NURSE WITH WOUND & GRAHAM BOWERS – Bells of Hell Go Ting A’ling A’ling (2013)

Nurse with Wound is the main recording name for British musician Steven Stapleton. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak. The band’s work has explored genres such as industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone.

After some years spent writing scores for contemporary dance, mime and experimental theatre, Welsh musician and composer Graham Bowers (1943-2015) developed his approach to composition into a genre of music which he describes as “sound theatre”.

Although the music works follow a traditional approach to composition, they take in aspects of contemporary, classical, experimental and avant-garde sounds. The movements of Bowers’ work flow seamlessly into each other creating one continuous lengthy piece.

Bowers works with acoustic instruments, which are digitally processed in the studio. The instrumentation includes saxophone, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, piano, hammer dulcimer, guitar and percussion. Although a solo artist, he almost always collaborates with others on the projects.

The Anglesey-based composer has released a “multimedia triptych” which began with the gothic-sounding of Mary’s Blood (1996), accompanied with surrealistic artwork.

The following year’s Transgression was a single 49-minute composition featuring a number of collaborators. The piece included a succession of subtle changes, before exploding in an apocalyptic crescendo.

On June 3rd 2015, it was announced, that Bowers has passed away after a long illness.