compositions like "Magic Bird of Fire" and the works of Rinder & Lewis. A misspent youth ensued,
steeped in gentle lessons in piano, violin and finally viola, which would become his passion and primary musical vehicle.
Polar went on to become a prizewinner at the William Primrose International Viola Competition at 18, followed soon after by an infamous tenure at Oberlin Conservatory. By the mid-nineties, Polar found himself in New York City pursuing an advanced degree at the illustrious Juilliard School and
cementing his reputation for general deviance. By day, he took classes and held a menial job as a Teaching Fellow in Electronic Music; by night, he busied himself in the school's tiny, ill-equipped studio.
Time passed until fate introduced a freak meeting with Morgan Geist, head of the Environ record label. Geist and partner Darshan Jesrani were deep into the production of their first collaborative record and looking for a section of live strings to complete the germination of their signature sound. Retiring to the tiny, windowless cube high above Lincoln Center that was his studio, Polar proceeded to compose and record the first string arrangement for the duo that would soon be known to the world as Metro Area.
Thus began the relationship that left a deep impression on Metro Area's oeuvre. Kelley Polar and his viola, usually supplanted by a stream of faceless Juilliard concertmistresses (for whom he had a notoriously superficial affection), began recording for Environ under the name "Kelley Polar Quartet."
KPQ would be heard on some of Metro Area's biggest tracks - "Miura," "Caught Up” and "Dance Reaction", to name a but a few – and even made the occasional surprise appearances at the group’s live
performances.
Polar’s interest in music of the 18th and 19th centuries increasingly transformed into a desire to formulate and codify the "disco orchestral" string playing technique of the 70's and 80's, and access to Geist’s carefully collected record archive filled his brain with a strange survey of domestic and imported
disco, boogie, and electronic music. Polar’s crafted solo efforts had some elements of Metro Area's style; however, his bizarre mix of western classical theory coupled with ignorance of current dance music trends gave these early demos a uniqueness that captured Geist's ear, and it wasn’t long until the inaugural solo Kelley Polar Quartet 12” (Audition EP) was the buzz of taste-making DJs the world over.
Around the same time, Polar was able to convince the Juilliard powers that his final solo recital (previously cancelled for an outlandish program featuring player pianos and Bedouin singers) should move ahead as planned. But the program was a mere decoy, and as the basslines of his newest Environ tracks boomed out over Julliard’s recital hall to an audience that included his enraged teachers, Kelley Polar effectively ended his higher education at the world's most famous music school.
The violist was now free to indulge his artistic impulses - as well as his lower passions. Despite his recording career flourishing with a series of brilliant 12”s on Environ, Polar could no longer handle his self-destructive city lifestyle, and soon returned to the countryside of his youth. Desperate for some sort of personal redemption, Polar severed most ties with New York and began playing chamber music under an assumed name in rural New Hampshire.
Today, Polar is the violist for the Apple Hill Chamber Players, a group known worldwide for playing primarily in conflict areas such as the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Caucauses. Like his late nights producing records back in NYC, he still spends most of his time in a tiny cube, this one made of aged gray wood and surrounded by hay fields. Alone for weeks at a time during the long winter months, Kelley Polar's mind and voice try to find quiet, and make sense of his life and his musical ancestors, from the Vienna of 1770 to the grandiose discos of Manhattan 200 years later...
Zeno of Elea
Kelley Polar Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That I could fly
But when I woke
I had forgotten how
And now it seems
I don't know why
I just feel so much sadder now
I jumped from high
But gravity would not allow it
So now I fall
And close me eyes
I guess it doesn't matter now
I hear the sound
And I feel the wind
Falling in my endless dive
I'm wondering about how strange it's been
How strange it's been to be alive
I see the ground
And here at the end
I think about how I might survive
I'll fall half way and half again
Perhaps I never will arrive
Perhaps I never will arrive
Perhaps I never will arrive
Perhaps I never will arrive
Perhaps I never will arrive
And it goes on
And it never stops
And it goes on
And it never stops
And it goes on
And it never stops
In “Zeno of Elea”, Kelley Polar describes a dream where he had the ability to fly but upon waking up, he had forgotten how to do it. He feels a sense of sadness and tries again but is stopped by gravity, causing him to fall into an endless dive. His thoughts turn to the strangeness of life and how difficult it can be to find a sense of arrival. The repetition of the last lines “perhaps I never will arrive” reinforces that feeling of uncertainty and a nagging sense of existential dread.
The lyrics of this song seemingly reference the famous philosopher Zeno of Elea, who proposed a paradox known as the Dichotomy Paradox. The paradox holds that in order to travel, one must first go halfway, and then halfway again, and so on, leading to an infinite number of halves that must be traveled before arriving at one’s destination. In a way, this can be seen as a metaphor for the journey of life, which often feels like an endless pursuit of an unattainable goal.
Line by Line Meaning
Last night I dreamed
Reflecting on a dream I had last night
That I could fly
In the dream, I had the ability to soar through the air
But when I woke
However, upon waking up
I had forgotten how
I lost my memory of how to do it
And now it seems
As a result, I feel
I don't know why
Confused and uncertain about my emotions
I just feel so much sadder now
Overwhelmed with sadness for some reason
I jumped from high
Later, I took a leap from a height
And hoped to rise
Expecting to ascend
But gravity would not allow it
However, gravity prevented me from doing so
So now I fall
As a result, I am plummeting downward
And close me eyes
In response, I shut my eyes tightly
I guess it doesn't matter now
I suppose it is irrelevant at this point
I hear the sound
I perceive the noise around me
And I feel the wind
I am aware of the sensation of wind rushing past me
Falling in my endless dive
While endlessly falling
I'm wondering about how strange it's been
I ponder how peculiar my experiences have been
How strange it's been to be alive
Reflecting on how unusual and different it is to exist
I see the ground
As I approach the earth
And here at the end
Towards the end of my fall
I think about how I might survive
Considering how I can escape the impending danger
I'll fall half way and half again
I may come close to safety but fall again
Perhaps I never will arrive
It's possible that I will never make it
And it goes on
This cycle continues
And it never stops
It never comes to an end
And it goes on
The same can be said for this endless fall
And it never stops
An ongoing experience that doesn't cease
And it goes on
Reiterating that this sensation and cycle persists
And it never stops
No foreseeable ending to this state
Lyrics © WARP MUSIC LIMITED
Written by: MICHAEL KELLEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
DommageCollateral
thank you man. i love this song really much
Emmbedd
Yea it’s a rare classic