Seven at 77 - preorder the Leaf Library

On An Ocean of Greatness

Music was made in the darkness of our own homes during the winter months, the number seven was discussed a lot (music in the key of G, the seventh note, seven-ish players), and an imaginary mythology (as well as a pretend mix tape) was born. The real details of how this piece of music came about are a bit dull, so we’d like to leave you with 77 lines (each seven syllables long, ordered randomly) as an accompaniment. It’s certainly not an explanation though, so careful how you use it. The ocean is you, and all the beautiful things you make.



On an ocean of greatness
Keep your mistakes to yourself
Sometimes we’re happy, sometimes
Repeating and repeating
Little fractures here and there
Seven colours on repeat
In doors and out through windows
Paper boats on black ink lake
Every new moon matters now
Waking up is hard to do
Diving in the deep blue sea
Whatever we are, I say
A beautiful idea
Some music made by talking
Lines from the lonely city
The sea is bright blue today
There are no shadows at night
The weather behind your eyes
Becoming and not become
Towns and structure and darkness
If it’s breaking please wake up
Tilting towards the daylight
Reflect twice as windows pass
So long, see you tomorrow
Arranged for less than seven
At the foot of the mountain
Night draws in from left to right
A system of seven notes
On the mountains of the moon
An inverse number of words
Up to the line and back down
Away from all that is good
Plotting the arc of your words
Remembering where we’ve been
Falling towards the major
Same again, same again, same
Drinking in the deep green sea
Shadows will shadow themselves
This shape remembers nothing
Combining all the weathers
Gathering all that we have
Words about inverse numbers
The moment is the message
The first station of many
It is happening again
Great, greater, gather and grain
Rain falls against my window
Above your failing body
Seven lines landing at night
There is nothing you can do
A construction in pencil
Constellations rise and fall
Every seventh number gone
When is this going to be
The sketchbooks of architects
Whatever I say it is
Twice everyday returning
One hundred and seventeen
Black ink floods the pale blue sky
The black place and the white place
Heavy clouds over the south
My dreams are not dreamt at night
In a familiar way
An endless looping cycle
The corners turn and curl out
There is never not something
Whatever I say, we are
A seventh white moon appears
All things this way forever
The world is under water
I am more than half asleep
Two worlds meet as the sun dies
Ebbing away from the door
The heptagon comes alive
On the golden moth outside
No one notices this now
We’re an ocean of greatness


Music produced by The Leaf Library

Matt Ashton – guitar, bass, screen synths
Daniel Fordham – electronics
Kate Gibson – vocals
Gareth Jones – Thunderbird and Grabber bass guitars
Simon Nelson – secret guitar, Space Echo
Lewis Young – OP1, Brute, other synths, guitar, computer
Additional loops, samples, synth, vocals, tapes and breadmaker by Chimney (Mark Cremins and Yutaka Hoshino)


All music by The Leaf Library
Recorded and mixed by Lewis Young at The Drone Lodge, Walthamstow
Additional recording by Matt Ashton at Tape That, Walthamstow, Dan in Wales, and Mark and Yutaka in Amsterdam
Field recordings by Matthew Bowron, Matt Ashton and Ben Tandy

Illustration by Matt Ashton, shiny rave poster by Lewis Young

Thanks to: Mark, Yutaka, Matthew, Ben, John, Kat, Alice, Laura, Kelly, Mik, and you, especially.