Sundial Tree, by Michelle Lynn Ptacek

Sundial Tree

by Michelle Lynn Ptacek

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in shrink-wrapped mini sleeve manufactured at Noiseland Industries in Minneapolis, MN. Original artwork by Rachel Cahoon. Graphic Design by Adam Wiltgen. Photography by Kaija Kjome.

Also includes immediate download of 13-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

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Full Digital Discography

5

releases

Get all 5 Michelle Lynn Ptacek releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Without an Outline, Sundial Tree, Pre-Echoes for the Postmodern, Hospital Radio, and Jump Roping in Chains. , and , .

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1.	Align 03:11	lyrics	buy track
Set the pace when my heart races Guard my gate from all invasion One time all sides aligned Sides of you I never saw Shaped you into who you are One time all sides aligned Beside those lay lines What mind could describe Hold it soul Do you know the sequel Break the mold and your weight in gold Is on the table One time all sides aligned Beside those ley lines Unite Thrive
2.	Black Hole 03:00	lyrics	buy track
Don’t make any sudden moves Hypnotizing solitude Crowd yourself alone in a room Forces pulling through With the past as a prologue Wrapped up in my monologue I should have noticed you were gone I drew a line I drew it wrong To forget what side I was on And now of all the things to say out loud... Convert the spirits Market your weakness Every step I tried to skip Would haunt me as I’d trip I’d object I’d reject Disconnect to reconnect Like archers in the wilderness Bow and arrow as the tree splits What is strange is what isn’t And now of all the things to say out loud Dark breaths in Light breathes out So breathe out All the labors of Hercules Lift the weight off my chest please It no longer bothers me Lift the veil so I can see In the blackest of holes Time flies by as time grows old I would like to crack the code Wait a second I explode Wait a minute I decompose And now of all the things to say out loud Dark breathes in Light breathes out So breathe out
3.	Mathematician Mystic 03:40	lyrics	buy track
How many out laws breathe down your neck How many ideas get off your chest How many options in your honest opinion How many underworlds pine for your soul How many circus freaks square your circle How many hoops and rings am I jumping through Thought I’d ask before closing our eyes counting the steps Walking in darkness To find the way back Ditch the curse and draw a map Too calculated to be chaotic How many servants tend your garden How many governments in their eden How many options in your honest opinion How many ballistic capitalists How many overdosed wiz kids How many Mathematician Mystic Counting picket signs on the lawn Counting like minds banging your gong Counting singers in the samsara song How many combinations unlocking How many fractals multiplying How many links in the chain of blame are breaking Thought I’d ask before closing our eyes Counting the steps Walking in darkness To find the way back Ditch the curse and draw a map Too calculated to be chaotic
4.	Twisted Logic 03:43	lyrics	buy track
Darwin’s children brighten up the dark ages While heathens sell hymns to sadder but wiser sages I’ll dance for you if you sing for me I’ll sleep walk on a balance beam Pad the walls and spot me But you don’t have to Believe me We have no need to overcome What is coming over us It’s twisted logic Worker bee referees hound me While thieves check inventory Kerosene moonbeams and lightening Light a scene for you and me If destiny has a history It’s been updated with no guarantee As up to date history is expanding exponentially We have no need to overcome What is coming over us It’s twisted logic Omens beckon superstition and supernatural conditions Was suspension in the fifth dimension Ever mentioned in the job description It takes twenty years to grow a spine I can’t walk talk or think in a straight line But this is one way to find a way to say Friend I’m alright With twisted logic
5.	Inner Truce 02:56	lyrics	buy track
I should have known You knew all along I should have known I could be wrong Angel who sold my ghost Pay back what was borrowed Hanging in limbo selling your black halos I was alone for you I’d become Now when alone do I belong Messengers don’t shoot Even at high noon Bury the hatchet stranger things could happen Antagonist no longer steal my bliss Method where’s the madness Lost in a book Lost on the atlas Hold on what holds it in Messengers don’t shoot Even at high noon Latitude and longitude track you Attitudes of gratitude induce Inner Truce I should have known I could be wrong I should have known You knew all along
6.	Variables of Control 03:24	lyrics	buy track
Do I ever see what you show me Do I ever get where I’m going Time erased me this morning Tonight again I am forming All the seers of sound Say our kind is not profound We’re in the background Figuring you inside out I’d push I’d pull I didn’t know what was in control Dawn of time or fall of man We take whatever’s in season Whether walls are closing in Or a portholes opening The door won’t swing the way it did yesterday I told it please go away It came back and it laughed in my face I’d push I’d pull I didn’t know what was the variable Cheshire cats stole your smile Bandits bloodied your Nile All this all the while Your vitals on file As dreamers of the day Say it hurts to be awake It never hurts to say Tomorrow’s another day I’ll push I’ll pull I’d love to know what is in control
7.	Infinity Around a Zero 02:29	lyrics	buy track
Dropped my anchor down Landed out of bounds Up down in the round about Where there is nothing Nothing is left out We are extreme we are equal Like infinity around a Zero Defy monotony lies One double life at a time Sit tight hear a call in the night Every clock unwinds We are extreme we are equal Like infinity around a zero Go on Go on for eons Lessons return until they are learned Lessons reoccur Karma or consequence No outcome is out of sequence You came you went Foot prints on my wet cement Every event left a dent
8.	Side Effects of Gravity 03:51	lyrics	buy track
Don’t take a bad thing and make it worse Peddle to the meddle in reverse hurts Standing still hurts worse Has it been over ran Don’t run it over again Never again Where is the prescription to cure us of our brain Traveling so far so fast everything looked the same Why did I try I’m a cliché All the way What a cliché Have a nice day Medicate side effects Medicate side effects of gravity We chase the horizon some call it a dead end We fall off the grid some call it hitting bottom When I feel everything times ten Don’t sedate me Empathy is only boundaries dissolving
9.	Rotating Our Saviors 03:46	lyrics	buy track
Jokers line the court Rotating our saviors Knock on door To our core Right on course Hoof beats pounding As we awake from sleep Centuries unraveling Finally you agree my head is a committee No one is pleased with all of these categories Leaving me guessing What lights you up Sets you off We stumbled Now let us walk Calling upon the four directions Where time fell to land Into our hands Surely it can slip out of them An intuition on our vibrations Finally you agree my head is a committee No one is pleased with all of these categories Leaving me guessing Rotating our saviors
10.	Chance 02:27	lyrics	buy track
Making plans we plan to adapt We grew best as we fell through the cracks All we need is a small plot of land One pure thought and maybe a garden All our plans owe possibility a chance Obsession and jealousy are breeding grounds For the devil in heat The less I have the less I need Where we’re the same is where you see through me All our plans owe possibility a chance Each day shouldn’t be something to get through Or a task on a list I wake up to do The less I have the less I lose I’m betting it all and I’m betting it on you
11.	Inverse Relationship 02:43	lyrics	buy track
It isn’t a way to live It isn’t even a way to die If it’s only an ugly lie Innocent on the sidelines Watching the abuse of life Did you wonder why All went black I came back It seems death is an inverse relationship We become what we miss Anything I learned from this My only wish is we could share it All went black I came back I came back You’re all I lack So come back Any odds to beat Any good things happening to me Leave me guilty Living to see today When that’s more than you can say How could I ever complain
12.	Identity 03:49	lyrics	buy track
Needed a new conclusion to what I was doing Proving can’t disguise illusion Maybe I am only a collection Memories of places I haven’t been Needed a new set of skin to crawl through life in I tried to shed it and was buried instead Repress or represent Depends on which way you like to bend Well hello I don’t know you either I’m replaceable maybe you’re the keeper To be reborn was all I wanted Maybe I was too vague I had it surrounded and then it slipped free Abandoned it followed me home Well hello I don’t know you either I’m replaceable maybe you’re the keeper Identity is easily confiscated I became what I hated And now it’s create or be created I bet I better live it to be reborn All I want My heart’s the size of your fist Original come back kid come back to your senses Maybe life is only memorizing a blur And proof is the lie told backwards
13.	Sundial Tree 03:15	lyrics	buy track
Merchants greet the dawn Everyone is setting up From the coliseum to the arboretum Architects building flowers Men of the hour in ivory towers Guardians grow louder How late will it seem sundial tree Veins on a leaf like veins on me Somewhere downstream Restless young birds Fall from their perch Face up on the earth Square in the middle of dirt How late does it seem sundial tree When my day is done I’ll fall down with the sun Off the pendulum into momentum How late did it seem sundial tree

about

Every problem I have ever had is a problem I have with time.

When I begin the writing process for any album, I pick an area of myself that I'd like to work on and I use music to explore it. Sundial Tree was written during four winter months in Austin, TX. Throughout my Midwest hiatus, I spent a lot of time thinking about my relationship with music and why I do what I do in most areas of living. For the album Sundial Tree I was looking for a solid and pragmatic experience. Pre-Echoes for the Postmodern (my last album) took the essence of my being for a loop and dropped it in a new place. This place was familiar and old. It was a side of my mind I always knew was there but couldn't comprehend until going through some distinct stages. I turned to the cycles of time and the numbers behind nature. Greeks like Pythagoras saw music, mathematics, time, and philosophy as part of the same system.

I have always needed to work on my relationship with numbers and time. I became really excited about math once I knew of shapes and numbers within nature in a way I hadn't known before. The numbers behind music are natural laws that are pleasing to the ear even when musicians aren't explicitly aware of how it is happening. It is hard for me to believe in ideas so I believe in math.

credits

released October 5, 2010

Michelle - Guitars, Vocals, Lyrics, Mixing
Rachel Cahoon - Artwork
Adam P. - bass
Matt Olson - drums, mixing, mastering, electric guitar on tracks 2,3,7
David Lester - harmonica
Nori Hadley - violin
Kaija Kjome - photos taken at Pepperfield
Adam Wiltgen - graphic design

license

about

Michelle Lynn Ptacek Decorah, Iowa

Here you will find Michelle's first five albums. She will soon record her history songs: The Inventors, The Explorers, and The Interrupted. Please sign up for the newsletter on her website for notifications.

Michelle owns an online education business and loves teaching in a variety of mediums about topics relevant to curious and passionate learners. ... more

michelleptacek.com

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