Red Dust 🌒🥁 [Intro] [desert wind • distant insects • low fire crackle] [soft ankle rattles: sha-ka... sha-ka...] [distant handclaps slowly forming a pulse] Tsuxub falls over the Kalahari, ǀaes draws a circle of light. [wooden percussion: tok... tok... tok...] Hands remain upon the stone, older than the homes we know. [deep foot stomp • brief silence] [Verse 1] [dry rattles following the beat] Red tsara beneath our feet, beneath the endless ǀhommi, an antelope vanishes beyond the hill, as if it knows a path older than us. [distant animal call • wind passing through dry grass] Figures run across the stone, ochre remembers every step. Someone danced here before us, while the desert listened through the tsuxub. [rhythmic clapping begins: clap-clap... clap... clap-clap] [Pre-Chorus] [stomping joins the claps] Strike the rhythm, [BOOM... BOOM] let the !hūb reply. [group stomp] What has gone away doesn't always disappear. [rattles accelerate] [short rising vocal call] [Chorus] [FULL PERCUSSION • handclaps • stomps • rattles] Dance until the red tsara rises high above the ǀaes. [HEY! • group response] Dance until the tsuxub replies, though it never speaks a word. [low musical-bow drone: wummm... wummm...] On the rock, a human and a beast, ǀhommi lost in endless dark. The Kalahari keeps the stories that time could never take away. [group chant: “Tsuxub... tsara... tsuxub... tsara...”] [percussion abruptly stops] [Verse 2] [fire crackle • lone rattle] A mantis waits beside the ǀaes, /Kaggen changes shape again. [wood clicks: tak-tak... tak] Sometimes bringing wisdom through a story, sometimes laughing straight at us. [distant laughter-like vocalization fading into wind] The boundary is growing thinner between dreams, !hūb, and blood. The circle dances with one breath, while the stars turn through the tsuxub. [heartbeat-like percussion gradually grows] DUM... DUM... DUM... DUM... [Bridge] [all percussion cuts out] [wind • insects • faint musical bow] Don't ask the rocks if they remember. [whispered voices: “remember...”] Just look at what remains. Don't ask the wind about their names, it carried them away long ago. [long gust of wind] ǀaes slowly fades. [fire crackles, then weakens] The footprints stay upon the !hūb. Tomorrow, someone will find them again. [single stomp] [silence] [Final Chorus] [sudden explosion of clapping, stomping and rattles] [layered group vocals] Dance until the red tsara rises high above the ǀaes. [HEY! HEY!] Dance until the tsuxub replies, though it never speaks a word. [rhythm accelerates] [rattles: SHA-KA-SHA-KA-SHA-KA] On the rock, a human and a beast, beneath the endless ǀhommi. The Kalahari keeps the stories that time could never take away. [CALL: “Tsuxub!”] [RESPONSE: “Tsara!”] [CALL: “ǀAes!”] [RESPONSE: “!Hūb!”] [clapping and stomping reach their peak] [Outro] [percussion gradually disappears] [night insects return • desert wind] Tsuxub falls over the Kalahari. ǀaes turns into smoke. [dying fire crackle] The figures remain upon the stone. Tsara beneath them, [soft rattle] ǀhommi above them, [distant night call] !hūb remembers. [three slow stomps] DUM... DUM... DUM... And still they dance, though no one is here anymore. [wind across the sand] [faint group chant disappearing into the distance] “Tsuxub... tsara... tsuxub...” [silence]
