1. You Are My Sister - [MP3]
2. Poorest Ear
3. Forest of Love
4. Paddy's Gone

1. You Are My Sister - [MP3]
2. I Can't Give Up On Your Spirit

Guest vocals by Boy George on track 1.

1. Hope There's Someone - [MP3]
2. Frankenstein
3. Just One Star
4. Hope There's Someone [music video - only on CD version]

Todd Cohen, Jeff Langston, Julia Kent, Maxim Moston, and Joan Wasser appear on 2.
Music video and cover photography by Glen Fogel, featuring Joey Gabriel.

1. Hope There's Someone - [MP3]
2. My Lady Story
3. For Today I am a Buoy - [MP3]
4. Man is the Baby
5. You Are My Sister
6. What Can I Do?
7. Fistful of Love - [MP3]
8. Spiralling - [MP3]
9. Free At Last
10. Bird Girl

Guest vocalists:
Devenra Banhart (8)
Boy George (5)
Lou Reed (7)
Rufus Wainright (6)
Julia Yasuda (9)

1. The Lake - [MP3]
2. Fistful of Love - [MP3]
3. The Horror Has Gone - [MP3]

Lou Reed - guest vocals and guitars on song 2.

This brief, three-song EP is being released as a spacer to tide fans over until the new Antony and the Johnsons full-length album I Am A Bird Now is released February of next year. New material from NYC's premiere torch-song singing androgyne is long overdue, the artist not having released any new material since 2002's I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy EP, and no full-length since his superlative 1999 debut on Durtro. In these intervening years, Antony's cult of adoration has grown considerably, with established NYC artists Lou Reed and his wife Laurie Anderson promoting the artist, playing a number of shows together. Antony has made guest vocal appearances on two of Lou Reed's recent albums, and he contributes vocals to campy queer troubadour Rufus Wainwright's most recent album Want Two. It seems that success has agreed with Antony, as the songs and lyrics on The Lake evidence a decidedly more positive outlook than the depressing song suite of his first album. According to Antony, "The Horror Has Gone," "That terror was not fright/but a tremulous delight," and "I feel that heat/And I know it's love." There are no more rivers of sorrow or Hitlers in his heart, I suppose. Even despite my usual preference for melancholy, The Lake EP is a terrific little taster, all three songs showcasing the singer/songwriter/arranger at the very height of his craft. The title track will be recognizable to those who have heard the Current 93/Antony split Live at St. Olave's Church EP, a moving adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's mysterious lyric poem. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that Lou Reed's The Raven, a dire concept album about the decadent author, coincided with Antony's fascination with Poe, but either way it's a beautiful song, though I prefer slightly the simpler arrangement and vocal style of the earlier live recording. "Fistful of Love" is the EP's centerpiece: an upbeat, jazzy number about the fear of admitting you're in love in someone. Lou Reed does a guest vocal spot on the EP, contributing some terse spoken lyrics and electric guitar. It's one of Antony's busiest arrangements, with a full brass section and a distinct rock vibe, but he pulls it off brilliantly. The final track is the brief, delicate "The Horror Has Gone," in which Antony celebrates the passing of a deep depression, playing the piano, accompanied by Julia Kent's beautiful cello. I've been enjoying this EP thoroughly, and it affirms what many people already know: Antony's voice is one of the most amazingly expressive instruments around. Those who don't get it, never will; those who love it, will always come back for more. - Jonathan Dean

1. Current 93, "Calling for Vanished Faces 1"
2. Current 93, "The Carnival is Dead and Gone"

1. Antony and the Johnsons, "Virgin Mary" - [MP3]

Manufactured for the show by in Lisbon, Portugal

Limited to 500 copies.

1. Antony and the Johnsons, "You Stand Above Me" - [MP3]
2. Antony and the Johnsons, "The Lake"
3. Antony and the Johnsons, "Cripple and the Starfish"
4. Current 93, "Judas as Black Moth"
5. Current 93, "Sleep Has His House"
6. Current 93, "Walking Like Shadow"

Recorded on April 5th and 6th, 2002 at Saint Olave's Church in London.
CD illustrations ('Mairai with Tears' and 'Eye Into God') and design by Antony.

While several Current Ninety Three live outings have been recorded and in due time released, Antony and the Johnsons five years of performances have not seen the same light of day. Perhaps that and the (at the time) upcoming Antony/C93 shows in Portugal and San Francisco were reasons for Durtro to present this EP length disc featuring three tracks apiece from last April's shows. Antony is at the piano, accompanied by Johnson Maxim Moston on violin. "You Stand Above Me" is only one minute and thirty-six seconds but contains all the melancholy and drama one would expect. Antony bellows "while eternity cycles wildly, inside me," over plaintive piano notes, the vibrato of his powerful soprano nestling into every crevice of my mind, body and soul. Antony naturally adapts Edgar Allan Poe's lovely 1827 poem "The Lake" to song, a much more fitting tribute than Lou Reed's ill-advised 'The Raven' (excepting Antony's minimal rendition of Reed's "Perfect Day"). What follows is the tender "Cripple and the Starfish," and what sounds like a well deserved standing ovation. For C93's songs, David Tibet is accompanied by usual suspects Maja Elliott on piano and Michael Cashmore on guitar. "Walking Like Shadow," from C93 and Nurse With Wound's 'Bright Yellow Moon' is musically true. Ditto the brief version of "Judas as Black Moth" from 'Soft Black Stars' which also benefits from additional lyrics, "in the middle of the night as the cats cry in the street, and the scent of flowers is heavy in your hair, the car sweeps by with a murdered child, the car sweeps by with a violated girl". The mammoth title track from 'Sleep Has His House' is reduced to just the main lyrical passage here, the piano and Tibet's voice rising to a fever pitch as he breathlessly chokes on emotion in remembrance of his father. It is magnificent. Too bad there's only three songs each. I'd happily pay more for more. Maybe, just maybe, a future show will come closer to me than 1300 miles away. - Mark Weddle

1. I Fell in Love with a Dead Boy - [MP3]
2. Mysteries of Love - [MP3]
3. Soft Black Stars - [MP3]

2 is a Julee Cruise song, written by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti.
3 is a Current 93 song.

Three days in my possession and I can't stop playing this three tracker over and over again. For those who have been fortunate enough to witness Antony & the Johnsons live, this provides an excellent souvenir of favorites not on the debut album. Other fans would enjoy this as a great companion to the eponymous release. The title track is a touching yet unsettling love song. With the simple chord structure echoing old standards, it too can easily become a timeless classic. In addition to this, the single's rounded out by two covers: Current 93's "Soft Black Stars" and "Mysteries of Love," originally performed by Julee Cruise, written by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti. Like the subject of the song, the mysteries are all sort of becoming clear now. Until recently had I not made a surrealistic David Lynch connection. The whole experience of Antony & the Johnsons live and on record sort of all make sense under a twisted yet beautiful mentality of works like Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Wild At Heart. Perhaps the popularity of Goldfrapp and Jay Jay Johanson can also be attributed to the attractive simliar sort of film-noir qualities combined with delicate beauty. - Jon Whitney

1. Twilight
2. Cripple and the Starfish - [MP3]
3. Hitler in my Heart
4. Atrocities
5. River of Sorrow - [MP3]
6. Rapture - [MP3]
7. Deeper than Love
8. Divine
9. Blue Angel

I'm sure by now you've heard the hype surrounding this growing legend. He was picked up by David Tibet of Current 93 to be on the Durtro label after Tibet listened to this album. Antony's lyrics and vocals are some of the most soul-clenching and amazingly powerful sounds around today by far. His piano work is splendid. The Johnsons band consists of drums, harp, bass, two violins, cello, flute, two clarinets, sax, and "guitar effects." Fans of vocal performaers strong enough to slice through your heart and leave your lungs without air should definitely seek this out. The sound is almost reminiscent of old show tunes about broken hearts, but instead with an effeminate male singing. His lyrics tell of pain and can be percieved as melodramatic on the same level that Current 93 can be, but at the same time leave you listening to this disc repeatedly. "Cripple and the Starfish," from the split-single with Current 93 is only one of quite a few stand out tracks on this album. I have yet to see his performance live, but word is that listening to it from a CD is not a tenth of the power felt while experiencing it live. I look forward to seeing his last show in the current New York series on May 30th. - Daniel McKernan

1. Current 93, "Immortal Bird"
2. Antony and the Johnsons, "Cripple and the Starfish" - [MP3]