This is a record that should be approached with some trepidation. Certainly it isn't going to top any charts or start any new dance crazes, nor are the lyrics going to be quoted by earnest young theologians or the underground press. That, however, doesn't make it any less a work of genius.

The genius in question is John Cale who has found in Nico a perfect foil for the side of his musical personality that made Howard Hansen fail him at the Eastman Conservatory for composing music too destructive to be played. Make no mistake, my friends, for this record is dark, dark. Its dominant mood is Gothick: guttering candles sputtering black wax on cold stone floors as the sound of Nico's harmonium drifts in from another room.

It doesn't have a beat and you can't dance to it. Nico's roots are in plainsong and European art song, and this, combined with her icy delivery, is enough to scare most people away from her music. The compositions on Desertshore, however, are not quite as distant and outre as those on the Marble Index, her last outing with Cale. "All That Is My Own," in fact, shows a distinct rock influence. Two of the numbers are sung in German ("Abschied" and "Mutterlein"), which contributes to the otherworldly feeling, and Nico's son handles the vocal on "Le Petit Chevalier," a chilling little chanson reminiscent of "The Village of the Damned."

Not enough can be said for Cale's arrangements. An unnamed trumpeter gives "My Only Child" an authentically medieval flavor, Cale's viola blends beautifully with the harmonium on several cuts, and his multi-tracked pianistics on "Mutterlein" teeter on the brink of madness. Incidentally, "Mutterlein" and "Abschied" are both from the score of a film by Philippe Garrel entitled La Cicatrice Interieure which is probably one of those films with fine scores like Wonderwall that'll never get released on this side of the Atlantic.

I really don't know who to recommend this record to, but introverted adolescent girls, lovers of H.P. Lovecraft novels and Nico fans (whatever they might be like) will go for it, and, if you're in search of the unusual, you might too. (RS 75)

ED WARD