This Degenerate Little Town (The Thomas Ligotti Narration)
Durtro 066CD, 2001, Running time: 29:37
- This Degenerate Little Town - 15:08
- This Degenerate Little Town (Alternate) - 14:28
This short, mostly-spoken word EP is the beginning of the third collaboration between Current 93 and writer Thomas Ligotti, the first two being the superb In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land and the disquieting I Have a Special Plan for This World Limited to 160 copies, the CD comes with a beautifully-printed book containing the lyrics and a color illustration by David Tibet.
The music in both tracks is the same, being a simple, slowly-paced melody played upon a bell or something metallic. In fact, the music is simply there to provide a context for the words of Thomas Ligotti, who himself reads his series of poems about the town referenced in the title, the degenerate little town from which all things, if he is to be believed, originate. The difference between the reading on the two tracks is slight, if not negligible.
As a serious fan of Ligotti’s work, I’m tremendously pleased to see this ongoing collaboration between he and Current 93. Although the CD is musically sparse, the language is lush, bearing that otherworldly, fairy-tale quality which makes Ligotti’s writing so unique. This is only the first part of this specific collaboration; the second part, an actual score to accompany this text (described as a “paramusical dreamscape setting”), is being composed by Current 93, and is due out in early 2002.
No epilogue.