“A soaring beauty, deceptive in its apparent simplicity, a mixture of ‘Pink Moon’ Nick Drake and ‘Hunky Dory’ David Bowie” – Culture Catch, New York
“With its dizzying guitar work and wry lyrics, ‘Maybe Magic’ highlights the virtuosity of UK musician Tim Arnold.” – Bandcamp
“Very strong, very beautiful, very impressed.”
Kevin Godley
“Tim’s haunting and compelling, it’s always fascinating to hear what he does next.”
NME
Tim’s 23rd studio album is a work several years in conception which brought together a multitude of experiences and influences for a musician who has cut a diverse course in his artistic development. This 9-track release comprises a new approach to his guitar playing (finger style playing), gleaned from his love of American composer and guitarist Michael Hedges. The album title is inspired by author Robert Anton Wilson’s ‘Maybe Logic’.
‘Maybe Magic’ brings together songs written between 2019 and 2021 when Tim discovered Discordianism – an idea that both order and disorder are illusions imposed on the universe by the human nervous system. These ideas took root at the end of 2019 during Tim’s collaboration with alternative theatre group ‘The Mycelium’ – a British female-led production company spanning decades of alternative and DIY culture.
After receiving a ground-breaking book on Michael Hedges’ finger style guitar playing ‘Rhythm, Sonority, Silence’ by Hedges’ collaborator John Stropes, Tim set about relearning everything he knew about the acoustic guitar and began work on the album. His time was spent learning the new guitar tunings, whilst simultaneously painting the album cover in the room next door, as audiobooks of Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger and Alan Watts blasted out of the stereo. The album artwork was inspired by one of Tim’s dreams.
After applying gold leaf and gouache, Tim would pause the audiobooks and record a new song while each new layer of paint would dry. This process continued between the two rooms over the first 3 weeks of 2021 until both the album and the painting were completed.
Tim’s revisits a musical style in Hedges’ inimitable harmonic structure Tim first heard as a boy, at the same time as learning to paint again.
What ‘Maybe Magic’ sets out is the first album Tim has released without anticipating any outside thoughts about the music and without any intention to release it publicly. He decided to release it whilst his multimedia album/film project Super Connected is on hold.
Tracks and Lyrics
1. Guides
I am Ralph Steadman, The Big I Am
I am Bridget Riley in an Op-Art slam
I am Monty Python,
The Judean Peoples Front
A Carrie Fisher wisher
And Lenny Bruce stunt
I am Arthur Rimbaud,
Season after season in hell
I am Quentin Crisp
And Virginia Woolf as well
I am Mandela
Freedom and a Dove
I am Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Shining up above
It’s up to you, it’s up to me
Who we really wanna be
Saying ‘everybody else’
Is another way to say ‘ourselves’
So where did we leave our minds?
There must be more to picking sides
What if we close our eyes?
Dig inside. Find a guide.
I’m getting out my Gandhi
My Erin Brockowitch
I am all of The Beatles
And we’re bigger than Twitch
I am Abbie Hoffman and Bobby Seale too
I am Miles Davis
And David Bowie too
I am the love child
Of The Buddha in the sky,
Lady Emma Thompson
And Mr Stephen Fry
I am Yoko Ono
Carl Gustav Jung and Freud
Jan Morris and James Baldwin
And every member of Pink Floyd
It’s up to you, it’s up to me
Who we really wanna be
Saying ‘everybody else’
Is another way to say ‘ourselves’
So where did we leave our minds?
There must be more to picking sides
What if we close our eyes?
Dig inside. Find a guide.
I Am Robert Anton Wilson
And William Blake
Madame Blavatsky and my brother
Robin Williams and Cake
It’s getting very crowded
There must be something we can do
They’re turning into me
And I’m turning into you
2. The Spectrum of Love
Free it
Don’t tie it up
Let it out
Don’t self-destruct
Let’s get the cat
Out of the bag
The cat has wings
The cat can fly and it sings:
No background =
No figure animism
No environment =
No organism
From front to back
‘Other’ goes with ‘self’
Everyone is you
You are everybody else
It’s the love you give me
Unlocks the limit to the love I can give you
It’s the love you give me
Unlocks the limit to the love I can give you
It’s the love you give me
I give you. You give me. I give you.
Exude it
Like the Sun makes heat
Don’t let the tail
Wag the dog
The inner fountain
The hearts beat
Become the mountain
To never ever, ever stop
So trace the spiral
In your hand
The upward spiral
To help you land
Be like a river
Buzzing like a bee
In and out of, in and out of
This energy
It’s the love you give me
Unlocks the limit to the love I can give you
It’s the love you give me
Unlocks the limit to the love I can give you
It’s the love you give me
I give you. You give me. I give you.
4. Dream in Tight
Trying to find an angle
For you until the close up’s right
Your feet begin to stumble
And I forget we could be losing light
But I don’t care, let nightfall wrap us
We’ll pick up on another day
I can’t photograph what I’d like to say
It’s easier to dream
Yes it’s easier to dream
‘cause she fills me up with light
‘til shadows fall then rise just right
And I’m tuning up inside
Out of the box, we’ll stop the clocks, and dream in tight
It’s starting to sound familiar,
But altogether entirely new
The will that wants to thrill you
Is driving everything I do
And I want to hear of all your journeys
You’ve ever had and have yet to take
You captivate. You fascinate
Me. I just want to dream
Yes, I just want to dream.
‘cause she fills me up with light
‘til shadows fall then rise, just right
And I’m tuning up inside
Out of the box,
we’ll stop the clocks,
and dream in tight
Out of the box, we’ll stop the clocks, and dream in tight
‘cause she fills me up with light
‘til shadows fall then rise just right
And it’s tuning up inside
Out of the box, we’ll stop the clocks, and dream in tight
5. Shine You Light
One day it was dirt
Under your shoe
Next day came a bird
Singing through, sowing seeds
‘til something grew
Someone made you shout
Now they’re feeling bad
How could they know how
You waited all of your life
To shout like that?
Now you’re not afraid
To shine your light
So come out the shade
Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s right
You have hills to climb
You know you will
No such thing as time
So you can climb all your life
And still be still
I know so much has changed
But you’ve got what it takes
To imagine how
With skill and grace
It’s endless space
You’re facing now
Don’t be afraid
Shine your light
You’ve got it made
Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s right
I know you like to place
Everything in it’s place
But some things can’t be made
To answer all of our dreams
If something better’s on the way
You might hear craziness
Spoken up and under
Of the amazing mess
That we made of this world
But there’s still wonder
So don’t be afraid
Shine your light
You’ll your way, ‘cause
Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s right
6. Brighter Squared
My joy is a compass star
She takes time, stops it’s pace
We grin and wink. It slowly bends
And mends our compass face
My joy appears in teal
Her own joy does conceal
Dreams we dreamt up then
Mystery whispers, revealed when
When hope is hard to bear
A gem may speak a prayer:
“Light shines brighter squared”
I’m trying hard to get it into my head
“Light shines brighter squared”
I’m trying hard to get it into my head
My joy no longer hides
From waves that break a dam
I close the act, and cry
The night to be who I really am
Her sound, right here
Under rose by Roman laws
Over a smiling tear’s pause
Her sound is right here
This want is wanted more
Not by me. By future’s door
“Light shines brighter squared”
I think I finally got it into my head
“Light shines brighter squared”
I think I finally got it into my head
7. Catch That Flame
You breathe in
You breath out
You give in
To give out
You see in
You see out
You hold in
To let out
Watch the fire
Between us grow
The shadows higher
The more light we show
We wonder why others are so different
We never ask why we are the same
And don’t it feel good when the other hears you?
How would it feel to all catch that flame?
You look in
You look out
You feel in
To feel out
Understand
Every word
Hold a thought
And be heard
So watch the ocean
Between us flow
Waves will takes us
Together home
We wonder why others are so different
We never ask why we are the same
And don’t it feel good when the other hears you?
How would it feel to all catch that flame?
8. Opening Doors
I’m in here
You’re out there
I want to see you
Need some air
So I stare to the sky ‘o stars
Tell myself one of them is ours
I need to see it
I need to be it
Am I guiding?
Or am I hiding now?
We took a reading
Trying to figure it out
See how the cards began to shout?
Most of my life I’ve fallen through
Opening doors
They show without warning they’re for you
But no sign they’re yours
This world can do your mind in
When you’re cut off at the source
I’ve got to keep finding
Those opening doors
I’m all shadow
In your light
But since you ask me
I’m all right
I found a way
To navigate this pantomime
And found a boundary just in time
Now we’re together
At sunset
It’s beautiful
Because of everything we lose by it
They say we’re crazy
To dream out every night
I guess that maybe Maybe Magic’s right
Most of my life I’ve fallen through
Opening doors
They show without warning they’re for you
But no sign they’re yours
This world can do your mind in
When you’re cut off at the source
I’ve got to keep finding
Those opening doors
Most of my life I’ve fallen through
Opening doors
They show without warning they’re for you
But no sign they’re yours
This world can do your mind in
When you’re cut off at the source
I’ve got to keep finding
Those opening doors
9. Questioning Answers
“So give me your question”
Said the Sage to the Fool
“That was the intention, ‘til you broke the rules”
“No need to be doubtful”
The Sage did speak true
“Won’t you trust in my counsel? Or are you just passing through?”
I’m looking around this town
People holding on. Don’t know how
I’m full of so many questions
And I’m struggling to let them out
Sometimes I go down your road
When memory does allow
But I’m tired of asking questions
So I’m questioning answers now
Lay down all your secrets.
I’m no longer under your spell
You’re right about one thing
I came to bid you farewell
When wisdom is speechless
Is something missing in fact?
The change may be coming
If we remember to act
I’m looking around this town
People holding on. Don’t know how
I’m full of so many questions
And I’m struggling to let them out
Sometimes I go down your road
When memory does allow
But I’m tired of asking questions
So I’m questioning answers now
Available to stream and download in the United Kingdom via all digital stores (excluding Spotify) from the 7th January 2022. Limited Edition CD available from Bandcamp only.