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Although mostly sung in English, I also wanted the album to have a multilingual dimension, like the cosmopolitan 12th century Sicily that has inspired so much of the songwriting. I already had parts of songs in Palermitano, the Sicilian dialect of Palermo and in Salentino, the dialect of the southern most tip of Puglia but I also dreamt of hearing Arabic sung alongside the words in English. The Many Were More is a rallying call for tolerance and coexistence and includes a poem written in Arabic by the 12th Century Sicilian poet Ibn Hamdis, sung on the album by the Algerian Malik Ziad. As luck or fate would have it, the meter and verse of the poem fitted perfectly in the section I intended it for and his poem, proof that artists will always be dreamers whatever the age, includes the line, ‘I dreamed of Sicily’.
lyrics
David’s son brought to the threshing floor
Out of Babylon come the rules of law
Carved in stone the word by fire divine
Rock to island came the sacred shrine
First up they counted one
Then from the union two
Next up they counted four
A multitude in number
The many were more
Came a night the angel stole his rest
Took him on a journey to the West
Climbed a ladder up to the milky way
Rode on lightning til the break of day
First up they counted one
Then from the union two
Next up they counted four
A multitude in number
The many were more
تـذكـارهـا ومنزلة للصبـا قـد خـلـت = وكان بنو الظرف عمـارهـا
فإن كنت أخرجت مـن جـنة = فإنـي أحـدث أخـبـارهـا
ولولا ملوحة مـاء الـبـكـاء = حسبت دموعي أنـهـارهـا
ضحكت ابن عشرين من صبوة = بكيت ابن سـتـين أوزارهـا
فلا تعظمن علـيك الـذنـوب = إذا كان ربـك غـفـارهـا
From the Well of Souls the trumpets call
Through full rivers deep the voices fall
In the caves beneath the inner drums
Beating out in time to sacred sums
credits
from I Dreamed An Island,
released October 24, 2016
Piers Faccini: voice, acoustic and electric guitars, bowed guitar, backing vocals
Malik Ziad: voice, mandole, backing vocals
Chris Wood: double bass
Simone Prattico: drums, percussion, acoustic guitar