Reims Cathedral - December 13, 1974

This spare, intense 1974 live set captures Nico opening for Krautrock innovators Tangerine Dream at the cathedral of France's Notre-Dame de Reims. The event was notable at the time for stoking outrage among conservative French Catholics, who saw it as a desecration of holy space. But the reissue of Nico’s striking solo set lets listeners put aside the controversy and appreciate a compelling musical document. During this period, Nico had discarded the gentle folk-rock of her 1967 debut, Chelsea Girls, in order to collaborate with John Cale on a series of austere solo albums that drew from the forbidding cadences and asymmetrical melodies of medieval plainsong and from the gloomier leanings of their former band, The Velvet Underground. The performance captured here, which features Nico accompanied only by the fitful droning of her own harmonium, is something else entirely. The morbid, doom-struck atmosphere of songs like “Janitor of Lunacy” and “Valley of Kings” is only enhanced by the natural reverb created by the cathedral's cavernous vaults, making this set one of Nico’s most memorable solo recordings.