Genre: Dark Ambient
Collaboration between Les Sentiers Conflictuels and Andrew King
01. The Night
02. Another Veil
03. Dear Boss
04. Goulston Street
05. The Fall
06. Above Everything
07. The Magnificience
08. Vapors
09. I observe you
10. Silent Voices
11. Feathers and Knives
12. The Lights
Do you know what happened in the second half of 1888? I bet you don't know what I'm referring, but I'm pretty damn sure you do know the thing I'm referring to. Time for a very little history lesson. In 1888 there were some murders in the streets of London, and they remain yet unsolved. Back in those days, letters were written to Scotland Yard and the press, allegedly coming from the murderer. The letters were signed by Jack The Ripper. Now, that does sound familiar, doesn't it? Les Sentiers Conflictuels and Andrew King made an album around these murders and letters. Les Sentiers Conflictuels created the music, and Andrew King did the vocals.
From the very beginning the mood has been set. 'The Night' is a nearly 5 minute piece of piano music, with samples of people walking or riding down a street at night. It very haunting, very fitting to Jack The Ripper. As the song progresses, it becomes more and more intense, with added whispering for just that scary touch. Near the end Jack The Ripper (Andrew King) speaks some sentences before the song dies with church bells ringing. These church bells are the bridge between the first two songs. The second song has a very happy carnival kind of music in the middle, that dies out and repeats itself quite soon. The song gets very haunting again, and ends with a massive climax.
Then, 'Dear Boss'. This is the first 'real' letter from Jack The Ripper. The distortions to the voice really adds up to the whole atmosphere. The text of the letter is pretty psycho. But then again, it's from Jack The Ripper. Allegedly. Les Sentiers Conflictuels made quite clear that they don't give the letters credit as being really from our dear friend Jack. They are merely used as an interpretation, they are used to construct a piece of art. And art this album is.
I'm usually not a big fan of ambient, just because it is, in my ears, too boring. You may consider me not enlightened enough or whatever, I'm just more into music with more SPM (sounds per minute, a joke I have with a friend of mine). But there are certainly some ambient artists or albums I can enjoy. This collaboration really made me interested in finding some more good ambient work again. That's something not a lot of albums have done to me, so that must mean it's a really good album, by my standards.
If you want to see the original letters, they are on wikipedia of course. Direct links are:
Dear Boss (Letter)
Saucy Jack (Postcard)
From Hell (Letter)
Considering the artwork of this release. It's a 6-panel digipack, with beautiful artwork by Skyhigh. The artwork is completely fitting the music. Three panels show the streets of London, in grey/blue tones. One panel shows a close-up of a wall, and the two remaining panels, one the inside, show a collection of papers, letters, drawings, blood; as if it's a collection from Jack himself. This is album art how it should be. This album isn't just art in an audio way, but also in a visual way.
