''Black Ships Ate the Sky'' is a 2006 album by the UK-based musical ensemble

Current 93 Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant member. Background Tibet has been the only const ...

. The album features numerous guest vocalists, such as Anohni,

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy Joseph Will Oldham (born January 15, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. From 1993 to 1997, he performed and recorded in collaboration with dozens of other musicians under variations of Palace (Palace, Palace Flophouse, Palace Br ...

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...

, and

Shirley Collins Shirley Elizabeth Collins MBE (born 5 July 1935) is an English folk singer who was a significant contributor to the English Folk Revival of the 1960s and 1970s. She often performed and recorded with her sister Dolly, whose accompaniment on ...

. It features nine versions of the 1816 Appalachian tune Idumæa, with lyrics of a 1763

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

hymn by

Charles Wesley Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include " And Can It Be", " Christ the Lord Is Risen ...

, each featuring vocals by a different artist. The album was issued in

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packaging, with a 56-page booklet containing

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

, lyrics, photographs, and credits. In order to assist with funding for the album, customers were able to pre-order a copy. These 'subscribers' received a mention in the liner notes, as well as a limited edition extra CD, entitled ''I Am Black Ship'', consisting of alternate versions of the tracks from ''Black Ships Ate the Sky''. The track "Sunset (The Death of Thumbelina)" was featured on the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

program ''

All Songs Considered ''All Songs Considered'' is a weekly online multimedia program started in January 2000 by NPR's ''All Things Considered'' director Bob Boilen. At first, the show featured information and streaming audio about the songs used as bumper music on '' ...

'' on 10 August 2006.

Track listing

Black Ships Ate the Sky

I Am Black Ship

Personnel

*David Tibet – voice, guitars (track 19), electric leaking voices passim, mixing *Michael Cashmore – guitars (tracks 1, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, and 20), slide guitar (track 3), bass guitar (track 20) *Ben Chasny – guitar (track 2, 4, 9, 17, and 18) *John Contreras - cello *Steven Stapleton - goatheard, mixing *Marc Almond – voice (track 1) *Bonnie 'Prince' Billy – voice and banjo and tambura (track 5) *

Baby Dee Baby Dee (born 1953) is an American performance artist, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio. Early career In the 1970s, Baby Dee began her musical career as a street performer, but soon decided to take work as an ...

– voice and harp (track 8) *Ida Mercer – cello (track 8) * Anohni – voice (tracks 10 and 15), harp (track 15) *

Clodagh Simonds Clodagh Simonds ( ; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish musician, songwriter and singer. She was born in Banbridge, County Down, Northern Ireland and raised and educated in Killiney, County Dublin. Biography At the age of eleven, she formed her fi ...

– voice and psaltery and zither and harmonium (track 13) *Cosey Fanni Tutti – voice and musics (track 14) *Chris Carter – musics (track 14) *Andria Degens – voice and appalachian dulcimer and harmonica (track 16) *Shirley Collins – voice (track 21) *Iris Bishop – concertina (track 21) *Amy Phillips – subliminal threnodic voice (tracks 14 and 19) *William Breeze – viola (tracks 17 and 19) *William Basinski – 9.28.82 galaxial compositions (tracks 12 and 18) *Colin Potter – mixing *Mark Logan – astral projection production *Al Cisneros – astral projection production *Tina Gordon – astral projection production *John Contreras - cello arrangements

Black Ships Eat the Sky

In December 2006, Current 93 released an "alternate version" of the album titled ''Black Ships Eat the Sky''. This limited edition record features different versions and a different

mix Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * Mix ...

of the album, which Tibet described as "far more intimate and more emphatically acoustic than the original version." The songs of ''Black Ships Eat the Sky'' have the same titles (unlisted on the CD cover itself - only available online) as their ''…Ate the Sky'' counterparts, with the exception that track 20 is titled "Why Cæsar is Burning Part I".

References

External links

Current 93's home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Ships Ate The Sky Current 93 albums Durtro albums 2006 albums