Culper Ring — 355
First, a little bit of history. In 1778, during the American revolution, George Washington asked one Benjamin Tallmadge to set up a spy network in the New York area –at the time still under British domination- which took the name Samuel Culper. This ring had to be kept totally secret –even Washington didn’t know who was part of it. Too make sure that the Brits would not be able to understand one the ring’s reports if intercepted, the spies used invisible inks and a code. The principle was simple: hundreds of words and names were assigned two- or three-digit numbers. Although it would be easy for today’s intelligence officers to decrypt the code, it wasn’t before 1939 that its system was revealed by an historian. 355 meant “lady”. (More info –and at the same time my source- here). The cover art also echoes this piece of history: in the background, a coded letter, and both the name of the project and the album’s title typographies are meant to evoke 18th century hand-writing.
Now let’s move to this musical project. Culper Ring consists of three luminaries from the American independent music scene: Steve Von Till (Neurosis, Tribes of Neurot), Kris Force (Amber Asylum –review here) and Mason Jones (Subarachnoid Space, sometime KK Null collaborator). The result of the combination of those musical mavericks was bound to be somewhat experimental. When the three first got together in 1997, what they recorded, we are told, was discordant and unmusical, reminiscent of 80’s experimental works of Coil and Nurse with Wound. It took them one year to elaborate on this and it wasn’t before 2001 that they finished the album. Three days of recordings in four years. Did anyone say as slow as a dead snail? In the meantime, Culper Ring’s musical orientation changed drastically, becoming much more melodic. 355 is meant to be the combination of those two different approaches.
However, the melodic side has the upper hand. Electric or acoustic guitars, Force’s violin, keyboards, a bit of processing here and there, haunting female vocals, haunted male vocals... These elements make for a beautiful melancholic and very dark journey. The guitars and the violin are the main focal points, but their emotional power is maximised by the quite discreet spacey soundscapes that unfold during the whole 43 minutes of 355. Now and then, the melodies are interrupted by little noisy sonic experiments. Sometimes just another sound source, sometimes more prominent (with understandable lyrics –sentences, rather than texts), the vocals are wonderful. Kris Force’s have something creepy or ghostly about them and Steve Von Till proves, if it was necessary, that he is a great singer, as good as Michael Gira.
If there was one comparison to be made, it would have to be Coil. Not the 80’s Coil but the 90’s one. Not that the music is similar... The mood, the overall ambience is. It has the same kind of spacey atmosphere, of mind altering trip as the Musick to play in the dark CD’s. And that is not a minor compliment since those are my favourite CD’s from one of my favourite bands...