Sleep

Sleep

1991, 12:00

Voice, Soprano Saxophone, Harpsichord, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums

Written for Bifrons Ensemble

Sol Lewitt

Sol Lewitt

Programme notes

Also available in version for Voice, Six Electric Guitars, Bass Guitar and Drums
Analecta played this song as well, showing up on our first record ‘What You Hear is Where You Are.”

Lyrics

I was born through a circle;
circle on a blackboard.
Hands up.
Oh, bell’s ringing.
This is my room but I can’t sleep.
There’s a bracket to my right
and a bracket to my left.
Hands up.
Oh, who’s counting?
This is my room but I can’t sleep.
Can’t sleep, can’t sleep, can’t sleep.
All my lines, all my numbers.
I’m so connected but I can’t sleep.
This is a world of no change.
This is a world of ‘this-is-it.’
One swipe.
Oh, I’d be happy.
This is my vision but its never complete.
I am not some go-to.
No need to be jumping lines.
Two after one.
One after nothing.
It’s not a living but its living to me.
No need to be jumping lines.
No need to be computing no sines.
Two after one.
One after nothing.
This is my vision but I can’t sleep.
Can’t sleep, can’t sleep, can’t sleep.
All my lines, all my numbers.
This is my room but I can’t –
I was born on a white wall;
grid in a big hall.
Laid out in a series
‘n counted out.
Counted out and counted in around SoHo.
No reason to think to straight ahead.
No reason at all.
Jumping to conclusions that logic can’t reach.
I was born on a white wall.
Well-lit or not lit at all.
Rather be a line among lines of lines.
Six thousand, two hundred and fifty-five lines.
Line after line after line after line after
line after line after line after line after
line after line after line after line after
line after line after line after line after line.
His process is mystic, mechanical.
Hard to pin him down
when a word is not a word.
x is a line, why is now out-of-mind.
I was born on a blackboard;
blackboard, it was full of sines.
A is to B,
five days a week.
This is a world of no change.
This is a world of ‘this-is-it.’
One swipe.
Oh, I’d be happy.
I am not some goto.
No need to be jumping lines.
Two after one.
One after nothing.
This is my vision.
This is my division.
All us lines-our days are numbered.