here. gone. is a contemporary song cycle for String Quartet and Voice. Written and performed by vocalist, composer, and Berklee professor, Steven Santoro and recorded with the famed Turtle Island Quartet. here.gone. is a unique collection of songs about journeys through life and death.
Song Synopses
SOMEWHERE IN THE SILENT SPACE - Instrumental
STRANGE DESIGN - A celebration of flaws, beauty, and the dangerous thrill of being human, alive and mortal.
LUCKY YOU’RE MINE - A simple upbeat love song that can’t help but express that one of us will die before the other.
A GHOST IN THE HOUSE - A ghost lingers around its earthly home. Sitting at the bedside of its former lover, this spirit laments being slowly erased from the world of the living.
BOOM BADA BOOM - The Grim Reaper sings this blues about eternal patience as the key to his dominance over humanity.
DON’T LOSE YOUR HEART - A reminder that living is full of pain and mistakes. But we are just like those who came before us and those who will live after us.
GAY DANCE PARTY 1981 - The boys are dancing at the disco when a Billy Holiday-inspired drag queen crashes the party with news of a “Gay cancer”.
WHEN IT SNOWS - Winter is symbolic of death but also has the magic of life.
STAR OF THE VIDEO GAME - A messed up kid muses about being the next infamous school shooter, believing he will become immortalized in a violent PlayStation game.
SHE MISSES HIM - A couple is married in the 1950's. They suffer in their traditional roles. He dies first. She, though deeply injured by his ways, finds she still misses him.
THE LONELY WANDERER - 200 years ago a young man had his heart torn out by a cult in their sacrificial ceremony. Then he awoke to the disappointment of being forever immortal.
A GRAND VACATION - While pondering world history on an Italian vacation, the narrator concludes that humans have always had a great knack for enslaving, cheating, and killing each other.
FEASIBILITY STUDY - An entrepreneurial alien is on Earth to conduct a study of the human race's remaining years, all in an effort to scavenge what's left of the planet's raw materials.
TODAY - Nothing is here to stay. But in the moment we can give something of ourselves. Love.
SHIPWRECK 1849 - (Not Included on the album) The wind takes us back to 1849 on its violent journey to sink the ship Henry David Thoreau wrote about in, “Cape Cod”. Then guiltily explains that this is just part of its nature.
THE SONG I COULDN’T WRITE - The songwriter of this piece tries to come to terms with his own mortality but can’t find the final lyric.
Listen - here.gone. track sampler
