Desertshore was co-produced by John Cale and Joe Boyd. Like its predecessor The Marble Index, it is an avant-garde album with neoclassical elements. "Janitor of Lunacy" was composed as a tribute to her friend Brian Jones. The back and front covers feature stills from the film La cicatrice interieure by Philippe Garrel, which starred Nico, Garrel and her son Ari Boulogne. A few of the songs from the album were included on the soundtrack of the film.
Legacy
Released in December 1970, Desertshore received little commercial recognition. Similar to that of The Marble Index, upon its release the album obtained a small cult following, but was overlooked by most large publications and the public in general. However, like the bulk of Nico's discography, Desertshore has received mainstream praise from critics in subsequent years. AllMusic and The New Rolling Stone Album Guide provided strong, positive reception for the album. Tiny Mix Tapes rated Desertshore five out of five. However, The Village Voice was less favorable, giving the album a "C" rating. "All That Is My Own" was selected by Morrissey for inclusion on his Under the Influence compilation. "Le petit chevalier" was covered live by Bjork during her Post Tour in 1996 and also by Bat for Lashes in 2007 at the Glastonbury festival, and was prominently sampled by Abu Lahab on his 2013 album Of Heliotaxis and Cosmic Knifing.
X-TG cover
In 2007, industrial music band Throbbing Gristle went into the studio to record a reinterpretation of Desertshore for a later release. The studio session was made open to the public and the entirety of the 3-day, 12-hour-long session was recorded, given a limited press, and released as The Desertshore Installation. The plan had been to edit these three days of recordings and craft the finished album from that material, but the group were not satisfied with the sessions and decided to re-record the album. Peter Christopherson continued working on it in Bangkok with Danny Hyde until his death in November 2010. Hyde passed the work they had done to remaining Throbbing Gristle members Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti to complete, which they have accomplished with the help of several guest vocalists, including Marc Almond, Sasha Grey, Blixa Bargeld and Antony Hegarty. The album, called Desertshore/The Final Report, was released on November 26, 2012, under the name X-TG. The album was debuted live at AV Festival on March 17, 2012, performed by Carter and Tutti. It was accompanied by a screening of Philippe Garrel’s La cicatrice intérieure, "for which Desertshore was soundtrack and inspiration".
