Soliloquy for Lilith
Nurse With Wound

IHM01

Tracks
  1. [untitled] [ MP3 ]
  2. [untitled]
  3. [untitled]
  4. [untitled]
  5. [untitled] [ MP3 ]
  6. [untitled]
Label Idle Hole
Country UK
Catalogue MIRROR ONE
Format 3xLP
Date 1988
Edition MIRROR ONE. Edition of 3xLP black vinyl copies in box with 2 inserts.
Sleeve Notes I shall find a quiet pool in the forest and I shall be alone there often. I shall gaze into the deep, still water and that stillness will be in me. I shall sleep by my pool and dream, and I shall leave you messages in oracles and poems. Or you may dream with me, (for you are as much myself as I am you and your dreams are also my dreams) you may join me and wait through the night till the animals come to drink. Then I will show you the shape changing and we will become the animals. My magick can heal, for it comes from the place where there is no separation and we are all one, where the water of the pool merges again and is lost in the ocean.
Cover design, music, production - Steven Stapleton
Insert, music, concept - Calhoun Phelan

Photograph of Lilith by Clive Graham.
Recorded at the Shadow Factory by Dick.
Cut by George Peckham

Very special thanks to Catherine McCarthy, David Tibet and Roo.

 

Soliloquy for Lilith (Six Songs for Lilitu)
Nurse With Wound

UD035CD

Tracks Disc 1
  1. untitled (17:56)
  2. untitled (17:06)
  3. untitled (17:51)
Disc 2
  1. untitled (17:51)
  2. untitled (17:29)
  3. untitled (17:30)
Label United Dairies
Country UK
Catalogue UD035CD
Format 2xCD
Date 1988
Edition UD035CD. Edition of 2xCD copies in jewel case.
Sleeve Notes I shall find a quiet pool in the forest and I shall be alone there often. I shall gaze into the deep, still water and that stillness will be in me. I shall sleep by my pool and dream, and I shall leave you messages in oracles and poems. Or you may dream with me, (for you are as much myself as I am you and your dreams are also my dreams) you may join me and wait through the night till the animals come to drink. Then I will show you the shape changing and we will become the animals. My magick can heal, for it comes from the place where there is no separation and we are all one, where the water of the pool merges again and is lost in the ocean.
Cover design music, production - Steven Stapleton
Insert, music, concept by Calhoun Phelan

Photograph of Lilith by Clive Graham.
Recorded at the Shadow Factory by Dick.
Cut by George Peckham.

very special thanks to Catherine McCarthy, David Tibet and Roo

 

Soliloquy for Lilith
Nurse With Wound

UD092 / UJ666

Tracks Disc 1
  1. [untitled]
  2. [untitled]
  3. [untitled]
Disc 2
  1. [untitled]
  2. [untitled]
  3. [untitled]
Disc 3
  1. [untitled] [ MP3 ]
  2. [untitled]
Label United Dairies / United Jnana
Country UK / CA
Catalogue UD092 / UJ666
Format 3xCD
Date 2003 / 2005
Edition UD092. Edition of 3xCD copies in card sleeves in box
UJ666. Edition of 3xCD copies in card sleeves in box
iTunes
Sleeve Notes all material for this edition of Soliloquy for Lilith was recorded by Steven Stapleton and Diana Rogerson at the Shadow Factory, May 1988.

mixed by Steven Stapleton

engineered by Dik

remastered by Denis Blackham

design by Babs Santini

photoshop work by Paul Jackson

our thanks to Electricity for making this recording possible.
Notes UJ 666 is a virtually identical re-issue of UD092 released following the collapse of World Serpent. Only difference is catalog number.
The earliest copies of the Jnana release came in the World Serpent Box.
Reviews After a decade of producing the underground's most radical audio surrealism and twisted sonic mutations, Nurse With Wound unleashed Soliloquy for Lilith onto an unsuspecting public. This triple album of understated electronic drones was miles away from the unhinged kitchen-sink sound sculptures that Nurse With Wound fans had come to expect. Lilith was Stapleton's version of Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed's double album of electronic drones that perplexed a public weaned on the introspective rock of previous work. Just as many did following the release of Metal Machine Music, several critics maintained (and still maintain) that Soliloquy for Lilith was Nurse With Wound's finest accomplishment. I can't have the been the only person who was a bit incredulous about these hyperbolic accolades. My first reaction to the album was lukewarm. While the material was certainly potent and had a fragile beauty all its own, it couldn't match the unparalleled dynamism of Spiral Insana or the sinister whimsy of Homotopy to Marie. In short, I probably felt as betrayed and confused as the legions of rock kids who bought Reed's Metal Machine Music, dropped the tone arm and made the disheartening discovery that the album was nothing but four sides of grating, atonal noise. Although this kind of experimentalism should perhaps have been more foreseeable coming from the Stapleton camp, I think few were prepared for a Nurse so positively civilized, academic and downright pastoral. Now comes the United Dairies re-release of this, his most confounding work. The album has been re-issued and digitally re-mastered, and comes packaged in a nice box mirroring the original LP artwork. Just to make it completely irresistible, a third disc containing two new pieces recorded in the same method and spirit as the original Lilith pieces is also included. Listening to these sounds again after several intervening years of expanding my own musical education is quite a revelation, and I think that I never truly gave this album a fair chance. Understanding this album as Stapleton's take on the groundbreaking minimalist drone work of LaMonte Young, Charlemagne Palestine and Iannis Xenakis gives essential perspective on Stapleton's unique developments. Soliloquy for Lilith is an album of complex, powerfully realized moods, both somber and fragile; one of the most rewarding "ambient" albums ever made. It was recorded to take advantage of the strange electrical phenomena that occurred when Stapleton discovered a malfunctioning synthesizer that would emit varying tones in response to physical movement in the vicinity of the machine, much the same way a theremin is played. This fortuitous accident is utilized to stunning effect on the eight sidelong pieces that comprise the album. Giant sheaves of majestic, glacial sound are wielded in repetition, with the inevitable effects of sound decay and distortion creeping in at the high end and bottom tones. It's a gleaming sound full of depth and dimension, like a work of modern metal sculpture in which you can see your distorted reflection. When given your full attention, the coldly warm tones have the effect of rendering thoughts, and therefore time itself, neutral. The same sound palette is used throughout, but each track manages to be very different from the last, birthing its own unique phantasms. The two new pieces are very much in the same vein as the original six, but are perhaps slightly more dynamic than the others. Either way, they're all extraordinarily subtle and stirring works. Soliloquy for Lilith works on its own terms, and it certainly stands the test of time as one of Steven Stapleton's most transcendental experiments. -Jonathan Dean