Soundwalk Collective / Jesse Paris Smith / P Smith KILLER ROAD

Nico was little more than an afterthought in the world of music when she died in Ibiza, Spain in 1988. Her performances on the Velvet Underground's debut album were all most music followers knew of her, and her solo works, never embraced by a large audience, were mostly out of print. Nico's final recordings testified to the toll drug abuse had taken upon her body and her muse, and when a bicycle accident claimed her on a sweltering July day, it attracted little notice. Nearly three decades later, the music and performance art group Soundwalk Collective have given Nico a moving and belated memorial with Killer Road, a 2016 album documenting a performance piece the group debuted in 2014. For Killer Road, Soundwalk Collective are joined by guest musician Jesse Paris Smith, who adds singing bowls and acoustic resonant instruments to the mix, while Jesse's mother, the noted singer, poet, and author Patti Smith, delivers vocals inspired by poetry Nico wrote in the late stages of her life. (W