Genre: Dark Ambient / Neoclassical

01 What Shall I Sing?
02 The Burial Club
03 The Reinsch Test
04 The Trial
05 The Gates of Eternity
06 Haven Is My Home

Every person into Darkwave knows what Attrition is. It is a band originated somewhere in the end of 70s – beginning of 80s and has a solid discography that counts more than 20 albums (issued both on cassettes and CDs), louds of LPs and appeared on a huge amount of compilations issued on different labels. This time Martin Bowes together with other musicians I’m going to mention a bit later released Attrition album, limited to 1000 copies (including a set of 4 reproduction stickers of original victorial poison bottle labels), on Projekt, a label specializing on neoclassical, ambient, darkwave, ethereal music (Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Mirabilis, Lycia, Steve Roach to name a few). Cover photographs are done by Lauren E. Simonutti.

This is an album with a conception lying under many layers of sound, being dedicated to Mary Ann Cotton, her life and death (the album itself is divided into 6 tracks reflecting periods of her dwelling each), probably the most well-known female mass murderer in Victorian England, a woman who’s poisoned with arsenic (that was easily accessible at that time in chemist stores) between 16 to 21 of her own children, lovers and former husbands over many years. But you may say, that there’s nothing new and fresh in dedicating an album to a mass murderer.. Oh, if it was so simple, but it is not. The booklet tells us an exciting story, which actually shows a connection between Martin Bowes, the mastermind of Attrition, and Mrs Cotton through...a sewing box, which she passed as the only mean of payment (on departing for jail) to a lady, that was working in her house. Arthur Bowes, Martin’s father, being a child met this by that time very old lady, Louisa was her name, in 1940s and later this box came into his possession, making its way to Martin Bowes..

Sometimes we hear different stories about the thing that spirits of dead people stay in various objects that surrounded this person when he/she was alive and the sound on the album perfectly reflects the atmosphere of mystery and the spirit of evil present in the air. This atmosphere is achieved with the help of drone dark ambient background, created professionally by Martin Bowes, with trembling and nervous or mystic, cabaret-like piano passages (performed by Ned Kirby from Stormkern) included from time to time, insistent or insinuating and timid, sometimes tremolo cellos and violins performed by Erica Mulkey and Emilie Autumn, saxophone by Ute Mansell and of course voices and vocals of many kinds, whispering, being in agony and in fear, performed by Laurie Reade, Emilie Autumn (Track The Gates of Eternity, also cabaret-like) and Naomi and Jordan Bowes. The album is opening with an eerie children’s rhyme (Naomi and Jordan Bowes) that refers to a legend. According to this legend if you sing this rhyme on Halloween over Mary Ann’s grave, you will hear the sound of children crying.

To sum it all up, the album turned to be dark, freezing, anxious, a little bit mad with referances to electronic soundscapes, neoclassical strings and dark cabaret style.