Soft Black Stars is an album by Current 93

Current 93

Current 93 is an eclectic British experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet .-Background:Tibet has been the only constant in the group, though Steven Stapleton has appeared on...

. All of the music on the album was written and adapted by Michael Cashmore

Michael Cashmore

Michael Cashmore is a British composer and musician who has created music under the name of Nature And Organisation and more recently under his own name.Cashmore has also been a member of the group Current 93 since the late 1980s...

, David Tibet

David Tibet

David Tibet is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo...

 and Maja Elliott with the exception of "Judas as Black Moth", "A Gothic Love Song" and "Whilst The Night Rejoices Profound And Still" the music for which was written by Michael Cashmore

Michael Cashmore

Michael Cashmore is a British composer and musician who has created music under the name of Nature And Organisation and more recently under his own name.Cashmore has also been a member of the group Current 93 since the late 1980s...

. Almost all of the songs feature only David Tibet's lyrics accompanied by minimalistic piano music: with the exception of "Judas as Black Moth" which is solo piano and "Chewing on Shadows" consist of drones

Drone (music)

In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. The word drone is also used to refer to any part of a musical instrument that is just used to produce such an effect.-A musical effect:A drone...

, piano, guitar and David Tibet's singing. The artwork was made by David Tibet. "Chewing on Shadows" was released in a different form on vinyl and was included on the album's CD reissue in 2005. In 2003, a live album was released called Some Soft Black Stars Seen Over London which contained live versions for seven of the albums songs.

The delicate and ethereal sounds make it a work almost unique, with a style hardly comparable with that of only seemingly similar albums by other artists (with the partial exception of Peter Hammill

Peter Hammill

Peter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter, and a founding member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Most noted for his vocal abilities, his main instruments are guitar and piano...

's And Close As This

And Close As This

And Close As This is an album by Peter Hammill, released on Virgin Records in 1986. Each track on the album is a song played and sung by Hammill solo at a keyboard, with the keyboard parts played in a single take...

).

Track listing

1. "Judas as Black Moth" – 2:45
2. "Larkspur and Lazarus" – 6:05
3. "Gothic Love Song (For N.)" – 4:06
4. "Mockingbird" – 4:04
5. "Soft Black Stars" – 3:08
6. "It Is Time, Only Time" – 5:06
7. "Antichrist and Barcodes" – 2:26
8. "The Signs in the Stars" – 3:43
9. "Whilst the Night Rejoices Profound and Still" – 4:24
10. "Moonlight, Or Other Dreams, Or Other Fields" – 2:08
11. "Judas as Black Moth II" – 6:17
12. "Chewing on Shadows" – 14:48
13. "Chewing on Shadows (Vinyl Version)" – 12:06 (reissue bonus track)
14. "Chewing on Shadows (Unreleased Acoustic Version)" – 3:08 (reissue bonus track)

Participants

All listings are given as per the accompanying booklet.

• David Tibet
  David Tibet
  David Tibet is a British poet and artist who founded the music group Current 93, of which he is the only full-time member. He had earlier collaborated with Psychic TV and 23 Skidoo...
  
   : vocals
• Michael Cashmore
  Michael Cashmore
  Michael Cashmore is a British composer and musician who has created music under the name of Nature And Organisation and more recently under his own name.Cashmore has also been a member of the group Current 93 since the late 1980s...
  
  : guitar, second piano
• Maja Elliott: piano
• Petr Vastl: violin, viola, mandolin, flute
• Andria Degens: vocals, whistling
• Steven Stapleton
  Steven Stapleton
  Steven Peter Stapleton is a British musician and the only constant member of experimental improv outfit Nurse with Wound...
  
  : whirl
• Christoph Heemann
  Christoph Heemann
  Christoph Heemann , is a German musician.Heemann has recorded under his own name, with the tape music group H.N.A.S., and with many collaborators in alternative rock, soundtrack production and visual arts....
  
  : swirl

Later editions featured a slightly different list of participants. Most notably being the fact that Christoph Heemann

Christoph Heemann

Christoph Heemann , is a German musician.Heemann has recorded under his own name, with the tape music group H.N.A.S., and with many collaborators in alternative rock, soundtrack production and visual arts....

was no longer credited for swirl. Violin was now also referred to as ghost violin.