- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3
- Part 4
- Part 5
- Part 6
- Part 7*
- Part 8*
* Only on 2004 CD re-release
Soliloquy For Lilith, Nurse With Wounds best selling work was released in 1989 on the newly formed Stapleton/Rogerson ran Idle hole records in the form of a beautiful 3LP box set. The minimalist powerful presentation mirrored that of the music within, for 'Soliloquy…like the 'Sylvie and Babs high thigh companion' is a one off in the Nurse discography. Originally comprised of six songs for Lilith (Stapleton’s Daughter), one on each side of the 3LP set, the music within is of a hauntingly otherworldly quality that sits head and shoulders above any other “ambient” or “drone” work that was around at that time. Created though a chance meeting between a series of guitar FX pedals which generated strange tones and voices that seem to emerge from the ether. Stapleton found to his delight that he could modulate the tones by simply moving his hands over the pedals. The resultant streams of tonality, and ambience form vast arrays of slowly drifting mantra like music. Almost subterranean or Oceanic in feel the long twenty minute plus tracks take meditative music into a new strata. That’s not to say this isn’t good for active listening, on the contrary when given full attention the tracks seem to evolve and precipitate more aural wonders with each listen.
It’s difficult to describe each track individually, they sound not too dissimilar, however the tones and most importantly the mood of each track differs greatly. The first being more tense, pulsing , like a breathing rhythm using more bass like drones. The second and third tracks are more floaty and perhaps more deep in a tonal sense, the frequency range much wider in these tracks. Song three was also used as the backdrop to the title track off the 2003 album 'She and me fall together in free death'. Song four is even more free in form and uses some wonderful high frequencies that seem to penetrate your consciousness,. This is what you could describe ad Trance like. Song five moves back into deep aquatic territory with a more bass driven set of drones that sway and pulse, pulling your body in every direction, like an Yves Tanguy picture set to music. Song six is very much like song three but slightly faster paced and with a bit more depth in the frequencies, you can also hear some of pedal work going on in the form of very slight squeaks and tweaks.
The 2004 re-release has a bonus disk of two extra tracks recorded around the same time. The first sounds very much like song three but with a more forceful approach and a much more maximalistic sound. The second extra is unlike any of the other songs here, it’s very slow and much more creepy sounding. It almost sounds like it’s being played backwards, the tones are very different and there is a genuine feeling of dread in this song, at times it sounds like the calls of an injured whale. However by the sound of it I would expect this song was recorded or at least reworked a lot later than the originals were recorded, it has a very modern sounding production. So in all an essential release, very different from anything else in the Nurse discography (accept maybe 'Salt Marie Celeste') and a consistently rewarding album that will drag you through the cold winters nights year after year. Classic.
