Luap Elk from Luap Elk by The Upper Strata

Luap Elk was first created as a bridge to Presents From The Sky but contained so much, Johnny felt it should be its own song. The title is taken from the artist’s secret name, formed from the letters of Paul Klee and scrambled to become Luap Elk. The song depicts Klee’s artistic journey. Drawing inspiration from numerous sources, nature was chief among these muses. The image of the oft introspective even aloof artist, discovering wonders as he walked through environments, both tiny and magnificent or grand and thunderous informs the song.

Johnny envisioned a song in four parts with an overture of sorts, Floating Free, Presents From the Sky and Luap Elk closing the work, but as a few other songs and ideas developed Johnny began to think of it as a Paul Klee themed album. Live, the three songs above are performed nearly as one long work with Bittersweet Place closing the suite.

Tracklist

4.	Luap Elk	3:23

Lyrics

How can people wander blind
To the simple wonders that abound?
Autumn leaves wind rustling
Crashing waves a gigantic sound
Colors shadows light
With awe fill
Forms pull from ancient memory
Alone alone and still
Alone and still

There’s a majesty in the minutiae
A hidden world waiting to be found and seen
Tangled web of life ending
Yet somehow always beginning
Grain of sand or the raging sea
All the daily battles of heart and will
You find ourselves alone and still
Alone and still

Never knowing
Exactly who or where we should be
Are we ever helpless to life’s inertia
Can we ever be free?
Broken wing creatures can’t rescue carry you and me
For they’ve turned to stone in the winter’s chill
And we are left alone and still
Like some forgotten child
Not lost but not wild
Surely someone comes to soon collect
Alone and still
If we could only recollect
The vast mind of endless possibilities
Alone and still
That the rational seek to trample and kill
And leave us all leave us all alone and still
Alone and still

Credits

from Luap Elk, released December 18, 2020

License