Twin brothers Klive and Nigel Humberstone and Anthony Bennett formed this Sheffield, England-based band in 1981. The trio were originally associated with the UK's industrial music scene, releasing the six-track When Cherished Dreams Come True in June 1983. The "Witness (To A Scream)" single and Sonority EP followed before the band moved to the Sweatbox label for the fearsome Temper EP.
The full-length Twins was recorded without the departed Bennett at Bradford's Flexible Response Studio. The album adopted a more subtle approach by favouring theatrical atmospherics over industrial clatter. Multi-lingual vocalist Dolores Marguerite C made her debut on the Trinity EP adding French narration to "Elegy'. Dolores and military-styled percussionist Q were added to the line-up on the subsequent Stormhorse, the soundtrack to an imaginary film that provided the cinematic blueprint for all their future recordings.
The quartet's final recording for Sweatbox, 1988's Köda, completed the transition to a classical instrumental sound and utilised computer sequencing in the recording process for the first time. Following the collapse of Sweatbox the band moved to Third Mind Records to complete the delicate L'Esprit. The album was recorded with engineer Steve Harris who had contributed to Köda and would feature on all the band's subsequent releases up to 1995.
Sense and Duality were followed by a logical progression to real soundtrack work on 1993's psychological drama An Ambush Of Ghosts. Their music has featured in Beowulf, The Aviator, Interview With The Vampire, Streetfighter II and The Rainmaker as well as the La Femme Nikita TV series.
Since 1996, and parallel to their studio works, ITN have developed their Optical Music Series, new scores for classic silent films, new scores for silent classics The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari, Asphalt and Man With A Movie Camera, A Page of Madness, Electric Edwardians and The Passion Of Joan of Arc and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Anatomy Of A Poet, a concept album about the creative psyche, featured author Colin Wilson reciting romantic poetry against a lush backdrop of strings, and also included a cover version of Scott Walker's "Seventh Seal". A retrospective compilation of their work was the first release on their own ITN Corporation label. Further concept albums have included Deco (inspired by the Art Deco movement), the ambitious Lingua, an exploration of language featuring vocal contributions from around the world, and Era.
The Humberstones have also recorded more dance-orientated material under the Les Jumeaux moniker, and as such were involved in pre-production work on Sabres Of Paradise's classic techno anthem "Smokebelch" and remixed "Haunted Dancehall".
IN THE NURSERY’s recent albums include ‘Blind Sound’ and ‘The Calling ‘ their thematic soundtrack featuring author Simon Beckett.
The band have a number of ongoing projects including ‘Aprirsi’, creating binaural soundscapes for dementia patients.
Resonate
In The Nursery Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Une melodie
Les couleurs éclatants encore
Me pacifient
La rêverie
Mélancolique
Dans la froide d’éternité
La fantasie
Et la folie
La mémoire réside férvente,
dans mon esprit
La solitude
Les fleurs d’hiver
Quand je rêve les sons aveuglés
resonnaient
Toujours la meme
Le sentiment
La renaissance
Soporifique
Toujours la méme
In The Nursery's song Resonate is a haunting and mesmerizing piece that is rich in poetic language and evocative imagery. The lyrics are in French, adding to the mystique and allure of the song. The song appears to be a meditation on memory, desire, and the power of music to transport the listener to another place or time. The opening lines of the song speak of a melody that soothes the singer, the colors are bright, and the music brings peace. The singer escapes into reverie, where melancholic thoughts are tempered by the beauty of the fleeting moment. The singer's mind is filled with phantoms and the desires that remain unfulfilled, and the music seems to evoke them.
As the song moves along, the singer becomes consumed by their own imagination, lost in fanciful thought, and perhaps even madness. The memory resides passionately in their mind, intensifying the emotions and the power of the music. The loneliness of the singer is palpable, and even the beauty of the winter flowers fails to lighten their mood. When the singer dreams, the overwhelming sounds resonate throughout their being and transport them away from their isolation. The final lines of the song repeat the refrain "always the same," which suggests a sense of repetition and cyclical thought, as if the singer is trapped in their own mind and memory.
Overall, In The Nursery's Resonate is a profound and emotionally charged song that explores the capacity of music to move and transform the listener. The song's lyrics are rich in metaphor and symbolism, evoking a sense of longing, loss, and despair, as well as the redemptive power of music.
Line by Line Meaning
La sonnerie
The ringing sound
Une melodie
A melody
Les couleurs éclatants encore
The vibrant colors still shining
Me pacifient
Soothe me
La rêverie
The daydream
Mélancolique
Melancholic
Dans la froide d’éternité
In the coldness of eternity
[Se cachent] désirs fantômes
Ghostly desires [are hidden]
La fantasie
The fantasy
Et la folie
And the madness
La mémoire réside férvente,
The memory resides fervently,
dans mon esprit
In my mind
La solitude
The solitude
Les fleurs d’hiver
The winter flowers
Quand je rêve les sons aveuglés
When I dream, the blinded sounds
resonnaient
Resonate
Toujours la meme
Always the same
Le sentiment
The feeling
La renaissance
The rebirth
Soporifique
Soporific/hypnotic
Toujours la méme
Always the same
Contributed by Daniel S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.