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.
