ALCHEMY OF GOLD

Original Song for “LINER NOTES”

ALCHEMY OF GOLD blends the cinematic sweep of a classic James Bond theme with the brooding, late-90s nihilism of Britpop. Lyrically and musically, it reflects lost love, unfinished dreams, and the quiet danger of longing.

The sound of E minor has threaded through my life since I was a young girl living in Paris, listening to Urban Hymns by The Verve. Richard Ashcroft had a rare gift for writing about yearning—the kind of wanting that makes your heart ache, carried by chords that seem to hold the ache inside them.

ALCHEMY OF GOLD is about two people who burn each other down in the pursuit of one another, setting fire to their own house of dreams.

Written by Anna Emily Altman and Arabella Berman (Arabella’s Voice Studio), and produced by award-winning producer Kieran Kelly, the song was conceived as something moody and haunting—music that lingers with the listener the way the characters linger with each other.

The song is written from the perspective of the lead character James Dearborn, but sung by a woman, as if James is hearing his own longing echoed back to him through another voice—his desire for Ana, and for a nameless specter he cannot quite understand.

Produced and Arranged by Kieran Kelly
Lyrics by Anna Emily Altman
Music by Anna Emily Altman and Arabella Berman

All the secrets you kept, all the tears we wept
I wondered all this time for her to be mine

And now I’m standing here, this home filled with fear
This place is burning down from the fire you brought ‘round

I felt her move beneath my feet today
All the stories you told; the Alchemy of Gold
I felt that shatter in my soul again
All the stories  you told; the Alchemy of Gold

I have this hole in my soul 
Its fight for control 
These pictures in my mind
You and me lost in time.