[All brackets are production cues only; do not sing] [Single close-mic British female lead] [Sing written lyrics exactly] [Clean phrase endings] [Silence after exposed lines] [All spaces between lyrics belong to instruments] [Studio recording; every word clear] [Begin dark and unresolved] [Hold brightness until FIRST LIGHT] [Intro] [Near darkness; low pulse and isolated piano] [Voice enters quickly] Before the stars [long silence] There was no starlight. [Verse 1] [Sparse low piano; deep restrained pulse] There was hydrogen and helium An early universe still young No constellations overhead No stellar fires had yet begun For ages darkness held the sky While gravity began its art Drawing matter slowly closer Until something Could start. [Pre-Chorus] [Pressure builds instrumentally] [First faint high harmonic appears] [Hold the release] No human eye was there to see it No name existed for a star [brief silence] But somewhere in that ancient darkness Light was waiting To begin. [Chorus] [Everything contracts to silence] FIRST LIGHT [INSTRUMENTAL IGNITION] [Rhythm, bass and harmonic spectrum transform] [Brilliant new instrumental colours appear] Somewhere in the dark FIRST LIGHT [Instrumental expansion] The universe began to spark The first stars turned their fire on Where no star had shone before [brief subtraction] Darkness wasn't disappearing Something new Was being born. [Verse 2] [Retain the new light; reduce intensity] [Rhythm gains movement] Those earliest stars lived long before us Their story written into time We search today for ancient traces Reaching towards that first starlight The further back our instruments reach The closer to that dawn we see Not claiming we have found the first [brief silence] Still asking Where they might be. [Pre-Chorus 2] [Rhythm thins; voice close] [Brightness recedes] There is something in beginnings We can recognise somehow [brief silence] What eventually becomes visible May have started Long before now. [Chorus] [Brightness returns with deeper movement] FIRST LIGHT [Instrumental response] Somewhere in the dark FIRST LIGHT [Instrumental expansion] The universe began to spark The first stars turned their fire on Where no star had shone before Darkness wasn't disappearing Something new Was being born. [Bridge] [Strip to voice and sparse instruments] [Let silence separate each thought] Before the light There was becoming. [long silence] Before the evidence There was change. [long silence] Before anyone Could point towards it Something had already Begun. [long silence] Maybe beginnings Are like that. [Instrumental Rise] [Rebuild from darkness] [Voice rests] [Gravity, pulse and tension gather] [Delay the release] [Final Chorus] [SECOND AND GREATEST INSTRUMENTAL IGNITION] [Brightest harmonic spectrum] [Deepest bass movement] [Rhythm transforms] [Let instrumentation create the emotional peak] FIRST LIGHT [Instrumental response] Somewhere in the dark FIRST LIGHT [Full instrumental illumination] A universe learning how to shine From the first stars To everything we see [brief subtraction] All this light From beginnings No human eye could see. [Final Refrain] [Rhythm falls away] [Voice clean and exposed] First light [silence] First stars [silence] First questions Still travelling this far. [Outro] [Rhythm disappears] [One luminous instrumental tone remains] We look towards the beginning [long silence] And the beginning Still sends us light. [Lead vocal ends] [Instruments alone carry the ending into silence]
