*A piece to celebrate the release of MEJU's album Eternal
Megan Bernard and Kalju Tonuma are two of my dearest friends
And they are gifted.
They use music to tell stories about what it’s like to be human;
About what it takes to create
To love
To persist
And find meaning.
Eternal is their story.
It’s our story.
Once upon a time
Upon this very land
When Megan was much as she is now
But also quite significantly different
And Kalju was someone I did not yet know
But was soon to meet
Megan and Kalju began to make music together.
Megan was a singer and a songwriter and a guitarist
She painted pictures with her voice and with her hands
And Kalju was a music producer and engineer
He captured those pictures and delivered them to our ears; focused and fine and ready.
They enjoyed what they made together
And everything made sense.
Over time
Things changed
(As things do).
A love blossomed
Deep and wide
And they became MEJU
Exciting and Golden and Outside of Time.
But love is never easy
And we are only human
A storm will lift our roofs
Disease will test our strength
And loss will lash what’s tender.
There’ll be mountains to scale
And rivers to cross
Doors to unlock
And others to hold shut
Obstacles…
The first song on Eternal, ‘Only Human’, opens with a series of questions. They are confronting and straight-talking. MEJU are setting out on their path by investigating what obstacles lie in their way and whether they have the strength to overcome them. This is not easy listening but the accomplishment of our callings are rarely easy endeavours, for in desire there is an implicit and necessary distance. There is a musical hyper-reality in this song that sits in marked contrast to the gritty, punchy, poking lyrics. It’s a perfect contradiction. Will MEJU get what they have identified as wanting (a life together, a musical partnership)? Do they have the strength and the will?
‘Willing’ is bouncy and fun; an agreement to see the obstacles through with joy. It expresses the reciprocity of giving, with its smooth and playful movement and change, juxtaposing vulnerability and strength. ‘Willing’ is an agreement with the cosmos to dance the dance of creation and engage in the processes that might result in the birth of what’s desired.
‘Talking’ is sweet and sexy with a touch of the wild; of the shooting stars that one imagines might ping through the sky on a night such as that described. It’s the first tentative steps in their dance with creation. The sense of obstacles thwarting their partnership resurface (One night out at sea / Waving goodbye) but it doesn’t linger here. It’s just a hint of challenge, wrapped safely inside an encompassing sense of hope and promise, carried on the waves of Megan’s divine guitar. Smooth. Oh so smooth.
In ‘Weightless’, a streak of sadness emerges, of grief and letting go. Perhaps a tinge of fear too. Megan sings I’m not going be a heavy weight / I’m not gonna draw the shorter straw / I’ve got to fly / On my own terms / With my own wings / With my own words, summoning the strength to keep on, to persevere. They are determined. They say they will paint a prettier, prettier picture and I believe them. It’s their lightness, their gentle touch. They will float. They know how to move and change with the tides and the winds.
From this place of surrender, the album moves beautifully into ‘Lover’s Name’. The duo play joyfully again. The thrum of the guitar creates an urgency of promise, of desire, a call to one another, to music and the universe. MEJU have been challenged and yet still they desire. This is a ‘come-hither song’, a ‘bring-me-more’ song – innocent and sincere and impossible to resist.
Heavier and darker, ‘Same Game’s’ bass adds weight and earth, grounding their formerly out-of-this-world sound. Megan’s lyrics and voice change too, into something repeating and compounding, giving a sense that a different tactic must be used if the obstacles are ever to be surmounted. Show it with an action is a lyrical movement into the physical realm, into the practical. In preparation for their final victorious movements, they’ve seen it all before and they know just what to do. It’s the same page / It’s the same game and, they know, The path is set. They don’t need poetry, they’ve got this. Like ninjas, like hurdle runners, they are going to leap into their shared future.
And they do. From this point on, the album reaches its crescendo. ‘Earthshine’ is a song of hindsight and clear vision: There was confusion / There was drama / A chain reaction into the abyss…There were vampires. They must be safe, for they can finally look back, and we can start to relax as our protagonists become philosophical: It was one kind of a life waiting for an update. MEJU can see beauty in their journey and we can hear it.
‘Earthshine’ is a magical track. After their flight, their voyage, their 20,000 metre sky dive and wild-water swim, they keep smashing. Exhaustion and effort have peeled away their defences, allowing insight into the divine. If there’s any loss here, it comes in the form of knowledge. With the expansion of their world-view, their experience of what they are able to over-come, they must now Take it this time with love. They have lived insight into their own possibility and, with that, comes responsibility.
If ‘Earthshine’ is MEJU’s safe landing, ‘The Deal’ is arrival. There’s so much texture here. The drums run through dense scrub. The warmth of the keys and the guitar have me thinking of bare feet on sun-kissed sand while Megan’s voice is the cool, wave-wet shore. The requests that MEJU put out to the universe, to have it all at once, are finally being processed. They Could never guess / Wouldn’t predict / How could they know / It’s not a fix but the deal is finally being sealed. They are at the threshold of a new way of being.
‘Eternal’ brings everything full-circle. Spiralling key modulations and lyrics mirroring those in the first track give a sense of completion, of something encapsulating and over-arching to the album. In some ways, it feels as though we have arrived back at the beginning but with a totally different sound environment. We have arrived back into MEJU’s original vision but with the adjustments that life has thrown at them. Their lessons have made them cognisant of the wonders that can arise for those who dare to remain open-hearted to the moments of magic that life can deliver, even in adversity. We have heard them Grow a little taller / Think a little bigger / Then get a little smaller… I can shine a light if you turn it on / You’re eternal if you turn it on…You’re the star of the show… Turn on the light. Much like Alice in Wonderland, or The Wizard of Oz, this album makes it possible to believe that magic is real; created by desire and accomplished by the work of bringing it life.
MEJU are magicians.
The story of Megan and Kalju
Told beautifully through sound
Asks us
Each one
To believe.
It’s for the tender heart that seeks
For the mind that battles
For those struggling with their circumstances
Whose belief has begun to waver.
It’s for those seeking resilience and strength
And, it’s for those who are willing to turn their faces towards the light of their own being.
It’s not an easy story
For there is no light without shade
And we are only human
But there is fortitude here
And there is fun.
I have
Many times wanted
Someone to breathe beauty into the webs of despair
Hung around my neck
And this is an album that does this
And encourages us to do the same.
The story is
Eternal
Written by Leone White for 23/07/23
(Actress, theatre-maker and audio-performance artist)
