In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land

Durtro 035CD, 1997, Running time: 58:58

In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land
  1. His Shadow Shall Rise to a Higher Place - 17:53
  2. The Bells Shall Sound Forever - 14:26
  3. A Soft Voice Whispers Nothing - 11:25
  4. When You Hear the Singing, You Will Know it is Time - 15:13

Simply put, this is an incredible release. It features two parts: a high-quality, clothbound book containing four stories by Thomas Ligotti and cardboard slipcased CD of Current 93’s acompanying soundtrack. To my ear, the music is quite different from c93’s previous excursions; it’s primarily experimental, but unlike their early noisescape days, this work has a very quiet, cinematic feel to it. The mood it generates is alternately disturbing, sad, and simply eerie; overall, the whole effect is decidedly otherworldly. Each track corresponds to one of Ligotti’s four stories, and according to the liner notes, the CD is meant to be listened to at low volume, at dusk, while reading the the book. It was according to these directions that I first heard the disc, and the effect is staggeringly spooky. No printed lyrics as such, but all the (sparse) vocals are from the text of the book (that’s right, kids, read along with Uncle Tibet!).

Rather than discussing the stories (and thereby possibly spoiling them for you), I’ll concentrate rather on the music. Suffice to say that all the stories revolve around an unnamed, remote town near an unspecified northern border where the surreal and supernatural are keenly present. As could be assumed, all the works in the book are extremely spooky.

As all the tracks flow together as one cohesive whole, it makes a little more sense to describe the CD as one piece rather than track by track. As previously stated, the disc is rather experimental in nature, but not in a noisy sense; the closest comparison I can think of would be to the Steven Stapleton/David Tibet collaboration, The Sadness of Things, though even that connection is only because of the flow and low subtleties of the pieces. And speaking of Stapleton, this CD features his work quite prominently; in fact, the rest of the usual crew (Michael Cashmore, Joolie Wood, John Balance, Douglas P., etc.) were notable absent from this release.

As each track on the CD corresponds to a story in the book, Tibet reads a few lines or paragraphs from that story, almost like a guide to make sure you’re where you should be (though he deliberately leads you a litte astray at the beginning of the third track). Of possible interest is the fact that the first two tracks, as they’re listed on the CD, don’t exactly correspond to the titles in the book. The first story in the book is titled HIS SHADOW SHALL RISE TO A HIGHER HOUSE, while the corresponding track bears the title HIS SHADOW SHALL RISE TO A HIGHER PLACE. Likewise, the second story is called THE BELLS WILL SOUND FOREVER, but the CD track is named THE BELLS SHALL SOUND FOREVER.

In any case, the music brings visions of lonely graveyards, moonlit nights, malevolent ghosts, and an occasional scene of horror. The sound is elegantly mixed throughout, with plenty of low drones, ambient sound effects, bells, chimes, chanting, and lots of other unidentifiable creepy atmospherics. There are layers upon layers of subtlety to the piece, and I’m finding that the overall effect holds up listening after listening. Though a little on the expensive side, I can unhesitatingly recommend this excellent (and currently limited) release.

No epilogue.