Like a Corpse Standing in Desperation

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Like a Corpse Standing in Desperation
Box set by
Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows
Released2005 (2005)
Recorded1989–2004
GenreDarkwave
Length199:26
LabelApocalyptic Vision
ProducerSopor Aeternus, John A. Rivers
Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows chronology
La Chambre d'Echo
(2004) 		Like a Corpse Standing in Desperation
(2005) 		Les Fleurs du Mal
(2007)

Like a Corpse Standing in Desperation is the title of a career-spanning rarities box set by darkwave band Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows that was released in 2005. The recordings span fifteen years of "original demos, rarities & documented failures." Re-issued for the first time are the out-of-print EP Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh and remix album Voyager - The Jugglers of Jusa, along with the never before heard demo tape Es reiten die Toten so schnell... and the extensively bootlegged Flowers in Formaldehyde.

Overview[edit]

Like a Corpse... was created in response to the high prices fans would have to pay on eBay for bootlegged copies of out of print EPs and albums. John A. Rivers, who personally oversaw the remastering of the first six Sopor Aeternus albums, as well as the two to follow (2003's "Es reiten die Toten so schnell" (or: the Vampyre sucking at his own Vein) and 2004's "La Chambre D'Echo" - Where the dead Birds sing) supervised and remastered the contents of this box set. The set also included the concurrently released single, "The Goat" / "The Bells have stopped ringing".

Barring the aforementioned single and demo tape, four previously unreleased songs were included: "White Body", "Watch your Step", "As Fire kissed the Echo Twins" and "The Widow's Dream"; the last of which is based on the Rozz Williams song "A Widow's Dream". "White Body" is sourced from one of the two still-unreleased demo tapes by Sopor Aeternus.

The box set contains three CDs, packaged in their own hardcover booklet; the book also includes liner notes by Anna-Varney Cantodea herself, as well as "the only interview/publication that I have kept over the years." Also included is a working facsimile of the original cassette tape for Es reiten die Toten so schnell..., complete with both original and re-packaged artwork (on both sides); two DVDs (one in NTSC format, the other in PAL) containing five Sopor videos; a T-shirt, a poster, a sticker, patches, buttons, a decorative attachment for a funeral wreath and a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Of interest to some listeners are the two different mixes of the demo tape material. The demo appears on the first disc of the collection in a remastered format, removing tape hiss but adding heavy reverb effects; the cassette included in the set contains the songs as originally mixed. The songs from Jekura - Deep the Eternal Forest and Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh were also remastered in a similar fashion. Also of note are the two versions of the video for "Deep the eternal Forest"; one, with Anna-Varney Cantodea in black robes, is found on the NTSC DVD; while the other, with Cantodea in white robes, is found on the PAL DVD. The menus of each disc are different as well.

Track listing[edit]

All tracks are written by Anna-Varney Cantodea

Disc 1: Original DEMO Recordings
No.TitleLength
1."Omen Sinsitrum (original demo)" ("Inauspicious omen"; Sopor Aeternus)2:15
2."Dead Souls (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)6:41
3."Stake of my Soul (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)1:14
4."Beautiful Thorn (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)5:09
5."Baptisma (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)5:01
6."The Feast of Blood (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)4:07
7."Sopor Fratrem Mortis Est (original demo)" ("Sleep is the brother of Death"; Sopor Aeternus)4:55
8."Reprise (original demo)" (Sopor Aeternus)0:16
9."White Body (previously unreleased demo, 1992"3:13
10."Diô N'arâp (The unability within Time)" (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward)3:10
11."Tabor C'âlan O'itanâ (My Womb is barren, but I can conceive)" (Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward)7:10
12."Deep the eternal Forest"1:46
13."Watch your Step (previously unreleased demo, 1994.)"3:37
14."Introduction - The Termite People"6:45
15."Anima I"0:50
16."Shadowsphere II"2:31
17."Saltatio Crudelitatis" ("Dance of cruelty")5:37
18."Freitod-Phantasien" ("Suicide-Fantasies")3:33
19."Anima II"3:05
20."Tanz der Grausamkeit (recorded on 28 October 1993.)" ("Dance of cruelty")5:27
21."As Fire kissed the Echo Twins (previously unreleased demo, 1994.)"1:49

Tracks 1-8 comprise the demo cassette Es reiten die Toten so schnell.... Tracks 10-12 and 14 are taken from the compilation Jekura - Deep the Eternal Forest. Tracks 15-20 form the complete Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh EP.

Disc 2: "Voyager - The Jugglers of Jusa"
No.TitleLength
1."The inexperienced Spiral Traveller: * a fragment * II"5:07
2."Ein freundliches Wort... (...hat meine Seele berührt.) (defined and fragile)" ("A kind word... (...has touched my soul.)")5:10
3."Memalon II"7:25
4."The Innocence of Devils: "Alone" (E. A. Poe)"6:27
5."Modela est" ("The Model"; Ralf Hütter, Karl Bartos, Emil Schult)4:35
6."Birth (instr.)"2:49
7."Feralia Genitalia (Arrival of the Jugglers)"6:30
8."Menuetto"1:26
9."Saturn-Impressionen (Jusa, Jusa)" ("Saturn-Impressions (Jusa, Jusa)")2:48
10."May I kiss your Wound ? (Saturn:Orion)"6:05
11.""Alone" II"6:55
12."The inexperienced Spiral Traveller: * a fragment * II (instr.)"5:08
13."The Widow's Dream - fragment (Outtake from "Dead Lovers' Sarabande" (Face One), 1999. Previously unreleased demo.)"1:48
14."The Goat (Based on the music of Frédéric Chopin's "Marche Funèbre, OP 35". Outtake from "Songs from the inverted Womb", 2000. Previously unreleased.)"4:11
15."The Bells have stopped ringing (previously unreleased, 2000)"5:05

Tracks 1-12 form the Voyager album proper. Tracks 13-15 are bonus tracks, with the latter two forming the Goat / The Bells have stopped ringing single.

Disc 3: "Flowers in Formaldehyde"
No.TitleLength
1."In an Hour Darkly"4:58
2."The Conqueror Worm (by Edgar Allan Poe)"3:28
3."Minnesang"3:36
4."Von der Einfalt" (Of naivety)1:40
5."Hearse-shaped Basins of Darkest Matter (instrumental)"3:39
6."Leeches & Deception (instrumental)"6:59
7."Extract from: The Voices of the Dead"0:58
8."Do you know my Name ? / What has happened while we slept ?"5:06
9.""La Chambre D'Echo" album trailer" (enhanced track)0:42

Additional material[edit]

All tracks are written by Sopor Aeternus. Both sides contain the same songs

Cassette: Es reiten die Toten so schnell..., sides A & B
No.TitleLength
1."Omen Sinsitrum" ("Inauspicious omen")2:15
2."Dead Souls"6:41
3."Stake of my Soul"1:14
4."Beautiful Thorn"5:09
5."Baptisma"5:01
6."The Feast of Blood"4:07
7."Sopor Fratrem Mortis Est" ("Sleep is the brother of Death")4:55
8."Reprise" (unlisted track)0:16
DVD: SOPOR
No.TitleLength
1."The Goat"4:11
2."...And Bringer of Sadness"6:45
3."Deep the eternal Forest"1:46
4."The Dog Burial"1:15
5."The Bells have stopped ringing"5:05

Personnel[edit]

Es reiten die Toten so schnell...

  • Varney: vocals and instruments
  • Holger: instruments

Ehjeh Ascher Ehjeh, Jekura - Deep the Eternal Forest and all outtakes

  • Varney: All vocals, instruments and programming

"Voyager - The Jugglers of Jusa"

Flowers in Formaldehyde

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