THE MARBLE INDEX
NICO
(1968)
A1: PRELUDE (0:50); A2: LAWNS OF DAWNS (3:12); A3: NO ONE IS THERE (3:36); A4: ARI’S SONG (3:20); A5: FACING THE WIND (4:52).
B1: JULIUS CAESAR (MEMENTO HODIE) (4:57); B2: FROZEN WARNINGS (4:00); B3: EVENING OF LIGHT (5:33).
CATEGORY: AVANT-POP | DURATION: 31 MINUTES
After recording her first album Chelsea Girl in 1967 – a mediocre interpretation of other people’s songs in collaboration with members of the Velvet Underground – Nico took control of her own musical destiny the following year, signing to innovative pop-rock label Elektra and using John Cale as producer. She also took up the harmonium, a droning pump organ, and wrote her own music for the first time. The result, The Marble Index, is a fragmentary fugue of mythopoeic visions and avant-garde sound gestures, an unrepeatable night-glamour wreathed in tragic Teutonic mystery. This glacial, fathomless insurrection by Nico and Cale remains among the masterworks of popular music.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ROBERT YOUNG (1964-2014)
“ÆTERNUM VORTICE LACRIMARUM SOMNIAT”