"Isobel" is a song by Icelandic singer Björk. It was released as the second single from her 1995 album Post. The lyrics describe a primitive girl who seems to be a personification of Mother Nature, and who tries to warn the technological world of its potential dangers. The music is underscored by lush strings, electronic beats, and a cinematic, orchestral introduction that eventually fades into a jungle influenced beat. The song was rumored to have been inspired by the piece "The Wonderful Widow of 18 Springs" by John Cage.
Björk has stated that a track on Homogenic, "Bachelorette", is a continuation of "Isobel". In an interview with Paper in September 1997, Björk explains, "So Isobel decides to return to the city and to take a train, like in the 30's, in South America somewhere. She decides to confront love with love and confronts the cowards that don't have the guts to fall in love with love. So you see - it's like Isobel has returned." Björk's other songs "Human Behaviour", "Alarm Call", and "Wanderlust" are also believed[by whom?] to be part of the "Isobel cycle".[citation needed]
Isobel Gowdie was a Scottish woman who was tried for witchcraft in 1662. Her detailed confession, apparently achieved without the use of torture, offers one of the most detailed looks at European witchcraft folklore at the end of the era of witch-hunts.
A young housewife living at Auldearn, Highland, Scotland, her confession painted a wild word-picture about the deeds of her coven. They were claimed to have the ability to transform themselves into animals; to turn into a hare, she would say:
(sych: such; meickle: great)
To change back, she would say:
She allegedly was entertained by the Queen of the Fairies, also known as the Queen of Elphame, in her home "under the hills".
It is unclear whether Gowdie's confession is the result of psychosis, whether she had fallen under suspicion of witchcraft and sought leniency by confessing, or was she simply much smarter than her inquisitors. It is also unclear whether there was some truth to her remarkable confessions. Her confession was not consistent with the folklore and records of the trials of witches, and it was more detailed than most. There is no record of her being executed.
James MacMillan CBE (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.
MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977.
He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Rita McAllister, and at Durham University with John Casken, gaining a PhD in 1987. He was a music lecturer at the University of Manchester from 1986-1988. After his studies, MacMillan returned to Scotland, composing prolifically, and becoming Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, often working on education projects.
He came to the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990. Isobel Gowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in 17th century Scotland. According to the composer, "the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life".
The work's international acclaim spurred more high-profile commissions, including a percussion concerto for fellow Scot Evelyn Glennie, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel. It was premiered in 1992 and has become MacMillan's most performed work. He was also asked by Mstislav Rostropovich to compose a cello concerto, which was premiered by Rostropovich himself in 1997.
Isobel Campbell (born on 27 April 1976 in Glasgow) is a Scottish singer, cellist and composer in the indie and rock genres.
Campbell was a member of Belle & Sebastian from their formation in Glasgow in 1996 until 2002, when she departed the band for personal reasons. She played cello and keyboards with the band, and sang backing vocals. She also took lead vocals on a few songs from the band, and co-wrote their top-20 UK single "Legal Man".
Her band The Gentle Waves released its first album on Jeepster Records, titled The Green Fields of Foreverland, in 1999. The second Gentle Waves record, Swansong For You came out one year later. In 2002, she collaborated with Scottish jazz musician Bill Wells on a collection of Billie Holiday songs, released by Creeping Bent.
In 2003, Campbell released Amorino, her first solo album under her own name. Bill Wells was featured here again, along with other jazz musicians.
Her next LP, Ballad of the Broken Seas, a collaborative album with former Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age singer Mark Lanegan, was released in March 2006. For this record she received a Mercury Music Prize nomination. She toured the UK, United States and Canada to promote the album. Her third solo album, Milkwhite Sheets, was released in November 2006 and continued the folk-based approach of Ballad of the Broken Seas.
Mark Lanegan (born November 25, 1964) is an American alternative rock musician and singer-songwriter. Born and raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Lanegan began his musical career in 1985, forming the grunge band Screaming Trees with Gary Lee Conner, Van Conner and Mark Pickerel. During his time in the band, Lanegan also started a low-key solo career and released his first solo studio album, The Winding Sheet, in 1990. Since 1990, he has released a further six studio albums and has received critical recognition and moderate commercial success.
Lanegan has also collaborated with various artists and bands throughout his career. Following the dissolution of The Screaming Trees in 2000, he became a member of Queens of the Stone Age and is featured on three of the band's albums—Rated R (2000), Songs for the Deaf (2002) and Lullabies to Paralyze (2005). Lanegan also formed The Gutter Twins with Greg Dulli in 2003, released three collaboration albums with former Belle and Sebastian singer Isobel Campbell, and contributed to releases by Melissa Auf der Maur, Martina Topley Bird, Creature with the Atom Brain, Bomb the Bass, Soulsavers and Mad Season.
Plot
Shane is a getaway driver. Running a big hit on a Liverpool bank, rather than split the cash with the mob, he puts together his own team to rob the bank robbers. Holed up with three strangers in a deserted house on the Isle of Man for 24 hours while they wait for fake identity documents to skip the country and create new lives, and with £1 million sat in a safe that can't be opened unless they all enter their own secret digits, events take a turn for the worse when a stranger suddenly appears on the doorstep...
Is there no honour among thieves?
Don't Say Rat...
Plot
A drunken gangster lands a job with an out of town shady business man to remove a woman from his property. The gangster gets drunk and removes the wrong woman. The woman he grabs happens to be a freshly overdosed dead head who's vulnerability and brisk travel through hell has invited the devil into her home. After she has sold her soul she realizes it was a mistake so she tries to drive the devil out,but only makes matter worse when the devil casts a spell on her. She must kill to stay out of hell. She finds a floozy to kill 'bad people' for her since she is not the murderous type.
Plot
A young man notices imposing figures from his dreams invading his everyday experiences in the real world.
Plot
Between dusk and dawn, Jack and Isobel's relationship is pulled apart by past infidelities and a drunken encounter with an alluring siren. In a surreal night-scape of darkness and fire, Jack struggles with his moral conscience, jealously and desire.
Plot
Inner Circle is a thriller drama about love, fear and mortality. When her biological mother commits suicide, Isobel suspects foul play, that her mother was in fact murdered, by one of the young artists she gave a home to on her remote farm property. With the help of a policeman who wants to do the right thing and two mysterious business men offering a unique investment for her mother's fortune, Isobel will do whatever it takes to get to the truth.
Plot
In the twilight of the age of chivalry, King Arthur is dead. Queen Guinevere and her companions must flee the wrath of Mordred. As they make their escape from Camelot, they face betrayal and revenge. On the field of battle, they learn the true meaning of sacrifice and honor. This is a tale of hard steel, sharp women, fast horses, and a bloodthirsty werewolf.
Plot
A rather loose adaptation of the P. D. James novel. Cordelia Gray, the survivor of a partnership in a detective agency, is asked by the assistant of James Calendar to investigate the suicide of his son, Mark. About the same age as Mark, Cordelia is resourceful in her investigation, but smitten with the dead son and becomes obsessed with his memory and his increasingly suspicious death. She interviews his friend, Andrew, and his girlfriend, Isobel. She is also interested in James Calendar's assistant, Elizabeth Leaming, who seems to have a more than natural interest in Mark. She is thrown down an abandoned well and later chases her assailant, Andrew...
Keywords: accident, accidental-death, based-on-novel, blood, country-house, cross-dressing, death, death-of-son, detective, female-detective
in a forrest pitch-dark
glowed the tiniest spark
it burst into flame
like me
like me
my name isobel
married to myself
my love isobel
living by herself
in a heart full of dust
lives a creature called lust
it surprises and scares
like me
like me
my name isobel
married to myself
my love isobel
living by herself
when she does it she means to
moth delivers her message
unexplaind on your collar
crawling in silence
a simple excuse
nana na nana
nana na nana
in a tower of steel
nature forges a deal
to raise wonderful hell
like me
like me
my name isobel
married to myself
my love isobel
living by herself
when she does it she means to
moth delivers her message
unexplaind on your collar
crawling in silence
a simple excuse
nana na nana
nana na nana
nana na nana
I thought it was funny when you missed the train
When I rang you at home they said you had left yesterday
I thought it was strange when your car was found
By the tree in Ennis where we used to hang around
Dear Isobel
I hope you?re well and what you?ve done is right
Oh, it?s been such hell
I wish you well, I hope you're safe tonight
It?s been a long day coming and long will it last
When it?s last day leaving, I?m helping it pass
By loving you more
And who he would become, all the things he?d have done?
Would he have loved you and not let you down?
And would he be stronger than his father?
Don?t punish yourself, leave it well alone
Dear Isobel
I hope you?re well and what you?ve done is right
Oh, it?s been such hell
I wish you well, I hope you're safe tonight
It?s been a long day coming and long will it last
When it?s last day leaving, I?m helping it pass
By loving you more
It?s been a long day coming and long will it last
When it?s last day leaving, I?m helping it pass
Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel, by Isobel,
Oh, nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
She's my rose, my asphodel, my demoiselle, my Jezebel,
But nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
I admire those men who know about mathematics,
Who calculate and cipher and compute.
I used to think that logarithms were things that
scuttled about in attics
And surds were little flowers with square roots.
What boots it?
Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel, by Isobel,
Oh, nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
At geometry I don't excel: my triangles go parallel.
But nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
I marvel at musicians: maestros, virtuosos;
They're sensitive and deft beyond belief.
The only tune that I know well is Ring-a-Rosoes
And I can only whistle it through me teeth.
But good grief!
Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel, by Isobel,
Oh, nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
I couldn't produce a tuneful decibel, not even if I
strained like hell.
But nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
Some can swim for miles and dive from dizzy heights,
From deep and stormy seas they never shrink.
I am not amphibious or watertight,
My function in the water is to sink.
But just think!
Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel, by Isobel,
Oh, nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
Upon the sea the slightest swell makes me expel one
hell of a yell.
But nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
Some men are sophisticated, gay and hearty;
Polite and poised and witty, they're such fun.
I am never welcome to a cocktail party:
I drink too much or leave my flies undone.
But thumbs up!
Nobody else is loved so well by Isobel, by Isobel,
Oh, nobody else is loved so well by Isobel but me.
I can't hold my whisky well and I've not got many jokes
to tell.
But nobody else is loved so well by ever-loving Isobel,
My one and only Isobel, my little Iso-Isobel -
All other women I repel
‘Cause I can't spell and I smell as well,
Isobel by name, is a belle by nature,
Frightened of your hands,
But they're not out to get you.
And when you grow to be old,
Just do what you're told,
And life won't be half as bad
With strawberries on your head,
The world seems a better place.
Innocence is beauty, beauty may not last.
And when you're wide eyed with awe,
I'll open the door,
And show what this life can hold.
Follow your heart (I'll follow),
Lead with your mind and we will go.
(Anywhere you want to we will go).
And when it's late, late in the day for you,
Understand my words,
And keep them by your side.
And when you grow to be old,
You need to be told,
And now you come to me
Offering a rainbow
And now you come to me
With love for tomorrow
But now we must be wise
We have both been burnt here
I'm looking in your eyes
Yet still there's much to learn
Yours is to question why
My best occupation
Is letting life pass me by
Loving is not my thing
And yet you persevere
You mean the world to me, boy
If we don't give this thing a try
We'll wonder why
Sure as the rainbow climbs
After clouds and thunder
Sure as the sunbeam shines on fear
Because you're near
And so I come to you
Offering a rainbow
I'm giving only you
The sun, the moon and the stars too
Fall to my feet when I'm with you
Wilderness fades with dark decay
December's June, November's May
This land flows with milk
This land flows with milk
Across the sea, you say today
I'm in your town, you're in the states
Even still we'll lie awake
Two thousand and one
The year of snakes
This land flows with milk
This land flows with milk
The sun, the moon and the stars too
Fall to my feet when I'm with you
Wilderness fades with dark decay
December's June, November's May
This land flows with milk
This land flows with milk
This land flows with milk
Make it whole
Heart and soul
Heart and soul
Make it whole
Heart and soul
Heart and soul
Make it whole
Heart and soul
Heart and soul
Make it whole
Heart and soul
Heart and soul
Un jour je t'emmènerai
Vers ce grand pays froid
Là où l'été se tait
La nuit la pluie sans cesse
Engouffré par l'hiver
Et blotti contre toi
Je te raconterai
Love used to be a stranger to me
Love was so disappointing
I was waiting for a sign
I was looking for some company
So I took a walk outside
What a lucky day
I saw the Devil waiting for me
He'd bullets and green paper
He'd been walking through the Earth
Swinging to and fro and down in it
As I turned to walk away
That's when I saw your face
Love, there is nothing better than this
Love, think of all the chances we miss
See the people walking by
With their mobile and computer eyes
If they'd just afford the time
There is no greater gold
Love, I don't think I'll see you again
It isn't easy you say we're friends
When you opened up your heart
Just enough to make me see again
When you stopped to take my hand
It was meant this way
Do you ever wanted to look beyond
The clouds and the stars?
Want to know what causes the trees to burn
And what changes the darkness into the light?
If you talk like this, people call you crazy
But if I could discover just one of these things
What eternity is for example
I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy
So fine, so elegant
Fun with no money spent
Each minute without a day boy
That?s why I?m asking you
What is a girl to do
To make you notice her too?
Marching to a different beat
When we walk down the street
Other girls won't alarm us
They think we're the cat's pajamas
That?s why I?m asking you
What is a girl to do
Take your time
Take it real slow
It takes time
You know
Do unto
As you would do
To yourself
It's not new
What you reap
Is what you sow
Work it, stop
Now go
There are those
Who will hurt you
And this just
Won't do
And there are those
Who'll bring you love
Sweet love
Listen up
You will grow strong
Wish you luck
Sing song
Stars that shine
One day maybe
Yours and mine
Baby
And there are those
Who'll bring you love