> NATURE AND ORGANIZATION: Beauty Reaps the Blood of Solitude (Durtro 021CD)
- Introduction – 02:55
- Wicker Man Song – 04:33
- Blood of Solitude I – 01:18
- Bloodstreamruns – 04:38
- My Black Diary – 05:26
- Tears for an Eastern Girl – 05:42
- Beauty Destroyed – 01:34
- Skeletontonguedworld – 03:02
- Obsession Flowers as Torture – 01:51
- Blood of Solitude II – 01:52
- Bonewhiteglory – 09:47
Nature and Organisation is the project of the brilliant Michael Cashmore, a frequent contributor to Current 93’s post-80’s albums. As with his work with Current 93, the music of Nature and Organisation tends to be delicate, medieval and baroque-sounding, and almost always incredibly beautiful. At its heart, this is essentially a Current 93 album, as a good many of the major contributors to c93 appear: David Tibet, Douglas P., Steven Stapleton, and Rose McDowall all offer substantial contributions to the project. Make no mistake: this is truly wonderful music and in fact, it’s probably one of my favorite albums ever. Thankfully, the lyrics are included.
The first track, INTRODUCTION, is one of the few non-acoustic pieces; it’s mostly low grinding rumbles building up to an orchestral-sounding peak, which sets an epic and dramatic stage for the rest of the album.
Track two, WICKER MAN SONG, is a traditional song sung by Rose McDowall over quiet guitar, violin, and other acoustic instruments. Simple and beautiful.
BLOOD OF SOLITUDE I is a short classically-styled instrumental piece (acoustic guitar and strings), providing a brief intro to the next track.
BLOODSTREAMRUNS is, to me, an amazing piece of work. Carrying on with the musical theme set forth in the previous track, David Tibet’s quiet and beautiful vocals are some of the best I’ve yet heard from him; his lyrics are similarly wonderful. In fact, this entire album (for me) is a great example of Tibet’s lyrical and vocal talents.
Checking in from Death in June, Douglas P. makes his contribution with MY BLACK DIARY. Once again, the music is mostly acoustic guitar and violins, but with an edge of Douglas’ distinctive musical style. Tibet provides backing vocals.
TEARS FOR AN EASTERN GIRL has a vaguely upbeat, vaguely cheerful sound, though the lyrics (as could be expected) are dreadfully melancholy. The music comprises female backing vocals, Tibet on lead vocals, and lots of acoustic instruments.
In sharp contrast to the preceding tracks, BEAUTY DESTROYED is mostly heavily distorted guitar noise (possibly provided by Steven Stapleton and his “sheep ventilator guitar?”) and a bit of percussion. Out of the cacophony, an epic-sounding orchestra rises in the background.
Once again back in acoustic mode, SKELETONTONGUEDWORLD features more chill-inducing vocals from Tibet and sadly beautiful music from Cashmore (did I mention that the man is genius?).
OBSESSION FLOWERS AS TORTURE begins with lovely acoustic guitar, and then continues where BEAUTY DESTROYED left off, with more exquisite electric guitar noise and percussion.
BLOOD OF SOLITUDE II is another quiet musical piece in the same vein as the BLOOD OF SOLITUDE I, deeply sad and beautiful (yeah, I know I’ve been using these adjectives a lot, but they’re truly appropriate!).
And finally, we end with BONEWHITEGLORY, which is about as perfect of a song as one could hope for. Acoustic guitar, violin, and Tibet’s vocals and lyrics combine for one final exquisite slice of melancholy. The song fades out after about 5 1/2 minutes, but fades back in for a reprise of the song for the final two minutes.
No epilogue.
(Source: http://www.softblackstars.org/longshadows/beauty-reaps-the-blood-of-solitude)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn8He_bLnF0]
4iB Records | For intrinsic Beliefs 