2023-02-04

NURSE WITH WOUND - SALT MARIE CELESTE @ 20

 

Marking its 20th anniversary this month is Nurse With Wound’s Salt Marie Celeste, which was released in February of 2003. An early, minimal mix of the album was issued as “Salt” in 2002, in a split limited edition release with Current 93 called “Music From the Horse Hospital”. That version featured an hour long mix of only the swelling, wave like drone which forms the foundation of the composition. The full version adds various sounds of groaning and creaking wood, creating an audio environment meant to evoke the ambiance of a ghost ship - lost, forgotten and adrift in the void of an endless ocean.

The reference in the title is to the infamous Marie Celeste brigantine ship found adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. The reasons for her fate have never been resolved...

“At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar following her recovery, the court's officers considered various possibilities of foul play, including mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and conspiracy to carry out insurance or salvage fraud. No convincing evidence supported these theories.”
- Wikipedia

In 2022, to mark the 20th anniversary of its original recording by Steven Stapleton and Colin Potter, a double CD edition was released containing both variations of the recording.

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