my love till I was dry Left at night and when I woke Naught was left but ash and smoke He had a lover for all the world to see He had a lover who took his love from me Her ribbons wild her hair so free On her finger gold glistenin' There was a fire in the hills tonight And this fire burnt everything in sight I lit a match, I lit it bright I touched the tinder watched it light Gold glistenin' Five young men come looking for me They're at my door, shotgun's ready The hill's alight, town people woke They found dead my man Of ash and smoke The scaffold's high, the shadows long Bury me deep for my man is gone My shroud be ash, embers my ring Hell has fires Gold glistening The smell of fire on his clothes I'm wearing them to carry him home his high draped pants Shoes so worn Oh my lover from me has gone
11.
Tea To Boil 03:01
Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil Water's always boiling Says my daddy with a grin Water's always boiling Waiting for the tea to boil Tea leaves fresh or you will spoil All your efforts all your toil I'll read the leaves your fate i'll spin So many beautiful women Ginger for a tired throat Honey for the warmest coat Add a pod of cardamom Soon the heart will be mending Hold this cup like it's your last All your troubles that you clasp Tell me all that isn't said And we'll put all this to bed Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil Waiting for the tea to boil
12.
Girl Of Fire 05:22
The sun would paw your back Like ravenous dogs Your back where I'd etched our names my love We were overgrown with weeds and spinifex Lets burn it all down Is what you said The crows would stir in the morning light And you'd come home Holiest of sights I cut out my heart each night for you And by morning it grows back anew For I am your girl of fire Of fire, of fire For I am your girl of Fire Of fire, of fire And you are my boy Of tinder and sticks My last fire Will be with you my love My last desire Will burn with you my love There are diamonds on her thighs There is fire is his eyes For I am your girl of fire Of fire, of fire For I am your girl of Fire Of fire, of fire For I am your girl of Fire And you are my boy Of tinder and sticks

about

Devastatingly dark and beautiful orchestral ballads with a salute to the great Ennio Morricone, a love of old western film soundtracks set in the desert terrain of dust, heat and storms.

4 stars- "From my first moments with this album, looking at the cover art and then with the opening bars, I instantly had flashbacks to 2014’s smash hit television show True Detective. We Have Tigers could very easily have been used as the soundtrack to that wonderfully dark and mesmerising show. With understated but impactful use of instrumentation to set this brooding but also beautifully intriguing atmosphere, the vocals here truly stand out as the focal point. A unique use of non-traditional musical elements such as rain and storm sounds – alongside guitars, double bass, clarinet, flute, banjo and percussion elements – makes this album captivating throughout, and one that beckons multiple play throughs." (Jamie Apps, City Hub, Australia)

Top 15 albums of the year- "In the beautiful trip, here is the most "visual" Disc this year, audio description of locality, wind and rain, a still road movie, a wide passage from a plain to an emotional feeling river, a journey of a mountain wellness to a venomous sky. Inga and her sidekick Michael Lira weave movies without film of bright and strange spaces. Therefore an album to move without leaving." (translated from French, Guillaume Mazel, A Decouvrir Absolument, France)

"I've been listening to Inga Liljestrom's work for around 20 years. And it has never been influenced by the marketplace. She has always been of another place, and her latest work on 'We Have Tigers' is, again, not looking to place in the space trends. Having said that, her work and styles have changed over time, they have become even less bound by what I thought was a genre her voice could sit in. Instead, and it really shows on some of the covers on this album, that Inga has an ability to remake songs. To put them into a place that makes them sounds as though they always should have been interpreted that way. And it is this ability to live outside the realm of popularist that makes her music so strong. This album doesn't sound of the now, but more like elements of the part and the future. All the while this is achieved without sounding confused or out of place. Simply a beautiful album that could be heard as dark and fragile, but equally it could be heard as strong and joyful. I don't give stars, but Liljestrom is one and so is the new album." (Tim Richie, Radio National, Australia)

"...an Australian woman whose name comes from a Nordic legend - she sings with the power of a Celt & the fragility of a porcelain Japanese with the heart of a tired Harlem together/combined with a sleepless Paris night"
(Guillaume Mazel, Le Cargo, France)

"...the warm & colorful voice of Inga Liljestrom brings instantly a mysterious & captivating signature/hallmark to the compositions/songs but even more it is the arrangements that draw the nail a bit deeper into the melodies that are already so addictive..."(fred Delforge, Zicazine, France)

"12 tracks combining traditional and original songs forming a dark soundscape of beauty and quiet danger. Those familiar with Inga’s previous solo albums will need no introduction to her spellbinding and hypnotic vocals, but Michael Lira’s eclectic sound palette also makes its presence immediately felt. In The Pines..perfectly captures the peace and unspoken chilling promise of the lyrics. …'Coo-Coo' features lovely fluid Nick Drake arpeggios, or ‘Tea To Boil’ which opens with banjo and takes us straight to some Appalachian campfire….’When I was A Young Girl’ features Inga singing with beautiful effect to nothing but a backdrop of rain and thunder. It has to be said though, that Lira has the knack of throwing everything into the mix without ever ruining the broth, besides which Liljestrom’s sensual melodies have always benefited from cinematic accompaniment. The album’s other originals are strong, with ‘Horses’ (‘bring your wild horses home’) expanding and contracting from solitary horse to full-blown musical opus, behinds Inga’s breathy refain of ‘he made me feel so alive!’. ‘Ah n Smoke’, though not a traditional folk tune, could easily pass for one, with a lilting ‘Scarborough Fair’ like melody and evocative lyrics. And final track “Girl Of Fire’ (‘I cut out my hear each night of you’) nicely encapsulates the spirit of the record, building into s slow burn climax and leaving you with the feeling that you’ve just woken from some vivid and sadly nostalgic dream. For this album is perhaps sonically as close to walking in a dream as one can get; ethereal, moving at a mostly funereal pace, it drifts in and out of your psyche like the echo of a lost romance which, while you were asleep, somebody was making a movie about. More haunting with every listen." (Val Gray, Rhythm Magazine, Australia)

'Beautiful simply beautiful! I refuse to see and tell you the background of the two artists, their collaborations, their interventions and many other things, there is no interest in my mind to...what interests me most is that they have had the good idea to meet, the good idea to listen, to complement and thus offer this perfect alchemy. This disc is of infinite delicacy, silky harmonies, fine and elegant orchestrations in which each note is discreetly advanced for singing, Inga could use her sighs, her tremolos and words in weightlessness. It is obvious that here we approach the concept of 'great music', those related by the charm and make you sad for a moment. Another notion, that of time, minutes and seconds tick sparingly, time seems suspended, appeasement is total, almost mystical. But who said appeasement in tone, in the atmosphere can also be said of the thoughts that sail at random. 'We Have Tigers' offers an extensive eye, they can serve for introspection, questioning, taking account of its own sensations, letting go or not, everyone feels the need and want to be alone face him/herself, almost in religious silence. 'Leaves',' Finally We Rest ', 'Coo-Coo ', and' Bury me Beneath the Willow "and are broken down, the softness of pearls, sometimes youthful purity. I would add my small list, a magnificent 'When I Was A Young Girl' á capella, very wet/ rainy indeed but terribly bewitching. 'Horses' and 'Ash n Smoke' also deserves absolute silence. All other parcels of happiness propose 'We Have Tigers' are in the same spirit, the same poetry, the same imagination, it's a great record, a very large disc, the perfect meeting, the silky melancholy, tremor, Whisper of each note, each new instrument- wind, strings, great!' (Yan Kerforn, fanzine Cafzic, France)

The immaculate creation that is " We Have Tigers" by Inga Liljestrom and Mike Lira is so completely transporting , I found all my senses were consumed. I am carried to beautiful and slightly twisted isolation. I smell the worn and creaking leather of a saddle .
I Have the sensory warmth of a quiet crackling fire under star filled sky.
Dirt under foot and taste the sweet slow burn of whiskey at the back of my throat.
A sensory delight of exquisite landscape and pain .
Inga's vocal along with the arrangements is absolute purity .
This albums journey is so convincing I am unsure if I want to reach my destination but instead stay in this precious and toilsome scene . (Scott Matthew, singer/ songwriter NY)

credits

released August 25, 2015

Inga Liljestrom- lyrics and composer of track 2, 9, 11, 12
Inga and Michael lira composed track 4
Inga and Fran Cole composed track 10
Inga, Bob Scott and Mike Wells composed track 5.
All instruments played and arranged by Michael Lira.
All vocals and nylon string guitar by Inga Liljestrom.
Banjo on Tea To Boil by Dave Weir.
Violin on Girl Of Fire by Veronique Serret.

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about

Inga Liljeström Melbourne, Australia

I am an Australian/Finnish composer, vocalist and performer. I've also begun to experiment with film, collage, music for installations and an iPhone app, and have recently collaborated with universities in Australia and Finland in music and performance art.

Currently based in the UK.

Banner photography by Sarah Delaney. Profile image painted by Esmeralda Raven Aponte
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