WORKHORSE by CONTINVVS

The hardest working horse in the world has brought his master great fame and fortune. Yet as he grows he begins to exceed and question his master. Moreover a conflict arises with an inner calling to do his own work, which he can only do after official working hours.

Eventually this work, pursued so faithfully, renders our WorkHorse a spiritual revelation that clarifies the aforementioned calling, bringing him greater peace and inspired motivation than ever before. When he returns to his master's work, he finds himself resistant and withdrawn, and must force himself to focus. This increased intensity combined with his newfound self-awareness causes his body to increase rapidly in size and ascend into the air above the worksite, parting him from everything he knows that has gotten him this far.

As this strange exodus continues he begins to understand the meaning of this transformation: his work has matured and now must become his very existence--as a star. He settles into the industrious workflow nonpareil of stellar fusion utterly naturally, and grieves the bittersweet departure from those who helped him grow without fully understanding or appreciating his whole self or his need to move on. Soon he becomes aware that an entire race of his own kind are arriving, galloping through space to welcome him into their constellation. As a new, dynamic cog in this new, transparent machine, he understands that contrary to his upbringing, the purpose of work is not to produce or achieve or complete, but to participate--and this work will never be done, even after he collapses into a black hole, which is itself the enduring memory of the work that lives on.

recorded August 2020 at Ovation Sound, Winston-Salem NC

Adam Pin, drums, blocking
Peter Longofono, bass, dramaturgy
Amos Fisher, guitar, voice, clarinet, composition, found sounds, histrionics
Samuel Allen Taylor, electroacoustic sounds & spatialization, science fiction
William Robert Stevens, engineer, producer, keys, bent mirrors
Naomi Greenberg, visual illustration, embodiment

instagram @thisiscontinuus
@amosfishermusic

I compose "anti-chamber music" for a rotating lineup of mixed instruments called the Anomylos Ensemble; dark minimalist progressive punk for my band CONTINUUS; psychedelic surreal sound art in solo as "somA" or with improv multimedia group The Azerbaijan A/V Club; as well as simple songs with poetic lyrics sung solo on guitar. Dig whatever you can, bring your own shovel.