A mixture of Murder Ballads, Songs from a Room and Hunky Dory, Art Schop's latest album is inspired by the lives and works of Will Oldham, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Alberto Giacometti, Richard Wagner, Don Carlo Gesualdo, Michelangelo, and Sappho, with adaptations of songs by Jacques Brel and Henry Purcell.

The Wolfswork song cycle weaves current and ancient threads of history into a philosophical fabric held taut by the tensions of mortality and immortality.

Wolfswork - Art Schop

from the Greek . Lycurgus, apocryphal founder of the ancient city state, Sparta; now defunct . themes . permanence, impermanence, the inevitable repetition of hope, striving, stumbling, failing, and death . we strive because we are human . we fail because we are human . we continue because continuance is immortal

1. begun

squirrel on roof . impenetrable . romney . winehouse . brain science

he lies on roof black tar he lies . in sun his eyes his eyes in sun . begun it is begun . her thought it speaks in colored peaks . in colored peaks she speaks . her eyes they rest, her being done . he waits in shade in shade he waits in stone his eyes his eyes in stone . begun he is begun . her mind it speaks in colored bands . in colored bands it speaks . her hands they rest, her being done

2. the decision

auster boycotts Turkey . erdogan shrugs . disgust . self-impasse

so, come, don't come . you won't be missed . you think I'll sink without you alone, I wash my hands . in winter glaze . the years asunder . for all the nights when I mis-stepped . as mothers wept for my invention . for all the days I wasted; gone, into oblivion . so, come, don't come . you won't be missed

3. turmoil

greek debt crisis . papandreou . Lycurgus of Sparta . ancient
Greece: inequality . tension between wealthy and the 99%
bertrand russell: Lycurgus is a mythical person his name meaning
'he who brings into being the works of a wolf'
(Gr. Lykos = wolf, ergon = work) . indian nude models in danger

Lycurgus rest . don't raise your weary head . let out that sigh . your work is done . Lycurgus rest . let close those hooded eyes . don't stir your breath . your work is done . her veil she lifts . in modest shifts . the murmur of her skin revealed . Lycurgus howl, no passing now set free those hands . your work is done

4. regret

mark fields, 23 years at Ford, future CEO . what substance in success

I will live long . faith will be my dignity . hope my fast immunity . to all that comes . I will live well . with love my table bountiful . in joy my body whole and strong . no poison feared . you will regret these words . you will forget these words . in the end . and when I die . I'll sigh so for a life replent . my bounty rightly spent . in progress' name

5. it’s done

strauss kahn, escaped prosecution, now under
investigation re prostitution ring . chris brown back with rhianna
(wedding cake) on rudd: ‘his enemy is anyone who stands in his way’

already free the sun has trodden down the leaves . inexplicable it labors through the day . what are you now that I have shook you from my heart . another wanting bead that urges me to cling . it's done, it's done, but fuck me if it's only just begun . it's done, it's done; it's only begun . have I never felt so able to unload you . never felt so needful of your trade . safe in my mind I turn the thought that I've become . I turn the thought that's safe when in my mind