Nico - The Marble Index

The Marble Index is technically Nico's second solo album, but it is the first in which she had a hand in finding her own voice after the good, but somewhat contrived pop of Chelsea Girl. After an affair with Jim Morrison in which he encouraged her to write her own songs, once he introduced her to peyote and poets (the album title is taken from Woodsworth), she felt the desire to be taken seriously as an artist and bought her trademark harmonium and, along with changing her visual look from the 60's pop-art model to a raven-tressed, black-clad precursor to goth, she created a new sound. On this album John Cale is credited as arranger, but essentially produced the album, helping to mold what became Nico's trademark oeuvre. Per Wikipedia (for whatever that is worth), Cale has said he decided to avoid drone and raga (although I heard some of these elements in her work) in favor of a European classical approach, which has been compared to Germanic folk music, Gregorian chant, madrigals and more.

Opening with a simple, quietly atmospheric "Prelude", we are introduced to Nico's harmonium (mixed in with Cale's piano) in "Lawns of Dawns", in which Cale also adds some clamorous effects, for a disconcerting sound that almost detracts from the simplistic beauty of Nico's melody, but adds something unique. "No One Is There" does have a classical feel, especially with Cale's symphonic arrangement, I particularly like how the feedback works with and blends in with Nico's harmonium and Cale's viola in her ode to her son, "Ari's Song" and in "Facing the Wind", the arrangement creates a much more percussion sound than is common in Nico's work, making something unusual and somewhat jarring, even for her.

There is more of a medieval melodic feel in "Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)" in which Cale works his viola against the harmonium once again to good effect, and despite Cale's apparent protestations, "Frozen Warnings" is very drone-y and again pits the harmonium against the viola for multiple interwoven drones, while "Evening of Light" reminds me a bit of the Doors, maybe not surprisingly, with the keyboards interacting with the harmonium and Nico's vocals taking a bit from "The End" (which she later covered, of course). The CD has a couple of bonus tracks, first "Roses in the Snow", which is more starkly just Nico, her voice and her instrument, as is "Nibelungen" in which she is almost playful in her melody lines - if that is a description that can be applied to Nico!

Again, I love this stuff, but I know it's not for everyone, but if you want to know what proto-goth (as opposed to proto-punk) is, then this is the place to go. "Tenebrous" is a word used by Wikipedia to describe this work, and while it is new to me, I think it is quite appropriate!