We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

EMBRACE

from UNCERTAIN SEAS by Eli Utne

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

This song features clips of friends, family, lovers, & others saying the line: "We're (all) in the same boat" recorded in the final months of 2023. It also includes a Google AI Voice reading of a blog post I made in 2018 titled, Uncertain Seas; It was the first time I developed the concept for this album in writing.

lyrics

We’re in the same boat (everyone)

The cycles of violence, fear, and animosity encircle me, pulling at my heartstrings from every direction, asking me to feed into the idea that everything is caught in a storm of chaotic unrest, bound for uncertainty. I am tossed by the churning seas (The Uncertain Seas), whose currents seem to pull me out into the vastness without remorse, asking me to forget the land, to forget the freshness of the water, to leave the colors and the tastes of the day and to drink of the salty water, to be drawn into the maelstrom.

And then, I turn off the radio. I roll slowly to a stop in front of the glass doors that guard the studio. My heart immediately begins to settle into a familiar rhythm. While the overpass is still buzzing, cars and trucks whooshing by, I have found a quiet place, a sanctuary where the practice of music beckons me from my mind, asking me to sit within The Uncertain Seas, floating. The guitar is a branch, extending beyond me and within me, looped into the rings of my 27 years, beginning in the days when upheaval shook me for the first time, around age 10. In losing the definition of family, of that which is familiar, I found music. I found when my father told me that he and my mom were divorcing, that I could write and feel and sing my way through it. I found that, through the strings, through the practice of letting my mind wander within and beyond the notes, of letting my fingers dance their way into certainty, I was always in control. I am always capable of working through stasis, of climbing into peace by simply letting go.

Between the notes, I can hear a stillness unlike any I’ve ever seen or felt. I imagine it like a frozen lake (certainly one from my home in the North) but this time the placid expanse is much more vast because it is the ocean, a Certain Sea whose salt now reflects like the Bolivian flats, showing the brilliance within me, a reminder of how calm it can be if we just listen.

Nick Zamuto: “And I really started to think of sound as, sort of, a sculptural medium at that point… the texture of sound on its own has this emotional quality. And that was really a turning point for me. It was the inspiration to start The Books.”

We’re in the same boat.

credits

from UNCERTAIN SEAS, released April 5, 2024

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Eli Utne image

Eli Utne Oakland, California

Eli Utne is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Huchiun (Oakland) making music for the heart, from the heart.

By shining a light on the power and necessity of human connection, and the danger of isolation and escapism, Eli hopes for his music to serve as a tool for our collective healing and liberation.

festina lente

♥️ ... more

contact / help

Contact Eli Utne

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Eli Utne, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featured guests are the golden-voiced Baby Rose and psyche soulsters Brainstory.
listen now