Steven Wilson - Staircase (performed by Primuz Chamber Orchestra)

Steven Wilson - Staircase (performed by Primuz Chamber Orchestra)

Check out the remarkable orchestral arrangement of Staircase by Wojtek Lemański, as performed by the Primuz Chamber Orchestra, I love this!

String Arrangement - Wojciech Lemański

Video made and edited - Antoni Lemański

performed by PRIMUZ CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

Conductor - Łukasz Błaszczyk

Recorded in September 2024 at the studio of the University of Music in Łódź (POLAND)

Recording Engineer - Mateusz Muchewicz, Krzysztof Sztekmiler

Arranged, edited, mixed by Wojciech Lemański using original tracks from Steven Wilson's album.

1st violin: Dominika Sznajder-Janczewska - leader, Paulina Wiecha - manager, Agata Niewiadoma, Izabela Ignatowska, Jędrzej Lemański (improvisation), Julia Loska

2nd violin: Andżelika Chorzempa - leader, Daria Pacuda, Gabriela Graboń, Natalia Szymczyk

Viola: Magdalena Żurawska - leader, Bartosz Paradowski, Martyna Susek

Cello: Jakub Lemański - leader (improvisation), Miłosz Mirowski, Jakub Nowak

Double bass: Kamil Biadała

Staircase is a dark song about getting older in the modern world. The pressure to provide for a family, get on the property ladder, the need to compete with everyone else (or to be seem to be doing so), battling stress and illness, focussing on accumulation of wealth... all the things that society expects us to do. The pressure to “play the game”. But one day you find you're massively in debt, surrounded by things you don’t really need, your life being run by technology, being bombarded by content. And all with a deep seated sense of dread, as your life ticks away. Ascending (or descending) the staircase.

Lyrics:

Automaton drone

You're lost with no phone

And the home you made you own

Can never be paid for

The great in the small

The rise and the fall

And you come back for more

The need to belong

And the will to do no wrong

The ones that you lost

Abandoned or crossed

Will haunt you

Plagued by poor health

But you stockpile more wealth

Congratulate yourself

A sense of proportion

And act of extortion

There’s too much distortion

You sink in stages

As you’re approaching middle ages

You’re up to here in debt

Insidious tech

You’re up to your neck

Why don’t you give it a rest?

A train set

A cold war threat

A prison

A poison nest

A chrome cassette

Division

The blue and white

A power strike

A girl you like

The daylight fades

You feel your way

Daguerreotype

The power of nature

And the oppression of strangers

The consequence of dread

A barbarous brain

A dominant strain

You’ll never win this game