betoniniai triušiai

the concrete bunnies | the group of sound and poetry
III [3CD, 2012]

I snow mining / 5.55
recorded in kaunas, club „insait“, 11 02 2011

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: skaidra jan�ait� (voice), tomas s. butkus (voice, percussion),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics), vadimas korotajevas (electronics)

nap wrapped
pyrodastic remnants
disturbance of spring-ing parietal bones
with crowbars

yellow cars
white cars
red crosses

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

II in the tv factory / 6.14
�rašyta kaune, klube „insait“, 11 02 2011

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: skaidra jan�ait� (voice), tomas s. butkus (voice),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics), vadimas korotajevas (percussion)

easter morning
in church
to a child frozen to stone
priests in castrato voices:
belief—evil
belief is only in the polishing icons—
God who is your first communion first word
who is an explosion blasting in the emptiness
when there is no justice when there is no one to prove
the looming air mass overhead to
God—who is an extraordinary chechen
synonymous russia
accompanied by mine-flattened body parts
when nothing remains just the last performance the last
lesson shooting through my temples
God—who in my temples is no longer shoot-able
let me put you on before I go to war
going to war so many times
going to war for a bullet
going to a war for beliefs—this will be
the final generation in my warring time’s history
God, whose generation’s muhammad is the holiest anti-christ?
whose generation’s is this dream this repulsion this final time?
a war which is impossible to win a war which is impossible
to change in any other way?—in it there is no spilled blood
having gone so many times to you

from emptiness into the nave’s light
from darkness into the kinescopes dome
this is the resurrection mass
in the tv factory—
I saw this all in the castrated priest’s eyes
frozen to stone in the eyes of church:
God if you are mockery
one belief is to no longer believe
so that the words exploded in the future repeat
so that belief would flow to nonbelievers—
believers are necessary to the demolished TV factory
believers are necessary to raise from sleep the murdered chechen women
bullets are the believers the sea of ether
my son Muhammad

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

III the scrambling frame / 5.06
recorded in kaunas, club „insait“, 11 02 2011

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus, vadimas korotajevas
performed by: skaidra jan�ait� (voice), tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar, percussion),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics), vadimas korotajevas (electronics)

eyes cleared by muteness
to the mist-driven wind
in a snatched cold
this side of an arctic town
i saw in the ice
of the frozen pond
on its snow-covered surface
footprints skittering outwards -
the language of all the quick of the world -
bulrushes and a carpet frame's
dismal metallic shadow
four black circles in that place
where another kind of vision starts
words sunken already
into the pond’s black eye
wading on four legs into the time of suppression
(it’s clear now – the loss of memory) -
red rectangles of objects cleaned in the snow
tongue frozen on the metal of syllables

translated by Gerrie Fellows

IV blindbrook / 5.10
recorded in vilnius, „fluxus ministry“, 27 07 2011

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus, vadimas korotajevas
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, guitar), antanas dombrovskij (electronics),
vadimas korotajevas (electronics, synthesizer)

in the half-
foreboding gloom
of the garage environs
middle-aged poplars;
like bars
like shadows
you cannot evade,—
only in the twilight, in the distance
does sleeplessness go out to the full moon,—
your glassy gaze
carries mists
and hounds.
beyond the fence
sodden railroad ties
repeating that which led you
to clarity.
like the electrical post’s
forbidden
doing chin ups at midnight
to your younger self
to the sky
mouth-wateringly
to the tires smouldering
in the grass;
like the dampness
from a pulsing fog
like a morning return
to the blindbrook

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

VI sisyphus / 4.36
recorded in kaunas, „romuva“ cinema theatre, 06 09 2012

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar), antanas dombrovskij (electronics, synthesizer),
vadimas korotajevas (electronics, percussion)

and
everything
was
one
big
elevator
between
God
and
the
god
who
no
longer
exists

sisyphus,
the
elevator
operator,
smokes
in
the
stairwell

translated by ada valaitis

VII the end / 8.26
recorded in vilnius, contemporary art centre, 26 04 2010

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar, percussion, harmonica),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics), vadimas korotajevas (voice, synthesizer)

in the beginning there was nothing
people people people
they invented everything
the world and what
it could become
the poet and his great
small word
in the beginning there was the word
in the beginning there were people
specifically
those who were able to reason
in the beginning there was the beginning
in the beginning there was nothing
neither spoken words
nor words
which stayed behind the lines
who could have imagined this
only the stars
melted suns
only the ether only white
nothingness
robots robots robots
selling machines
buying machines
inexistence machines
one zero one zero
in the beginning there was zero
in the beginning there was nothing
only afterwards
someone wrote everything down
wrote time and clouds
wrote death and
how it disappeared
selling machines bought
buying machines bought
inexistence machines bought
death death death
no one knows
in the beginning there was already death
in the beginning something
was already written
only now
only yesterday
forever late
never
writing words
and the poet doesn’t believe
his time is ticking
clouds and the heart
believes that soon
it will end
the thread of time
will roll out
like the light of the cosmos
of our lives
that have already been lived

translated by ada valaitis

VIII mountain / 2.21
recorded in marijampolis, vilnius district, 28 05 2012

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus, vadimas korotajevas
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar), antanas dombrovskij (electronics, synthesizer),
vadimas korotajevas (electronics, percussion)

mountain _-_
in her lava shine
extinguished days
blue flame
blossoming flowers
and little yellow poles
marked into the shoulder
of its slope hanging road:
nothing more

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

IX leeches / 4.22
recorded in marijampolis, vilnius district, 28 05 2012

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus, vadimas korotajevas
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar), antanas dombrovskij (electronics),
vadimas korotajevas (voice, electronics)

evening
the nettle leaves stir
before the rain the stones settle
into the clay
under turf
under grass
under blackearth
crumbling into eyes
sticking in clods
that spread
bloat
and do not recoil from the
dangling saliva
of night creatures
slurping
the full moon’s urine

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

X cosmonaut's hit / 5.43
recorded in vilnius, contemporary art centre, 26 02 2012

text by mantas gim�auskas
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, guitar, xylophone, percussion),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics, synthesizer), vadimas korotajevas (electronics)

I love you in our capsule
I love you in weightless spins
I love you in the rest module
I love you crawling in the connecting tunnel
I love you in the decompression sluice
I love you beyond starboard
I love you surrounded by a vacuum
I love you when this asteroid rushes towards me
I love you shaking from this blow
I love you when my protective suit tears
I love you even when molecules shred my lungs
I love you when these lights go out
I love you quieting in the cold
I love you in the deepest end of darkness

translated by medein� tribinevi�ius

XI deadlands / 5.46
recorded in vilnius, „fluxus ministry“, 06 07 2011

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus
performed by: tomas s. butkus (voice, el. guitar, synth. theremin), antanas dombrovskij (electronics),
vadimas korotajevas (electronics, synthesizer)

I don’t want to be understood
just loved
just lied to from lips to lips
just deaf and dumb
and more than naked –

teeth digging
into the sands of ice
hammered between the tracks
so that I can’t get lost –
as I drag the names of my loves
and their halted searches behind me.

where are these people now? –
an empty eye grasping
the echelons of crumbling light
deadlands cropped by
the yellowed dust of poetry

translated by ada valaitis

XII my heart / 5.10
recorded in vilnius, rj studio, 15 10 2012

text by tomas s. butkus
sound by: antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus, vadimas korotajevas
performed by: vadimas korotajevas (sound, el. guitar, synthesizer),
antanas dombrovskij (electronics), tomas s. butkus (harmonica, kankl�s)

my heart
like death
beating smoke
evening fires
sail as if through water
flint people
and brass people
dirt and ties
in the east
crab meat is waving
scuffled armor
cuts my chest
my heart
like death
runs through the night
only the night is white
like a shroud
only the night
is full
of an unhealed dream
at its bottom my sisters
eat my liver
at its bottom my brothers
peck at my eyes
at its bottom my father
washes his feet with blood
at its bottom my mother
pushes white bones
into the fire
covers
my heart
in white cloth

translated by ada valaitis

the project supported by:
the culture support foundation
the ministry of culture of the republic of lithuania

the concept and design by
tomas s. butkus

translated to english language by:
medein� tribinevi�ius, ada valaitis, gerrie fellows

record corrections and compositions by:
antanas dombrovskij, tomas s. butkus

sound lab and mastering by ram�nas jasutis

recorded in vilnius, kaunas and marijampolis
between 2010 and 2012

published by
vario burnos | workshop of concepts
www.varioburnos.com

ISBN 978-609-95464-1-4

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