The music of Nordstahl, Das Geisterschiff, cuts through the clatter of contemporary music like a specter-haunted ship rising out of the ocean gloom of nautical mysticism. This piece of work in German does not merely narrate, but rather haunts you with its narration, and makes the ancient mythos of the ghost ship thoroughly modern and intimate.
With the first notes, you are labeled into the waters which seem to be both familiar and taboo. The delivery of the voice is heavy to the extent that the language barrier is not something to worry about as each German consonant strikes like waves against weathered wood. It feels urgent in the performance and you want to lean in, even though you don’t understand every word–the feeling is universal.
My personal favorite is the way that this song is able to explore darkness without miring in it. The music flows like water changing between minimal and hauntingly beautiful as it highlights the emotional tract. The instrumentation, the wild bells of a distance, a grieving cello, is such one that is both cinematic and intimate.
The ghost-ship metaphor is a particularly vexing example of literal and philosophical layers of meaning: the literal use of the phrase is as a description of an actual ghost ship, whereas the metaphorical use of the phrase refers to the fact that we are prisoners inside our past mistakes that are (in turn) converted to vessels we sail inside. It is the type of song that makes you dwell on your own regrets all the while losing yourself in its beautiful atmosphere.
In a world where music is thrown away and people are given easy heart tugging moments, Das Geisterschiff asks the listener to give it and themselves more of a chance. It has you sit and feel the pain of the fact that not everything in the world can be fixed. The spiritual exploration of spiritual abandonment the bridge explores lends the bridge a theological weight not usually found in the genre.
Nordstahl has created something very special with this piece, creating a piece that both pays tribute to the customs of traditional folk music and also speaks to modern fears of permanence and consequence. This is not background music but more of an experience, an experience that lasts even after the coda has decayed in the mist.
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