The Oken Stone Podcast

The Scales Of The World is an allegorical story following the life of a tree and a man as they are both cut down. The story is presented in several short sections, each of which takes both branch and man on a transformative journey from riverbank through to a flooded world. Each section is represented through a mythical, reptilian being and invites the audience to travel on a journey of reinvention and transcendence.

Prelude - Cracking. A thunderstorm moves down from the mountains and lightening strikes an ancient willow tree. The fallen willow is carried by the river before rooting into the ground and growing upwards again.

Chapter 1 - The Willow Snake. A man is cutting willow by the river to make a basket as a present for an absent lover. As he works a Willow Snake encircles his wrist before he is struck dead by lightening. He falls to the ground amongst cut
willow branches. The willow roots again into the earth and grows up through the body of the man.

Chapter 2 - The Glass Snake. The man enters a spirit realm, a world of confusions. He is confronted by a Glass Snake which challenges his concepts of reality. The man perceives a hot-air balloon passing overhead with a basket hanging beneath it, and beneath that a rope. He reaches for the rope but the rope shatters into a million glass shards and he is lost within the refracted light, falling into a glass vase.

Chapter 3 - Moura, The Eyed Lizard. The man finds himself at the entrance to an underground tomb or gateway. The path is guarded by a Moura. The Moura invites him to enter this other world and to accept his fate.

Chapter 4 - The Great Serpent. The man passes into the earth and meets the Great Serpent, Maxa’ xkuk. The serpent is liquid and solid simultaneously. Its presence signals a great flood that will engulf all the land, swallowing the man along with it. Two branches from the ancient willow tree are carried by the tides to the opposite poles of the world and begin to grow. Each tree produces a single fruit and each fruit contains a single life, and a new beginning.

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Music - Richard Luke
Vocals - Alex Rigg & Breezy Lee
Lyrics - Alex Rigg
String Arrangement - Greg Lawson
Violins - Fiona Stephen & Greg Lawson
Viola - Liz Wyly
Cello - Juliette Lemoine
Harp - Stephanie Irvine
Pipes & Whistles - Ollie Rigg
Percussion - Anders Rigg
Guitar and Piano & Electronics - Richard Luke
Strings recorded live at Cottiers, Glasgow by Mark Mckellen
Mixed and engineered by Richard Luke
Mastered by Andy Baldwin at Metropolis
Cover design by Alex Rigg and Kim Martin

Dancers - Jen Farmer; Suzi Cunningham; Malcolm I Sutherland; Dylan Read; Aaron Jeffrey; Camille Marmié; Rosamund McCormac; KJ Clarke-Davis; Philip Alexander Macdonald; Laura Victoria Ward.

Choreography - Alex Rigg & Bill Coleman.
Written, Designed & Directed - Alex Rigg

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A few thoughts about the process of change, the fragile nature of human relationships and the value of learning how to be yourself.

Becoming Other
When the hysterical becomes historical,
I’ll see you there -
Don’t mean to be funny but,
you crack me up
like crazy paving.
When daily becomes doolally
I’ll sort it out -
schizophrenia?
I’m a mosaic for you.
When the parting becomes central
I’ll be more Man -
for god’s sake -
Just kick the habit!
When hoping becomes coping
I’ll reconsider -
read the cards?
Get royally flushed.
When promise is compromised
rip up the letters -
Alpha and Beta;
I’ll tear your translateables.
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ar 2025

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Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.

Some thoughts on the most peculiar relationship that the fast moving modern town has to its situation. Executive versus historical. Nature versus Cafe Latte. Rocks versus paper and scissors.

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Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.

In which you discover a door in your own foot, and enter through it.

Out
I’ll take a story from you, hillside;
I’ll make something from you, something deep
like a door in your foot, a way in.
There will be singing, voices raised
and the gravity of mysteries that erupt
as small flowers around your shoulders.
We will go up with our eyes over and over again
until we live inside the land in our minds.
You will wear clouds on cold days around your neck
and press your head into the blue-black void.

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https://oceanallover.bandcamp.com/

Listen to all of the music from Orographic by Oceanallover.

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Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.

You begin to climb the mountain. Perspectives slide. You find a door..........

Support the show

Thanks very much for listening. Art is an act of generosity and as such is made to be shared.