Sounds of Darkness

Richard Bone – The Spectral Ships (1998)
AMBIENT MUSIC

I came across some of the music from this album late one Sunday night while listening to Music From the Hearts of Space on NPR. I knew, immediately, I had to have the album.

“The Spectral Ships” features 9 tracks, and each is a musical impression of a legendary ghost ship or an unexplained nautical phenomenon. The music is calm, mysterious, and spooky … at one point, a voice calmly states that “the blessed in heaven will often walk to the battlements and look down, and delight in the justice of God being properly carried out in hell”. That bit sends shivers down my spine.

Bone does a terrific job giving the listener the impression that they are on the water by way of sonar beeps (“Nocturna”), wind sounds (“Astrea”), and wave-like undulations (“Ephemera”). The moaning ghosts in “Palantine” are actually a little bit unnerving.

It is not a dark album … just eerie, foggy, ghostly, and mysterious. It probably isn’t scary enough to be played as background music for a haunt or anything like that. Instead, play it at home, as you fall asleep. Let the music inspire you to dream of haunted seas and ghostly ships.

No sharity on this little gem ... should be available from Hypnos records.