Ghost of the Art (alpha mixes) (1994)

Ghost of the Art by Dark Company.

Ghost of the Art is the fifth album by Dark Company and widely regarded as their most emotional. Pete originally had the idea of calling the album ‘Ghosts of the Heart’. This was slightly misheard by Marcus who thought he had said ‘Ghost of the Art’ and agreed that it was a fantastic name. Eventually the band settled on the incorrectly heard version of the name.

Dark Company explained that the name Ghost of the Art refers to the magikal residues left behind after performing esoteric rites, which makes some sort of sense. George and Pete were both followers of the Kaballah. There are a number of references to the arcane throughout the album, particularly in Mighty Diamond, White Bird on Ivory and Stuck on You. Even Architect can be considered a song about the building and destruction of the inner temple.

A lot of the songs on this album deal with love – unrequited, lost, spoiled, when things go beyond what is considered ‘normal’ or ‘healthy’, and finally resolution in the track Reasons. It also deals with some of the situations surrounding somebody who is lovesick, such as pretending not to care but caring more than mere words could describe. Besides the notion of romantic love, Ghost of the Art also deals with the love of family and friends. The way the tracks are arranged seems to tell some kind of story and it could even be considered a concept album.

These recordings are the pieced together fragments of the songs Dark Company were creating during 1992, 1993 and the early part of 1994. Much of the sequenced material managed to survive the interim period. Most of the songs were composed at that time, although Desperado and Attached both come from a slightly earlier period. The original sequencing was done by George and Jeff at Silent Running Studios, with George also playing guitar and Jeff the bass. All lyrics and vocals were performed by Pete.

We are currently engaged in restoring all of Dark Company’s back catalogue. These are alpha mixes and need a lot of work to finish them off. Please consider them ‘work-in-progress’ as you listen. When updates are uploaded we shall let you know in our News service and on Twitter. Dark Company have their own separate Twitter feed as well, which you might like to follow.

01 Architect
02 Attached
03 Happy Hour
04 Desperado
05 Dolls House
06 Repossession
07 White Bird on Ivory
08 Mighty Diamond
09 Stuck On You
10 Mirror
11 The Thin Man
12 Reasons