Nico was little more than an afterthought in the world of music when she died in Ibiza, Spain in 1988. Her performances on
the Velvet Underground's debut album were all most music followers knew of her, and her solo works, never embraced by a large audience, were mostly out of print.
Nico's final recordings testified to the toll drug abuse had taken upon her body and her muse, and when a bicycle accident claimed her on a sweltering July day, it attracted little notice. Nearly three decades later, the music and performance art group
Soundwalk Collective have given
Nico a moving and belated memorial with
Killer Road, a 2016 album documenting a performance piece the group debuted in 2014. For
Killer Road,
Soundwalk Collective are joined by guest musician
Jesse Paris Smith, who adds singing bowls and acoustic resonant instruments to the mix, while
Jesse's mother, the noted singer, poet, and author
Patti Smith, delivers vocals inspired by poetry
Nico wrote in the late stages of her life. (While press materials confirm the text came directly from
Nico's work, she is curiously not mentioned in the album's writing credits.)
Jesse Paris Smith and
Soundwalk Collective members Stephan Crasneanscki, Simone Merli, and
Kamran Sadeghi have conjured coolly effective sonic backdrops for this piece. Incorporating ambient electronic soundscapes that include the organic sounds of crickets (plentiful during summers in Ibiza) and harmoniums (the small, hand-pumped organ that
Nico used to accompany herself on-stage), the music is filled with both beauty and menace. But what really makes this work as an album is
Patti Smith's performance; though she's reading and not singing, her voice still has a subtly musical quality that rides above the surfaces of the music, and she brings a warmth and life to this music even when she's whispering as
Nico's spark is about to flicker away. If
Soundwalk Collective's music is often lovely but understated,
Patti Smith's vocals give
Killer Road the pale fire that makes it come alive; she never sounds like
Nico, but she ably brings forth the voice of a poet facing her final crisis, and
Smith understands that just well enough to communicate it to the audience. ~ Mark Deming