November 2004

Anybody watching Aranos in Dublin on Sunday, November 28 caught a rare appearance of Steven Stapleton on stage! Steve apparently banged a gong but he didn't get it on. Colin Potter's ICR is now offering Shipwreck Radio Volume One . According to Potter, "The release date for this should be November 15th (if everything goes according to plan. There is a special Limited Edition of 150 copies, which will come with an additional CDR of unreleased material from the project, Lofoten Deadhead . This is priced at £30 (plus P & P for overseas orders) - please order from the website shop at www.icrdistribution.com .

An online shop is now open for Aranos merchandise. Included is the highly coveted last few copies of Santoor Lena Bicycle , recorded with Nurse With Wound and packaged by original artwork by Steven Stapleton and Aranos.

October 2004

Colin Potter reports that a 2xCD release of the Shipwreck Radio sessions are being worked on. The production has, however, been delayed due to Steven Stapleton's ailment. In the wake of the WSD closure, Beta-Lactam Rings Records is now releasing the 3xCD/3xLP set of Angry Eelectric Finger. Steven Stapleton is scheduled to make an appearance in Portland on December 11th at an open house. Please phone 503-827-4142 or visit blrrecords.com for more information. In the meantime, pre-orders of Angry Eelectric Finger are now available.

September 2004

David Tibet reports the following on Durtro.com: Steven was recently bitten by an insect in his inner ear in Ireland. The bite went septic, and swelled into a huge boil. The boil burst and, as it was unable to come out through the ear due to the septic blockage, it went inwards, breaking his eardrum. Blood started to pour out of his ear, and the balancing fluid within his eardrum flowed backwards down his throat. The infection then spread to his throat, nose and behind his eye. Having been initially misdiagnosed by a doctor, he was then taken into hospital for massive oral and intravenous doses of antibiotics. The doctor told him if it had been a couple of days later, it would have spread to his brain and possibly killed him. Steven is now out of hospital after many days of awful pain, and is feeling (comparatively) much better, though he will be unable to swim or fly for a couple of months, and still has some problems standing up due to the balancing fluid regenerating slowly.
Consequently we have started work on an album dedicated to such infections: BRIGHT YELLOW MOON II: EAR ECLIPSE.

August 2004

World Serpent Distribution has ceased trading. David Tibet has announced on Durtro.com that a new label, The United States of Durtro will soon be manufactured and distributed through Revolver in the USA. In the meantime, all Durtro and United Dairies releases will be temporarily out of print.

July 2004

A double CD of Vacant Lights / Rara Avis by Organum has been released on Die Stadt . Vacant Lights was originally released on cassette in 1987 and features Steven Stapleton while Rara Avis is a collection of unreleased recordings featuring Robert Hampson, Christoph Heemann, Alan Jones, Jim O'Rourke, and Eddie Prévost. The core trio of Organum as David Jackman, Peter McGhee, and Dinah Jane Rowe appears on both discs.

June 2004

After the recent trip to Toronto, David Tibet has announced that there -will- be two C93 /NWW gigs in San Francisco in either November or December. This concert will be the first for Nurse With Wound in approximately two decades. Details of the show are being worked out at this point and we will post updates as soon as they're made public. Colin Potter has the following message from the Nurse With Wound expedition to the Arctic Norwegian shores: "Our trip to Norway was very enjoyable. We met some great people, both locals & other artists who were part of the festival. The area (Lofoten Is.) was stunningly beautiful & seemed very clean & fresh compared to where I live. We amassed a very large amount of raw material & so far have completed about three hours of radio programmes, some of which is 'work in progress'. We go on producing broadcasts until the end of July. I gather that the local radio's web feed is not too good, which is a shame, but I think some of it will be archived on the Norwegian Arts website later. There are also plans for an 'official' release, probably with some sort of printed work & a CD & at least one NWW album, if not a double. Both Steve & I were very pleased with some of the results which were achieved with a minimal studio & the material ranges from stuff based on local voices, field recordings, extreme noise & even a stoner rock piece! Apperently, there were a few calls to the station when the broadcasts started, as they just appeared in the middle of normal programming on what seemed to be a bit of a bland middle-of-the-road local station. We were asked to record an 'explanatory' intro in Norwegian to explain what it was about. We then did a piece based on that intro......
We had a great time.
More to come." A streaming mini-documentary is now available to watch here on Brainwashed. This isn't the be-all end-all documentary of Nurse With Wound, but an intimate look at the home and life of Steven Stapleton, the man behind the band. With the first live performance in approximately two decades anticipated for the end of the year, a full feature might eventually evolve from some of this. But for now, enjoy some relax time on the farm.

May 2004

Nurse With Wound are being sent to make sound art from the ice cold. The string of islands off the northern coast of Norway, high up above the Arctic Circle, is better known for its dried cod and midnight sun than for avant garde sound art. Between May and July 2004, this is set to change as Colin Potter and Steven Stapleton will be marooned with the task of making a sonic record of their time on these unfamiliar islands. The airwaves will be hijacked as their work in progress makes interventions on the local radio station Lofotradioen 104.4 FM. The piece will eventually be re-edited and made into a NWW album for release on Stapleton's label United Dairies. The Lofoten International Art Festival is curated by Anne Hilde Neset & Rob Young and produced by Kunst i Nordland. Background from their press release:

Lofoten comprises a string of islands with a tight knit community that is strung out along towns and settlements that must be reached by bridge, boat, etc. Due to the nature of the way the civilisation has grown up, communications such as telephones, mobiles, radio, TV becomes paramount. Especially in the winter months, transport becomes llimited. In conceiving the idea for Shipwreck Radio we wanted to avoid obligating the public to travel to a single space in which to view/hear/experience a sound piece, and instead looked to a more ethereal means of disseminating the material. Thus was born the notion of opening up intervention spaces on the local radio network - an open ended series of intrusions several times a week which would be filled with whatever material was created by the participating artists.

In January 1432, merchant Pietro Querini's ship bearing Italian sailors and businessmen was blown off course on its way to Flanders, ending up scuppered on the rocks at the tiny islet of R¿st, the southernmost island in the Lofoten archipelago. The incident has remained constant in the memories of the islanders, and a commemorative statue is installed. As a result, trade links were opened with Italy which survive to this day and R¿st considers itself to have an ongoing special relationship with Italy.

Contemporary accounts of the incident describe the incomprehension and enforced resourcefulness of the mariners as they built themselves shelter and began to consider how to get off the islands. After several days, local fishermen/shepherds arrived on the island and wondered at the strangers they encountered huddled in a makeshift shack. The sailors gradually needed to establish a rapport with the locals, both sides developing a language and means by which they could communicate and eventually enable the crew to set sail again for their distant homeland.

This tale should remain in the back of one's mind in considering the premise of Shipwreck Radio. Although the artists will be staying in comparative luxury compared with the unfortunate sailors of old, the premise is to place the artists in unfamiliar and remote surroundings equipped only with certain items of musical and technological equipment which has Ôwashed up' alongside them. From this, they must explore the islands and create a sound piece based on their experiences. The work is an ongoing evolving entity which may be re-edited after the fact, but the work in progress will be broadcast over the radio network. Thus the population who hear it will be aware that somewhere among them are aliens at work.

For more information, visit www.liaf.no .

Beta-Lactam Ring Records has released another bargain-priced label sampler called Death's Last Life's Breath , this one containing an exclusive NWW track entitled "A Wasted Life of Phagocyte Foot Fetishism." Beta-Lactam is also on the verge of releasing a limited-edition CD edition of last year's She and Me Fall Together in Free Death LP release. The expensively priced CD also includes bonus tracks, and for those that can't afford it, an unlimited digipack edition of the same CD is promised for release in July.

Nurse also contributes a remix to Love Records ' 2CD compilation Madam, I'm Adam , profiling the career of Finnish avant-garde musician Pekka Airaksinen.

March 2004

Angry Eelectric Finger (Spitch'cock One) is now available and features Nurse With Wound alone and in collaboration with Cyclobe , Irr. App. (Ext.) , and Jim O'Rourke . It is the prologue to a forthcoming three disc set featuring collaborations with the aforementioned along with Xhol Caravan.

NEWS ARCHIVES
2005
2003