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NURSE WITH WOUND - Salt Marie Celeste - Salt

Format: do-CD Label & Cat.Number: DIRTER PROMOTIONS DPROM 163 Release Year: 2022 Note: re-issue of one of the most important and beautiful NWW albums ('a drone-ambient masterpiece : one hour one-tracker filled with oceanic despair & sadness...' [DroneRec]), first released in 2003, which comes now as an expanded version with the original SALT source material, recorded for the "The Horse Hospital" exhibition in London in 2002 (so far only release as lim. LP), along with new artwork (six panel digipack) Price (incl. 19% VAT): €17.00 More Info "A welcome re-release, as an expanded version, of one of Nurse With Wound's most notable albums. Originally recorded in 2002 by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter, the piece "Salt" was a limited-edition release to accompany an exhibition of Stapleton's artwork at The Horse Hospital in London. The following year Salt Marie Celeste was released as a single 61-minute-long piece of droning atmospheric sound that manages to be both minimal and maximal at the same time. A parade of strange, often unlikely, sounds appear and disappear during the voyage from Z to A. Described by many as being one of the most unsettling and/or engaging NWW recordings, it went on to feature in many "albums of the year" lists of 2003. This new edition comes in a six-panel digipack with stunning all-new artwork by Babs Santini." [label info] "A visionary product of Steven Stapleton's mind under the guise of Nurse With Wound, the UK based imprint, Dirter, delivers a brand new, deluxe, expanded double CD, comprising two of the project's most sought after albums, “Salt” and “Salt Marie Celeste”. Created around the same time near the turn of the new millennium, each represents a radical rethinking of the terms of ambient music, responding to an ever-darkening world. This new, expanded double CD edition makes two crucial artifacts from the project’s rare back catalog available for a new generation of listeners, after being out of print for years, making it an absolute must for every NWW fan. Sprawling across more than 40 years of activity, few musical endeavours have been as influential and uncategorizable as Nurse With Wound. Founded as a trio in 1978 by Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, by the early '80s the band had morphed into a solo vehicle for Stapleton’s maverick and creative mind, remaining so over the decades since and producing well over a hundred full lengths and EPs. The vast majority of these, issued in relatively small editions, have remained long out of print, highly collectable, and difficult to find. Thankfully, the last few years have witnessed a steady stream of reissues, finally bringing them back into our hands and allowing them to be approached, appreciated, and understood for what they are. The latest of these, issued by the UK based imprint, Dirter, gathers two rare artefacts from NNW’s output in the new millennium, “Salt”, issued as a very limited LP in 2011, an “Salt Marie Celeste”, issued as a rare CD edition in 2003. Released together as a deluxe, expanded double CD, these albums represents a radical rethinking of the terms of ambient music, responding to, and catapulting the listener into, an ever-darkening world. Nurse with Wound was easily one of the most singular projects to emerge during the late '70s in Britain; a moment that witnessed the ashes of punk’s first generation morph into radical new forms, often embracing the strategies of experimental music. Rooted in a surrealist ethos, while constantly pushing forward across a vast range of creative territory, the project utilised the approaches and attitudes of both punk and avant-garde, in new forms of music that incorporates a countless number of influences that crossed their paths; cabaret, nursery rhymes, pop music, and krautrock, not to mention the wild and wonderful touchstones that made it onto the sprawling NNW List. In its original incarnation of Steven Stapleton, John Fothergill, and Heman Pathak, Nurse with Wound only made two albums, 1979’s “Chance Meeting On a Dissecting Table of a Sewing Machine and an Umbrella”, and 1980’s “To the Quiet Men from a Tiny Girl”. In the aftermath, it became effectively a solo project for Stapleton, within which he allowed himself a remarkable amount of creative freedom and breadth, while involving the collaborations of numerous ambitious fellow travellers in the sonic realms. One of these was Colin Potter, an experimental musician and sound engineer known for his particularly playful approach to sound that emerged in solo ventures across the 1980s, as well as within regular collaboration with luminaries in the experimental underground, including NNW, Current 93, and Organum. Potters' collaborations with Stapleton under the guise of NNW begin during the early 1990s, and are present across a significant number of the project’s output over the coming decades. Among the most striking and significant of these is the 2003 album, “Salt Marie Celeste”, a visionary excursion into texture and ambience that has been described by many as being one of the most unsettling and/or engaging of all of the project's recordings. Once heard, there’s little question of why it went on to feature in many ‘albums of the year’ lists when it initially dropped. Recorded in 2002 by Stapleton and Potter and stretching to more than an hour in length, “Salt Marie Celeste” is an immersive gesture of droning atmospheric sound, riding the razors edge between the minimal and maximal; its remarkable density producing a glistening effect. Deploying a vast range of sound sources - instrumental and non-instrumental alike - across the album’s gloomy journey haunting images emerge. Orchestral-like chords flutter against the sounds of passing cars, boat horns, and creaking doors, almost transforming the listener’s reality into the impression of being in a film. This may not be accidental. The piece was originally intended to provide aural ambience to an exhibit by Stapleton at London's Horse Hospital. Encountering NNW in one of the project’s most prolific and creatively enthralling periods, continuously pushing the boundaries of experimental sound into new and unexpected territories, “Salt Marie Celeste” is unquestionably a high water mark in its output that has remained sinfully out of print for nearly two decades, making Dirter’s reissue a partially noteworthy event. Standing as a counterpoint to “Salt Marie Celeste” is “Salt”, which was created during the same rough moment in 2002 by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter. Issued nine years later as a limited edition LP to accompany an exhibition of Stapleton’s artwork at The Horse Hospital in London, it is cited as the source material of “Salt Marie Celeste”, and as such, in this new pairing, offers incredible illuminating effects. “Salt” is effectively “Salt Marie Celeste” stripped back to its core; a brooding ambient expanse that wraps the listener in a sense of existential tension. A sea of sound drones under restraint, without the more tangible worldly elements - field recordings, etc. - allowing a deeper sense of abstraction and bodily loss, allowing texture and ambience to take on an orchestral bearing of scope. Regarded as one of the key actors in the inception of industrial music, Nurse With Wound has always managed to defy its own history. As crucial documents of the project’s restless journey at the outset of the new millennium, hear just that: the rebellious child of punk and the post-war avant-garde, joined in conversation with the seminal ambient works of Brian Eno, as well as the more contemporary efforts of artists like Gas / Wolfgang Voigt. Absolutely incredible to start to finish, Dirter's deluxe, expanded double CD of “Salt” and “Salt Marie Celeste” brings two of NNW’s most engaging and sought after releases back into print, after being virtually unavailable for year. Not to be missed." [Soundohm]