Plane Crash Shapes Forthcoming Recoil Album

Dec 16, 1999, 12:55 pm PT

Ex-Depeche Mode keyboardist Alan Wilder is currently prepping the release of the third album from Recoil, Liquid, tentatively scheduled for a March 7 release on Mute Records. Recoil, once a side project for Wilder, has turned into a full-time gig since his 1995 departure from Depeche Mode, and the musician has assembled his usual array of eclectic talent for the album.

On board this time around are avant-garde artist Diamanda Galas, poet/spoken word artists Nicole Blackman and Samantha Coerbell, and the Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet, among others. Additionally, Echobelly singer Sonya Aurora Madan appears on a B-side ("Don't Look Back") to the first single, "Strange Hours."

According to Wilder, Liquid's theme was inspired by a real-life confrontation with death in 1994, when the musician witnessed a military plane crash while on holiday in Scotland. "We were driving up in Scotland in the middle of nowhere and this Tornado bomber crashed right in front of us," recalls Wilder.

"Literally, 10 seconds further into our journey, it would have landed on our heads. We were in an open top car and we could feel the dust and debris falling into the car," he continues. "There was nothing discernable left of this aircraft, it literally split into millions and millions of pieces. This kind of had a delayed affect [on me] but the upshot was this idea of the pilot going down and the last 10 seconds of his life [which] stayed with me."

Two pilots were killed in the accident, which no doubt left an impression on Wilder, and since prompted him to write the music for the album's lead track, "Black Box, Part I."

"What then really happens is the LP unfolds with a series of stories that account for the [pilot's] memory coming back to him in his last moments as he's about to die," says Wilder. "And the fact that it happened on such a fantastic day -- just straight after this air crash, the birds were singing, the sun was still shining, and there was a smell of fuel in the air."

Liquid, the follow-up to 1997's Unsound Methods, will include an enhanced portion, which will include the video for "Strange Hours" as well as a few as-yet-undecided goodies. The CD single for "Strange Hours," which includes several remixes by Wilder as well as two bonus tracks (the aforementioned "Don't Look Back" and "New York Nights"), will also be enhanced. All four Recoil videos, a photo gallery, and other surprises will be included with that.

For a preview of Liquid, pay close attention to the music playing before Nine Inch Nails take the stage on their current tour -- frontman Trent Reznor has adopted a few tunes from the album as his warm-up music between sets. Meanwhile, you'll find Wilder on the nearest form of ground transportation.

"I don’t enjoy flying much, I'd much rather take the train."