Nico, influential musician of the 1960s counterculture, died from a cerebral hemorrhage after having a heart attack and falling off her bike on a road in Ibiza, Spain in 1988. Therein lies the basis for Killer Road, the title of a dedicatory collaboration between the conceptually-inclined Soundwalk Collective (Stephan Crasneanscki, Simone Merli, Kamran Sadeghi), Patti Smith, and daughter Jesse Paris Smith, which previously had been limited to a handful of performances toward the latter part of 2014. Those performances generally received positive reviews (despite the relative morbidity of the subject and, let’s be honest, of Nico’s life as as whole), so now Sacred Bones is sponsoring a recording/physical release of Killer Road, out September 2 and available now for pre-order. Who’s up for some jubilant Patti-spoken poetry?
In truth, “jubilant” probably isn’t the the word to describe the Patti-spoken words originally written by Nico herself (and previously unreleased), but those words are nonetheless accompanied by, as Aphex Twin would put it, “plenty harmonium,” the instrument of Nico’s doubtless choice throughout much of her career. Patti had actually bought Nico a harmonium back in 1978, so how fitting that both she and the instrument are present to pay dark tribute to a complicated and weirdly talented life.
Go here if you want to be spoiled by video of one of those prior performances, and listen to the title track here:
More about: Jesse Paris Smith, Kamran Sadeghi, Nico, Patti Smith, Simone Merli, Soundwalk Collective, Stephan Crasneanscki
