Sinal

[INTRO - drums and bass immediately, locked groove, talking drum attempts three uncertain strikes before settling into the hook, djembe and dunun entering underneath, ZSORAYII melodic vocal enters over groove]

[VERSE 1 - ZSORAYII]

Every window told the same story,

every corner learned the lines,

somebody falling, somebody fighting,

another reason to choose a side.

At supper, four faces held four little screens,

while the rice went cold between them,

outside, one flower broke through the pavement,

nobody lifted their eyes to see it.

[PRE-CHORUS - groove continues unchanged]

The city kept asking for something to eat,

we never asked what we were feeding.

Every finger gave it another piece,

then wondered why it kept repeating.

[CHORUS - big melodic hook, continuous Afrobeats groove]

Feed it a story it hasn't seen,

give it a window where walls have been,

send one laugh through a thousand rooms,

send one seed and see what blooms.

Oh, what we give it travels on,

long after the hand that sent it is gone.

We thought the signal came from somewhere,

then found our fingerprints everywhere.

[INSTRUMENTAL RESPONSE - talking drum repeats and answers her melody, djembe accents underneath, dunun holding the low end, continuous groove]

[VERSE 2 - ZSORAYII]

In a shop where broken things waited,

under clocks that had forgotten time,

a little girl found an old machine

with one small sentence on its side:

"Feed me what you want the world to become."

So she gave it the smallest thing,

a boy bent down beside a frightened bird,

opened his hands and gave it wings.

[PRE-CHORUS - percussion thickens, groove never stops]

Three seconds crossed a crowded screen,

one little picture slipped between

all the reasons to be afraid,

and one child smiled before it changed.

[CHORUS 2 - fuller instrumentation]

Feed it a story it hasn't seen,

give it a window where walls have been,

send one laugh through a thousand rooms,

send one seed and see what blooms.

Oh, what we give it travels on,

long after the hand that sent it is gone.

We thought the signal came from somewhere,

then found our fingerprints everywhere.

[VERSE 3 - continuous groove, djembe and dunun now fully layered in alongside talking drum]

Next came a grandmother carrying Sunday,

a recipe folded inside a memory.

A nurse brought footsteps leaving a sickbed,

a tired father brought his daughter's joke.

A painter brought neighbors planting a garden,

a shy child drew herself learning to fly,

a musician gave them four little measures,

by morning the whole street knew the reply.

[BUILD - talking drum answers vocal, djembe and dunun remain foreground alongside it]

Then red letters climbed every building:

ANGER GETS ATTENTION.

FEAR KEEPS YOU WATCHING.

The old pictures shouted harder.

But nobody pulled out a wire.

Nobody broke a screen.

The little girl rolled up her sleeves,

and made one more beautiful thing.

[INSTRUMENTAL - talking drum, djembe, dunun and saz converse over the same uninterrupted groove, drums leading]

[CHORUS - larger, still same locked groove]

Feed it a story it hasn't seen,

give it a window where walls have been,

send one laugh through a thousand rooms,

send one seed and see what blooms.

Oh, what we give it travels on,

long after the hand that sent it is gone.

We thought the signal came from somewhere,

then found our fingerprints everywhere.

[BRIDGE - full groove continues, no breakdown, powerful and restrained, never whispered, djembe and dunun driving underneath]

The feed was never hungry for anger,

it was hungry for whatever we gave.

So give it the dance nobody finished,

the sorry somebody was frightened to say.

Give it the dog waiting by the doorway,

the hands putting chairs round one table.

Not because the hurt isn't happening,

because hurt is not all we are able.

[BUILD - intensity increases through layering, no drop in groove, all three drums at full presence]

[FINAL CHORUS - maximum layering, talking drum, djembe and dunun driving together]

Feed it a story it hasn't seen,

millions of windows, none the same dream,

send one laugh through a thousand rooms,

send one seed and watch what blooms.

Oh, what we give it travels on,

long after the hand that sent it is gone.

We thought the signal came from somewhere,

now every fingerprint is everywhere.

[OUTRO - groove continues, no stripping down, djembe and dunun sustaining underneath]

The little machine went quiet that day,

no one had told it to stop.

Across the street, that flower was waiting,

one child looked down.

Then another.

[ZSORAYII - long melodic final line over full groove]

And nobody reached for a screen.

[Talking drum answers final vocal phrase, djembe and dunun carrying through; full groove continues to the ending]