Domino Records have announced the re-issue on CD and vinyl of Nico‘s second and third albums. March 29 will see the re-issue of both The Marble Index and Desertshore.
Originally released in 1968 and 1970 respectively, these albums were in sharp contrast to the chamber pop stylings of her debut solo album, 1967’s Chelsea Girls, released after she left the Velvet Underground. She was disappointed by the album, reportedly disturbed by the addition of flute in the arrangements, but also perhaps feeling that she had not yet expressed her true self in song. That summer, she befriended The Doors’ Jim Morrison, who was currently topping the US charts with ‘Light My Fire.’ Morrison encouraged Nico to write her own songs and pick up an instrument. She chose the harmonium, a pedal-powered keyboard that functions like a small organ. Acoustic and relatively portable—necessary for her transient lifestyle—as well as fundamentally individualistic, the harmonium was palpably Nico’s instrumental counterpart. Nico devoted herself entirely to her craft: when she wasn’t writing songs by candlelight from a bathtub, she was practicing harmonium night and day.
Both albums were co-produced by her erstwhile bandmate, the Velvets’ bass and viola player, John Cale.
The album tracklisting for The Marble Index is as follows:
1. Prelude
2. Lawns Of Dawn
3. No One Is There
4. Ari’s Song
5. Facing The Wind
6. Julius Caesar (Memento Hodie)
7. Frozen Warnings
8. Evening Of Light
9. Roses In The Snow (Bonus Track)
10. Nibelungen (Bonus Track)
1. Janitor Of Lunacy
2. The Falconer
3. My Only Child
4. Le Petit Chevalier
5. Abschied
6. Afraid
7. Mutterlein
8. All That Is My Own
