It's hard to review an album which you recorded. I wouldn't have recorded and participated to it if I didn't like Notibird's songs. We recorded these particular, folk, distressed songs on 4-tracks at the 'Shady Corridor' during four days in June 2001.

Some of these songs were composed back in the days when we used to play side by side in our very first band which was called "GARDENING AT NIGHT". One rainy night of April, we were coming back from a gig and as usual he drove all the way back. We were supposed to go to his apartment in order to drop his Radiocity amp and his 1968 Les Paul, and then go party (that is get drunk at the drummer's flat) but he decided to stay home because he was mighty exhausted. In the middle of the night, fire broke out next floor of the tenement. When the smoke woke him up, his amp and guitar were already on fire next room. He tried to save them but he couldn't. In fact, he scarcely managed to escape. He was in shock for several weeks and he moved back to his parents' house in the open country, where he remained idle for a long time. That fire scene occurred 4 years ago and we've met only occasionally since then.

In January 2001, I suggested we record some of the 'Gardening At Night' material plus some songs he had composed since on his terrible, dreadful new guitar (which actually sounds so awful that there is not even a trademark printed on it!!). I borrowed a great amp and struggled for obtaining somehow a decent sound.

To start this 'Proverbs of Bone and Silence', we recorded a slowed down version of his catchy yet worried song 'None of These Days'. The album's title is immediately echoed in some parts of his former stand-out song's lyrics ("I am wondering at nights where to go, what to show... People will die when I get older"). "16 Horses of My Life" is definitely the best song on the album. The strident, discordant arrangement made up of 2 notes reinforces a subtle melt of hatred and despair which is serenely expressed through the melody and the lyrics ("In a field of minds, I just lie for hours, desperately awake but I'm going to speak. I hate myself and I want you to die"). "Fall of a Jedi"'s arpeggios and monotonous melody contemplate over mind's sufferings. "Silence is Better" runs after the dream of stardom while "The Fiction Between Us" (which is brought into relief thanks to a bee sample) and "Deloreane" (its chorus' desperate and threatening backvoices) deal with unfinished relationships ("I traveled half-a world today"). "Tonight, burning up today" and "Meeting People..." are pop songs, not as catchy as the first one though. These songs are intercut with interludes (all called 'Gemini') and an instrumental song. "Primavera" ends the album on an acknowledgment of failure and weariness: the clumsy voice finally manages to escape from this song's chaos to utter "I realize I was foolish to talk".

After this recording, Not i Bird wanted to make a band once again, which is done by now. They're called "The Nova Express" and we hope to hearing from them soon.

-SEB WOOd