[All bracketed lines are production cues only] [Do not sing bracketed instructions] [Close-mic British female vocal] [Studio recording only] [Lyric clarity first] [No long intro] [Begin with tension and restrained movement] [Let the lyric move continuously towards first light] [Intro] [Immediate low pulse] [Voice enters close] Before the light There was gathering. [Verse 1] [Restrained rhythmic tension] [Instrumentation gradually assembles] Dust and gas within the darkness Drawn together over time Gravity kept pulling closer Long before the star could shine Nothing looked the way it would become Nothing yet revealed Still the gathering continued Still the future lay concealed [Pre-Chorus] [Pressure increases] [Harmony begins opening] Long before we saw the shining Something had begun Long before the light could reach us A star was becoming one. [Chorus] [First opening, hold something back] I was becoming Before I could shine Gathering in the unseen Taking shape in time We see the light And call it the beginning But long before the light There was becoming. [Instrumental Turn] [Short rhythmic mutation] [Keep momentum] [Verse 2] [Human imagery enters without explaining the metaphor] Long before I saw the daylight I was gathering into me All the pieces of a story Far older than I could be Then the darkness opened And my first breath met the air I arrived into the light But I had begun before I got there. [Bridge] [Sharp subtraction] [Voice and breath] [Do not decorate the silence] The star found its light [brief silence] I found my first breath [longer silence] Different beginnings Ancient connections. [Rhythm begins rebuilding] The dust became the star The stars returned to dust And somewhere in that ancient turning The dust became us. [Final Chorus] [Full release] [Most rhythmically alive section] [Let the production reveal what has been forming] We were becoming Before we could shine Gathering in the unseen Taking shape in time We see the light And call it the beginning But every beginning we can see Began before the seeing. [Final Refrain] [Strip away progressively] Before the light There was gathering Before the shining There was becoming. [Outro] [Return close to voice] [Natural breath] You don't have to look finished While you're growing. [End]
