Customer Reviews

The Spectral Ships

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Serpentine Arcade" hooks your attention from the very beginning of this album with a very hypnotic loop leading into an aural journey that I found especially intellectual and utterly riveting. In this soundscape Richard uses a rich palette of dark tonal qualities that inspire both the mood and image of ghostly, silent ships gliding across inky, glassine waters while seabirds wing from transparent masts to deck railings and one may hear the echo of their calls as they search the deep for food in vain effort.

Mummers voices and wavering images of those watery elementals, the undines, torment the unwary with their siren songs, and there is a sense of something menacing skulking within the silent sea. A pulse of thunder is heard and a flash of lightening turns the world into myriad shades of aquamarine. The universe breathes a gasping sigh and a breeze whispers across the unmoving sails. A voice comes forth from the midnight world whispering mystical truths into the mind and consciousness of the awakened ones on many levels. Suddenly, there is an eerie premonition of doom should the message be ignored. The Spectral Ships is a magnificent, brilliantly inspired, and richly conceived journey into time beyond time.

Richard Bone's first of his pair of spooky, eerie CDs (the 2nd was Ether Dome) consists of 9 tracks named for ghost ships or other mysterious ocean phenomena. His music here isn't necessarily scary or ominous/sinster sounding, but just a bit unsettling. The listener has no problem conjuring up images of ships with skeleton crews emerging from the fog, passing by, and continuing on their journey.

"Nocturna", with its radar blip, "Fata Morgana" and "Astrea" and their softly howling winds are my favorites, but all are terrific. This is ambient music with a solid and consistent theme at its best, recommended for dark ambient music lovers as well as electronic music gurus. And if you like it, I can almost guarantee you'll like "Ether Dome" too.

OK, so you can't hear any of this music. How bad is that? Richard Bone's music is truly great to listen to, although I must admit that, of the three CDs carried by Amazon, this one ONLY gets four stars. (The other two, Etherdome and Ascensionism are definite fivers). This is a foray into deepest ambient space. I prefer ambient music which is still melodic, and this one is a little bit more into the intellectual end of the ambient sound. It is still good, don't get me wrong. But then Etherdome is one of my all-time favorite albums. For a feeling of what this CD sounds like, go to Etherdome and play the first cut, the Introduction of Gilbert Abbott. This will give you an idea of the music on this CD.

This is an dark ambient masterpiece that you experience more so than listen to.

All the tracks are named after ghost ships and at times you feel like you are on the shoreline as they eerily glide by. This is best listening to in a dark room.

For me this is Richard's magnus opus - its velvety wash of spookiness and sounds gives a slight feeling of uneasiness. If you like this album some of Richard's other

works have similar patches of dark ambience e.g. Ghosts Of Hanton Village, Serene Life Of Microbes .