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A Hunger for Peace | A Fundraiser for Ukraine

by Escape the Clouds

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1.
First Light 03:56
Verse 1 Particles suspended in endlessness coalesce, compress, driven to ignition. Gravity balanced with fusion creates illumination, boundless energy in motion. Clouds swirl, condense into worlds and colors hurled into orbits that curl, ‘round a small spark, a fragile ark embraced in a galactic arm’s twirl. Time and chance become elements, the letters of a sentence, on sentience, a blur of words uniting a grand tale of cosmic currents. Soon, beneath the night, creatures stand upright, reign in the dark with fire bright, wary of what lies in the unknown fringes beyond the edges of the light. Verse 2 Differences imagined create callousness in excess, an abscess, absent of cognition. Uncertainty mixed with suspicion creates misinformation, breeding false conclusions. Hate swells, a populace unwell, threatened with hell by those who sell their interpretation of how their nation and its aspirations are divinely compelled. Fire and stone become implements, weapons of reverence, of vengeance, in the names of gods now wielded with building violence. / trod upon Soon, by forge’s flames, bows and swords give way, guns and cannons adding to the fray, the future growing faint in a war of wrongs growing ever darker beneath the light of day. Chorus Our eras pass like moments beneath its constant presence. Around it, we revolve. Around it, we evolve. Always present, its incandescence Reveals our darkest flaws. Bridge Our petty wars can’t be seen from afar.... Fighting over one speck among trillions of stars. All this brilliance, now used to tear the world apart All that could have been, now just splinters and shards. Verse 3 By the building light of burning books, histories are erased word by word. Lessons learned to ash are turned. Only the suffering of the future can be heard. As the fires wane, those who remain cast blame, and the cycle begins once again. If only we could find a break in the clouds before we meet another end.... Chorus
2.
Verse 1 The old cargo ship groans beneath the weight of a hundred refugees and their war-torn souls. Huddling together deep inside its cold belly, my little one, we couldn't be more alone. My battle is lost, but our war could still be won, if I can get you to safety without coming undone. In my ears the gunfire still rings. Close your eyes and dream of better things. Chorus You can go to sleep. I'll be here while you dream, here among the clouds, my sweet little darling You can go to sleep. I'll be here while you dream, here among the clouds, my sweet little darling Verse 2 Between towers of smoke we climb with the eagles, riding the heat from the fires below. Someday you'll be old enough to understand why we can never return to our home. Chorus Bridge We are the dirt beneath elephants' feet, trampled beneath ambitious deceit. Our house bombed to dust in the dead of night. I pulled you from the ashes by lantern light. The longer you rest, the longer I can keep you from asking where mother now sleeps. She's buried in the wreckage of our old life, but in you she'll always be at my side. She's in your black curls and your brown eyes, the point of your chin and that disarming smile. You're all I have left of her, the best of us both. In you lies our future, what's left of my hope. Chorus x2
3.
Verse 1 His hands once worked a mine in the lowlands. They now clutch the scarred stock of a loaded bolt-action. Twenty-six year old eyes that have seen a hundred men die Can’t blink away the horrors he’s seen on the line. The artillery brackets the trenchlines around him. Cries of gas and fire can’t pierce the ring of ears deafened. He volunteered on a promise that it would all mean something And still he clings to that hope even as the Earth’s trembling. Chorus So we stand! (So we fall….) For a nation that calls us to its defense. (For the fortunes and hubris of prideful old men) So we fight! (So we die….) To shield our families from the oncoming dark. (For doddering, lying fools wasting our lives on their lark) Verse 2 At 4pm, the guns cease their bombardment And out of the smoke storm hordes of armed men. With his fellows he sights and fires as true as he can. Aiming to hold to the very last man. Shrapnel and blood spatter the sandbags around him. Flamethrowers leave bones and uniforms smoldering. Fixed bayonets run through broken men’s hearts As their line bends and cracks and crumbles apart. Chorus Verse 3 They need help but there’s no one coming. The colonel in the rear must be warned what’s in the offing. The soldier volunteers to carry a message in hand Back across the hellscape of no man’s land. He sets off at a run, soft hat pulled low. The lip of the second trench seems a distant stone’s throw. Bullets spray mud and whip past his ears. But in his heart is a courage that stamps down his fear. Chorus Verse 4 He was found half-buried and shattered in a crater. Arm upstretched, a desperate message in his fingers They’ll never find the rest of his poor dear friends All boys from a town whose best hopes met their ends. One life or a dozen or a hundred meant nothing To a war burning through such millions like kindling. While a crumpled slip of paper was never received His loss was heard clearly by his bereaved. Soon tired empires collapsed and the guns grew subdued. In front of his old mine his town raised a statue. They remembered his valor but too soon forgot The true reasons this great war had on this world been wrought.
4.
Verse 1 11:35 in the morning and you're walking to the train. The paper says it's just another day but the air doesn't smell the same. A benevolent voice echoes across the square, echoing benevolent lies... As uniformed men wash down the streets where the voice of freedom died. Chorus You stand for what you believe in. You stand for what you love. You stand for those who've had enough. Verse 2 The Earth shakes beneath the thunder of approaching wheels. You wonder how a people can stand when they've been only taught to kneel. You hold your ground and face their armor and their smoking guns. No one will ever know your name, but you're the voice of everyone. Chorus x 2 Bridge x 2 One single light in the shadow of aggression. One voice of reason. One little revolution. Chorus x 2

about

All proceeds will go to Chef José Andrés' World Central Kitchen (WCK.org) who are working to feed the refugees fleeing into Ukraine's neighboring countries.

In support of Ukrainian refugees, Escape the Clouds is releasing a new compilation of his antiwar songs, including two never-before-released tracks off his upcoming fourth album, First Light. The album tells a story of war, love, and survival, and is currently in production.

"First Light" | NEW. There has been only one constant spectator overseeing all of humanity and the violence of which it has shown itself capable: the sun.

"Refugee Lullaby" | NEW. A father flees to safety with his young daughter, escaping their destroyed city on a refugee airship.

"One Life (A Story of the Great War)" | Tells the true story of a fallen soldier from World War I, and the hubris that led to his fate.

"Little Revolutions (Tank Man Version") | Inspired by the real-life Tank Man of Tiananmen Square, and is just as relevant today, as unarmed Ukrainian people stand in the face of Russian tanks.

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released March 4, 2022

Music, Production, and Lyrics by Mark Rossmore
Copyright 2022 Mark Rossmore

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Escape the Clouds Fort Myers, Florida

Escape the Clouds crafts stories through both music and words, creating vivid, character-driven steampunk music. For more information about this and other work, please visit:

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