päivi björkenheim (la meuf à raoul?), vocals
clive bell, miniature khene, pi saw flute
paul schütze, steel drum, percussion, processing

composed and produced by paul schütze

1. First Prologue.
2. The dial is only visible by starlight.
3. Every day at noon the sun shines through these apertures for the space of about a minute.
4. The image of the sun indicates the sun's position as it passes through a hole in the concurve surface.
5. There is a brass pointer fitted with sights and pivoted to the centre of the circle by which altitude observations are made.
6. The chamber is no longer accessible to visitors.
7. Access to any part of the engine is by steps which offer vantage points for various readings.
8. Suspended in the hum of history.
9. Originally cross wires stretched across each hemisphere, East to West and North to South.
10. The ramped stair to the North of the two drums vanishes at thirty-two feet.
11. These steps enable the observer to see all aspects of the brass calibration below.
12. There is a huge calibrated sundial on each of its sides.
13. This chamber is filled with garden tools and broken furniture.
14. The mosaic of starlight slips back like the lid of an opening eye.
15. This engine is primarily a calculator, though altitudes may be observed using the sighting bar fitted to the back.
16. It is inscribed with concentric circles, at the centre of which lies a pointer.
17. The calibrated parts are raised on three-foot pillars.
18. The pink masonry charges the twilight with a faint sound.
19. Another slope with stars for the reading of figures.
20. This engine is now only visible in twilight.
21. Here is an immense brass circle suspended vertically from stone supports.
22. Two hemispheres representing the sphere of heaven comprise the two halves of this engine.
23. This wall describes accurately the North/South meridian.
24. There are pillars at the centre of each circular wall each open to the sky.
25. First memory.
26. The sky has shaped this place.
27. Here I find a central iron pole with hooks facing to the North, South, East and West.
28. A shadow is cast to the West before noon.
29. The shadow can fall in the vacant sector of a drum.
30. Days and nights are measured here, and in the measuring seem longer, suspended somehow.
31. The whole brass circle can be revolved around its vertical diameter so that altitude observations can be taken of any object at any time.
32. A lofty but narrow chamber is contrived in the thickness of the walls and access is gained from a door opening from the masonry platform on which the engine stands.
33. A further series of steps is only visible during the vernal equinox.
34. Hold the machine in the vertical plane.
35. Visible portions of the celestial sphere are represented by this map which has a movable elliptic which pivots at the point representing the pole.
36. To move through these structures is to set them in motion.
37. The altitude of the body observed is given while observing the vertically hanging bar through the two brass rings.
38. A shadow is cast to the East after noon.
39. These calibrations are no longer clearly visible.
40. Another flight of observation steps and the sense of quiet rotation as I ascend.
41. I study the vaults of a shell in which we float.
42. Twenty-seven degrees, thirty-seven seconds.
43. The roofs of the enclosed drums are implied by shadows.
44. The floor and walls are calibrated to read altitude and azimuth.
45. These are the cool engines of celestial map-making.
46. Here is the Supreme Engine.
47. The sun seen through the pair of brass rings is used by the bar to indicate the time from sunrise until sunrise.
48. A pointer indicates on three arms: West, North and East.
49. Here was the Supreme Engine.
50. Engine of amplitude has a function which is no longer known.
51. This engine is a rectangular brass plate.


1. Second prologue
2. Once complete engine is formed by two differently incomplete parts which combined provide total reference.
3. At one moment in the year the sun shines through a hole in the wall on to a calibrated arc.
4. The stone dish is slotted with figures and shadow.
5. The positions and altitudes of heavenly bodies maybe gauged with this engine.
6. Some steps ascend past markings to a platform.
7. The central pillars are five feet three inches in diameter.
8. On the East face are inscribed two quadrants of twenty-feet radius.
9. The plants will steal this engine when we have gone.
10. The shadow is cast North/South at noon by an iron pin.
11. A shadow is cast to the East after noon.
12. These steps are worn to a ramp and lead nowhere.
13. All the lead calibrations are warm to the touch.
14. It is only necessary to engrave a scale of the tangents along the rim to obtain a direct reading of the declination.
15. Second Memory.
16. The lead calibrations are poisonous to the touch.
17. This is the North pointer engine.
18. The rim of each hemisphere is a horizon divided into degrees and minutes.
19. Here is a room to divide the sun like an orange.
20. Sighting bars were placed in the slots within the chamber, but none remain now.
21. The sound of insects here studs the night like a thousand fizzing stars.
22. Access by observers to each engine is gained by an imperfection which differs from one to another.
23. These structures are made in receipt of starlight.
24. Seven of the eight rings indicate signs.
25. Third Memory.
26. Fourth Memory.
27. I have observed and measured for seven years.
28. The heavens were spherical.
29. Fifth Memory.
30. There are four of these arcs, two in each chamber.
31. These are instruments fuelled by shadow, and engines propelled by the sliding of the skies.
32. The stars are ranged across the inner shell of a vast hollow sphere in which hung the earth.
33. All the gardens will concur. Here is the mixed engine.
34. I will build other gardens, other engines.
35. And the light falls on the circular arcs.
36. Beneath this circle is an arc of masonry steps for the convenience of observers.
37. Threads can be pegged to the centre of each quadrant and semicircle to enable observation.
38. Here is a huge vertical right-angled triangle made of stone.
39. These arcs are also accessible by numerous flights of stairs.
40. We are closer to the sun now.
41. On the West face is described a semicircle of nineteen-feet, ten-inch radius.
42. Into this chamber no ray of light can find its way except through two small squares high in the South wall.
43. The movement of the engines produces a scent.
44. Sixth Memory.
45. Pointing towards the pole an iron pin is fixed at right angles to the centre of a dial.
46. Some of the calibrations are now submerged beneath the ground and cannot be read.
47. This room is a lidless drum.
48. Seventh Memory.
49. Near the bottom of the wall facing the South side of the eastern hemisphere there is a hole.
50. There are arcs made of marble which are calibrated with inlaid lead in degrees and minutes.
51. I have seen charts sent from Portugal but they are flawed and full of error.

quelle bavarde c'te päivi