Haunting Ghost Stories from Nine Inch Nails

October is the month when I sometimes put on ghost parties, inviting a group of friends together for an evening of ghost stories. Candles flicker inside grinning pumpkins. In a dark corner, a hooded ghoul sits propped in a chair. Some of the stories are macabre and disturbing, others melancholy and filled with pathos. Nine Inch Nails has recorded a set of instrumental "ghost stories" titled Ghosts I-IV that superbly captures this spectrum of the spectral.

The nameless tracks are broken out into four sections (two per disc). The arrangements are often gritty and industrial, filled with dissonances, processed sounds and repeated motifs that are built up in layers. But there are plaintive, softer passages, too, where miasmas of sound swirl around simple piano lines. Of the two discs, III/IV is more successful, with a surer sense of pacing and flow. Some of the pieces overlap, like phantoms fading into each other. One of the music's strengths is the way that otherworldly noises often float in the background, subtly evoking things we associate with ghosts without hitting us over the head. In the more drum-driven tracks, too, you can't help but be aware of the "missing" vocals — an absence that haunts the music to great effect.

The packaging of the CD is effectively minimal: black-and-white images of sand dunes. Inside, a spread showing desolate clumps of bushes in the desert that reminds me of the shocks of arroweed in the Devil's Cornfield at Death Valley. Text is largely absent except for three pages in the 16-page booklet insert. Every artistic and design choice reinforces the ghost theme. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence to create the visual aesthetic, which is available by email as a 40-page PDF file from the Ghosts I-IV website.

Explaining the project, Trent Reznor says:

"I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts."

I find myself repeatedly drawn back to the music (tracks I-1, II-11, II-15, III-19, III-24 and IV-30 especially stand out). Reznor and Atticus Ross wrote most of the tracks but share writing credits variously with Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini and Brian Viglione on about one-third. This is not "pretty" music — but then you wouldn't expect that from NIN. These are restless, in-your-face ghosts.

The music is licensed under a Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike" license for the United States, which means you are free to share (copy, distribute, display and perform the work with the appropriate attribution under certain conditions) and remix (make derivative works). Another blow to the major labels (way to go, NIN!). The first nine tracks (Ghosts I) are available as free downloads.

If you are open to new sonic experiences, this is imaginative, richly rewarding music that I highly recommend. You can listen to the tracks and find out more from the Ghosts I-IV website.