Dear Friends

this is to remind you that Metallic Taste of Blood (Eraldo Bernocchi on Guitars, Colin Edwin on Bass, Balazs Pandi on drums, Roy Powell on keyboards) will be performing at the Asymmetry 5.0 tomorrow in Wroclaw, Poland. They will be playing on the main stage of the Wroclaw Congress Centre (Multipurpose Hall) from 7 pm onwards. 

For those of you at the Festival – enjoy it and film it!

One of the most frustrating things about being a fan of heavy metal is that the all too many people think that the entire scene is like one giant, global version of Heavy Metal Parking Lot on infinite repeat. It isn’t. In fact arguably it continues to produce some of the most diverse and forward thinking music around – why can’t you grow up on a healthy diet of Kiss and Motörhead, and then eventually find yourself playing guitar in front of the Dalai Lama as part of a free improv collective performance that includes, amongst others, seven Tibetan monks, a Japanese Trumpeter and legendary bassist Bill Laswell? Because as strange as it sounds, as part of Somma, that’s exactly what Eraldo Bernocchi did. And what he continues to do through more recent, more metal orientated bands – the sludgy, yet near-operatic Obake and the Colin Edwin featuring Metallic Taste Of Blood.

Although currently a member of two bands, Bernocchi’s first serious musical venture, the industrial-tainted world/noise outfit Sigillum S, was created with the specific intention of being totally against the perceived notion of what a ‘band’ is, with members and collaborators dropping in and out as they saw fit. Since then his collaborations have veered from the warped, beat driven noise of Black Engine – featuring Mick Harris and members of Zu – to the ambient, guitar only drones of Parched, with Ephel Duath’s Davide Tiso. And all this from someone who has Lamb Of God’s latest album on heavy rotation on his iPod and (rightly) believes Slayer to be the best band in the world.

In the lounge of a small hotel in Wroclaw, Poland, the morning after Obake’s headline set at the Asymmetry festival, the Quietus caught up with Eraldo to find out about his latest projects and to try and keep up with his truly heroic intake of espressos (we failed miserably at the latter).

EB: I did a project called Parched, a record called Arc, together with Davide Tiso, the guitarist from Ephel Duath – only two guitarists, it was an ambient record, kind of like a soundtrack thing. Then, one day I got an e-mail from a friend who said, ‘Look, Parched is in the end of year top ten of Colin Edwin from Porcupine Tree – it’s one of his favourite records’, I think it was number three or something, so obviously I was like ‘Whoa, what the fuck?’ And after a couple of days Colin contacted me on MySpace and said that he loved the record. I wrote him back and we started to exchange ideas and at a certain point we said ‘Ok, let’s try and do something together, maybe the result will be interesting.’

At the very same time I was producing the Obake record, so I was working with Balazs, so invited him to be involved and we started to work on some tracks. Colin came to my place two or three times, we worked on tracks, put together some ideas – very open structures. After a while we started to say to each other, y’know, where are we heading with this? Are we going with a trio? No. We needed some other voice – but I didn’t want to have a vocalist because that would have made it Obake number two, basically. I didn’t want to have, like, a trumpet or a saxophonist either, because I’d already worked with those recently.

Then Balazs had this idea of involving Jamie Saft, and I said, ‘Well, why the hell not?’ Jamie is one of my favourite keyboardists – notwithstanding Jamie loves Slayer, Black Sabbath, ZZ Top and all this stuff – so there was a lot of connection there. We started to discuss this with Jamie and he was totally into it and we started to work on things.

Are you a fan of Porcupine Tree?

EB: Yeah. I mean, not a massive fan, I like a lot of what they do – especially the last two albums, The Incident I love. But it’s a mix; it’s one of those things where sometimes they are too overly complex for my tastes. For instance, Steven Wilson, he’s one of the most incredible musicians that has surfaced in the last 20 years, I think.

The improvisational aspect is key to your other ‘band’ project, Obake…

EB: Well, I would say that a good 30 percent of what we play live is improvised – but the album is totally improvised.

So presumably that’s the same with MTOB?

EB: Yeah, me and Colin put together ‘structures’ – we just give a name to the madness and try to encapsulate things. What I try to avoid, it’s something I really hate, even when I’m producing bands, is the ‘cut and paste’ thing. I hate that. Let’s play things for real! The real shit!

Generally speaking then, do you have skeletons of tracks or basic ideas before you enter the studio?

EB: No. Maybe I’ll be thinking ‘Yeah, I have this riff that I like’, Colin will say ‘Well, look, I have this bass line in mind’ or Balazs will be doing certain things; we’ll just be jamming. And when we’re jamming, if we’re finding something that we like we’ll record it – 20, 30 or even 40 minutes – and develop it. So that’s basically how all the tracks are made.

Colin is known for his often bizarre time signatures – how was it trying to establish a connection with him, musically, at first?

EB: The connection was there right from the beginning really, I didn’t struggle with playing together at all. In the very beginning I had to change my musical perception a little bit. But that’s part of the fun, right?

EB: Well, I’m used to working on so many different things that I’m always Obake-sizing myself and shapeshifting, so it didn’t take long. There’s one track on the record that is in 7/8, it’s very drum & bass-y, almost a bit tribal, and on that track I only did droning guitars because I tried so many different things every time it was sounding like fusion or something. Because the drums and the bass are so precise, with that piano line on top, putting a groove on top of all that was spoiling everything.

That being the case, and with the amount of improvisation going on live, how much is Obake more or less a live band than a recorded one?

EB: I was asked the same question by another guy just yesterday actually. I never had bands in the past because I hated the concept of ‘bands’, I hate the idea of playing the same shit every night. To me that is unbearable, I’ll never understand how people can do, like, 200 gigs playing the same fucking songs every night – to me that is unconceivable. What I like is to have some structures, that replenish my energy, and to have open sections. For example, the last track that we played last night – ‘The Human Genome Project’ – on the record there is no improv part but over these last three of four gigs we have started to develop this improv part – we never know how long it’s going to last, it could be five minutes, it could be ten seconds, it depends on how we look at each other, how Trevor and Balasz are working with bass and drums. That for me is the key, that’s the only way I can imagine a band.

And do you see MTOB as becoming a live project at any point?

EB: Oh yeah, totally, we are thinking about that – we are actually thinking about it as a proper ‘band’. There’s a lot of people asking if there’s going to be another album already too, but it’s like, c’mon, enjoy the first one first! But yeah, we’re thinking about doing some festivals or something.

Changing track slightly; we talked a little bit last night about some of the first records you’d bought – Elton John, Kiss, etc – and, of course, your love of Slayer. Yet with Obake and MTOB especially, the influences don’t seem quite so obvious…

EB: Ahhhh… But I listen to anything, absolutely anything!

So those early record are just the seeds that things grew from, or do you still draw inspiration from Love Gun or Capitan Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy?

EB: Oh yeah, totally, totally. It’s like, for instance, Kiss were my idols when I was 10, 12, and as a teenager, and they are still there – if I listen to ‘Deuce’, ‘Detroit Rock City’ or ‘Cold Gin’ for instance, I love it, I mean, it’s something that is there. The guys from Asymmetry [Festival, Poland] they did for their website a long, long interview with me – I mean, it’s endless! – and they asked me about the five records that are most important to me; that’s Reign In Blood, Ace Of Spades, Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing and then you have The Pearl by Brian Eno and Harold Budd, and Closer by Joy Division. I mean, how can you fit them together?

I only had five, otherwise I could have even put stuff like Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue and A Love Supreme by Coltrane. But I don’t know if in my music you can feel that influence. Tangerine Dream are another one, they were a major influence on me, especially in terms of the electronic parts. And actually I don’t really care if people can pick it out!

Last night, for instance, I had a very good time with Trevor during the last track, during the last part of ‘The Human Genome Project’, I recognised that the bass line he was playing in that very moment was the bass line from ’100,000 Years’ by Kiss, so I played on top of that the guitar riff from that song – and it worked perfectly, it’s like four bars of, like, a quote, but nobody will discover that. It was great fun!

Improvised or not though, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of positivity in the sound of Obake, especially with Lorenzo’s vocals – parts of it sound almost anguished…

EB: To be honest with you, I can tell you honestly, I’m really, really tired; I’ve been a dark, negative, negative person for a long, long time in my life – coming from industrial music and all the darkness – there’s a dark side to me. But I’m tired of doing all that shit. It’s obvious that Obake is not something that you listen to at the beach, it’s not something that you pump out under your parasol like [in a girlish falsetto] ‘Yeah, ‘Human Genome…’ by Obake, yeah!’, but you’ve got to have a serious sense of humour – and I want you to underline serious sense of humour – if you want to survive the fact that this fucking planet is doomed.

So, we’ve got a record that is heavy, kind of dark sometimes, and sometimes it opens up with light, melodic parts and stuff like that. Lorenzo’s vocals I think are reflecting that, he’s sad in moments and he’s raging and angry in others. Some evenings on tour we play without a single fucking smile, we barely even look at each other, except for me and Trevor, and some other evenings, like yesterday, it was like ‘Yeah, rock & roll!’ and with those guys bringing those [shop dummy] legs on with them. I like it like that. It’s not diminishing the value of what’s happening.

Metallic Taste Of Blood’s self-titled debut is available now via RareNoise records. To listen to tracks from the album, head to their website.

Photo by Bruna Rotunno

Dear Friends,

as we mentioned in the fourth chapter of our Myopic Retrospective, we have now finally prepared the ground for a Hyperopic Per-Spective of 2012.

The first couple of months of 2012 will start, as one expects, where 2011 ended – with the releases in the US of Winter Garden and Animation’s Agemo, which will be followed by a spate of new releases. Please be aware that the release dates vary by country, and that excluding FREQUENT FLYER, most of the artwork is not final)

RNR023 – LORENZO FELICIATI – FREQUENT FLYER – End Of February/End of March 2012

Subtitled “Diary of A Travelling Musician”, Frequent Flyer is a celebration of the musical talents (travels…) of Italian bassist, music producer and founder of Naked Truth, Lorenzo Feliciati as he scours the lands of jazz and progressive rock with a very large cohort of musical conspirers –  Bob Mintzer, Cuong Vu, Roy Powell, Phil Brown, Patrick Djivas, Lucrezio De Seta, DJ Skizo, Paulo La Rosa, Pat Mastelotto, Aidan Zammit, Roberto Gualdi, Stefano Bagnoli, Maxx Furian, Pier Paolo Ferroni, Andrea Di Cesare, Daniele Gottardo, Jose Fiorillo, Daniele Pomo and Guido Block. A multi-faceted record as broad in scope as it is deep in musical ideas, Frequent Flyer is both a voyage as it is a statement of intent, musical intelligence, spectacular taste and grand architectural vision.

and here as her performs a track from the Album, “Law & Order”

RNR024 – METALLIC TASTE OF BLOOD (Eraldo Bernocchi, Colin Edwin, Jamie Saft, Balazs Pandi) – End of March/End of June 2012

Around November 2009 we were very honoured when Colin Edwin, bass player extraordinaire of Porcupine Tree acquired a copy of Arc by Parched, one of RareNoiseRecords’ first releases, featuring the combined talents of Eraldo Bernocchi and Davide Tiso. The seeds of artistic consonance between Edwin and Bernocchi have since flourished  and with the infusion of talent by keyboard-player/composer Jamie Saft and drum powerhouse Balazs Pandi (of Obake fame), have eventually blossomed into a genre-defying instrumental recording spanning the space between metal, progressive, dub, alternative…in a smooth and all-encompassing way. Utterly spellbinding

Very soon (probably early february) we will be able to share one or two tracks with you. For the time being head over to their website and read about it on Colin Edwin’s Blog.

RNR025 – DAVE FIUCZYNSKI’S PLANET MICROJAM (Dave Fiuczynski and musicians, with appearances by Jack DeJohnette and Kenwood Dennard – April/May 2012)

In an article appeared on Fusion Magazine (the literary and Multimedia voice of the Berklee School of Music and community) David Fiuczynski defines the notion of “MicroJam”, which is central to this revolutionary and spellbinding release on RareNoiseRecords, as follows :

“Drawing on unique elements of western classical microtonality and ethnic folk melodies organized in a jazz/groove context, unheard of harmonies and counterpoint are possible. What sets this microJam apart from other microtonal music is its method of organization. Unlike the microtonal chromaticism of Julian Carrillo, the athematicism of Alois Haba and the post-Scriabin style of Ivan Wyschnagradsky (all venerable microtonal pioneers in western classical music), this MicroJam is not so much MICROtonal as microTONAL. The emphasis is on microtonal harmony that has a jazz-based modal origin. New harmonic colors can be expressed vertically through the stacking of, for example, an Arabic maqam (a type of Arabic mode) into chords based on 3rds or 4ths over a tonal center – in other words, harmony derived from a microtonal chord scale. This is not done in eastern music traditions or modern classical music. Music from the Middle East and Asia rarely has chordal harmony and in the modern western classical tradition, either tonal centers are avoided or harmony is produced from counterpoint. In our ever-shrinking global village could Global MicroJam be a shape of Jamz to come?”

Or, as the artist himself wrote in his tweet  ” … all the out of tune notes you always wanted to hear in a funky setting”

It is hard for us to describe the incredibly subtle and mesmerising, at times overwhelming beauty of compositions to be paraded in “Planet MicroJam”, which range from a microtonal re-writing of a fragment from Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto to microJam arrangements and performances of microtonal works by Juan Carrillo, Alois Haba and Sun Ra, exquisite arrangements of traditional songs and delightful original compositions by David Fiuczynski, all played by musicians of  unbelievable caliber, from Fiuczynski himself to Evgeny Lebedev, David Radley, Takeru Yamazaki, Evan Marien, Jovol Bell, David Ginyard, and including two guest perfomances by drum masters Jack DeJohnette and Kenwood Dennard.

For the time being, here is “Drunken Longing” recently performed in NYC

RNR026 – INTERSTATIC (Roy Powell, Jarle Vespestad, Jacob Young) – March/May 2012

Shards of light and guitar poke the thick, incessant, impenetrable mass of layered drum rhythms as maelströms of liquid organ notes form and dissolve, to embrace, fracture and propel this aural light. The incredible Roy Powell, who also plays organ and keyboards on Naked Truth, master drummer Jarle Vespestad and guitarist extraordinaire Jacob Young (the last two partners in repeated ECM releases) deliver their second recording (after their previous Anthem) as a trio, this time under their new name InterStatic. 

(video by Neil Loughran)

Their music, again, knows no boundaries, as it flows often incessant, at times lunar and nordic, with over-archingly powerful melodic themes penetrating the dense, at times apparently chaotic but sharply contrasted, always slickly cut layers of sonic architecture. ChiaroScuro, for synaesthetes.

The recording is currently in the final mastering stage – we will soon share a couple of tracks with you all for you to fully appreciate its greatness.

RNR027 – MOLE – WHAT IS THE MEANING? (Mark Aanderud, Hernan Hecht, with David Gilmore and Jorge “Luri” Molina) – April/May 2012

MOLE (or MOLE Productions) is the Musical Juice Collector of the incredible Mexican pianist Mark Aanderud and Argentinian-born and mexican resident (and Brainkiller drummer) Hernan Hecht, here joined by the amazing David Gilmore on guitar and the wonderful Jorge “Luri” Molina on bass. Swinging, poly-rhythmic, incredibly melodic, the new album by MOLE is nourished by the movingly beautiful compositions and virtuosistic piano work of Mark Aanderud, whilst being propelled forward by the jazz/rock/drum’n bass drumming of Hecht and the scintillating guitar-work of Gilmore.

Soon we will be sharing one or two tracks from this beautiful album by a quartet which we think has the potential to follow in the steps of EST and Phronesis.

Here in 2009 in Mexico (audio quality is not exceptional, but you will get an idea of the energy of their live performances)

RNR028 – ANIMATION – TRANSPARENT HEART (Bob Belden, Peter Clagett, Jacob Smith, Roberto Verastegui, Matt Young) – September 11th 2012

After 2011′s Asiento and its Spin-Off Agemo (also here) comes the first work by Animation which was recorded wholly in-house (in Bill Laswell’s studio in West-Orange, New Jersey), under the watchful eye of James Dellatacoma. 2011 was a year of rebirth and intense transition for Animation, as it was brought back to life via the release of the 2006 re-make of Bitches Brew (Asiento), then played a number of gigs  a hybrid formation, featuring Bob Belden on sax, Tim Hagans on trumpet, with the astonishingly young Jordan Gheen on keyboards, Jacob Smith on bass and  Matt Young on drums.

Here in Charleston:

Here at the Jazz Standard (and here the review by JazzTimes)

performing a track from Transparent Heart.

Here, finally, as they played live on a show on WBGO, The Checkout, produced by Josh Jackson just prior to playing at the Jazz Standard.

The formation of Animation has now coalesced and stabilised around Bob Belden, Peter Clagett, Roberto Verastegui, Jacob Smith and Matt Young. Soon we will have one or more tracks to share with you all, as it is quite unmeasurably beautiful.

RNR029 – NAKED TRUTH (Lorenzo Feliciati, Graham Haynes, Roy Powell, Pat Mastelotto) – October 2012

2011 saw the release of Naked Truth’s first recording, Shizaru to good critical acclaim – witness Carole Banks’s recent review in TheExaminer “…in ambient, avant-garde jazz-fusion, the hardest thing to do is make the visionary, experimental music melodically easy to follow and impossible to forget. Naked Truth does exactly this in “Touching Corners.” Whoever came up with the fan- and serious musician-friendly melodic line strengthening throughout this rocking, haunting groove, is an off his rocker prophet. It’s easily the best single for a cross-over hit, combining hard-driving rock with an ethereal, ballet-like loveliness. The cascading, intensified piano amplifies an urgency of purpose.”

Naked Truth then performed in Genoa (with Brainkiller), at the Gezmataz Genoa Jazz Festival, as part of a RareNoiseRecords – themed night (about which we will talk in the near future) with the appearance of Nils Petter Molvaer

After Cuong Vu decided to focus on his own projects, Naked Truth found a new stable member in the incredible Graham Haynes, and headed to Bill Laswell’s studio in West Orange to record their second full length. Having had the honour of being there we assure you it takes a further step into the future of music. We can’t wait to share some of the results with you – shortly we will be publishing an EPK and diary of the recording days in New Jersey.

Before we leave you, let us say we have two/three more cards up our sleeve for 2012 – Brainkiller, for example, will tour Mexico in March 2012, appear at the Vive Latino festival and record their second album for RareNoiseRecords …

Until Next time!

Dear Friends,

the next step in our myopic retrospective brings us square into the year 2011, the seeds of which were sown late 2010.

RNR016 – OWLS – THE NIGHT STAYS

“The Night Stays”, the first release by Owls, and our first foray into the world of neo-folk was due to a meeting of minds between renowned neo-folk/neoclassical singer and composer Tony Wakeford (of Sol Invictus fame) and Eraldo Bernocchi, with the added vocal virtues of Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (longtime collaborator or Eraldo Bernocchi in recordings ranging from Ashes to Obake, of which we will say more later). First and foremost was the choice of name or totem for the band, a creature that would embody the lunar spirit of the project: the choice fell on the Owl, protector and observer  of those who cannot sleep. This mystique was also the principle behind the making of “The Night Stays” – the layering of traditional british and european neo-folk with elements of dark electronica, trip-hop and industrial noise. Dark, broody, introspective and obliquely futuristic, the recording evoques memories of New Order and Johnny Marr layered with the darker moments of Massive Attack as can be heard in the following track, “Hide And Seek”

The album’s wonderful cover was once again produced by Petulia Mattioli. “The Night Stays”, for the first time in our release history, was released as Double LP (180gm vinyl) with three extra tracks and new lush artwork.

RNR017 – ANIMATION – ASIENTO

September 2010 we received an email from Guy Licata, at that time drummer of Method Of Defiance (as can be witnessed on our release RNR003 – Nihon) suggesting I listen to a jazz performance he had participated in in 2006 as part of the Reissue Series curated by Brice Rosenbloom and Simon Rentner at the Merkin Hall in december that year. The lineup featured Bob Belden on sax, Tim Hagans on trumpet, Matt Garrison on bass, Scott Kinsey on keyboards, DJ Logic on turntables and obviously Guy Licata on drums, as they worked through six w0nderful tracks from Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. As we were aware of both the previous Animation recordings, harking back to the turn of the century, that is Animation : Imagination and Re-Animation : Live, both graced with Grammy nominations in 2000 and 2001 and were fascinated by their attempt to weld Hard-Bop and drum’n bass, we decided to give the recording a thorough listen. What cemented our intentions was a long impromptu conversation with Bob Belden, whose larger than life persona and creative spirits really convinced us that RareNoiseRecords’ relationship with Animation would extend well beyond this first release. As it turns out, Animation (in their new stable formation with Bob Belden on sax/flute, Peter Claggett on trumpet, Jacob Smith on bass, Matt Young on drums and Roberto Verastegui in keyboards and sampler) has just finished recording their first completely new record, to be called “Transparent Heart”  in Laswell’s studio in West Orange, New Jersey – more about in a future update.

In agreement with Bob, we opted for a very aggressive, edgy mastering, with the aim of highlighting the near-brutal immediacy of the performance. The results were very favourable, as the album garnered excellent press from across the world, and also managed to ruffle some feathers, as was expected (a fact which we welcomed with open arms). The striking artwork was again due to Petulia Mattioli, who was tasked with devising a cover which would both reference the original and significantly depart from it – a task she managed to accomplish admirably, we say…

RNR019 – NAKED TRUTH – SHIZARU

Very early 2011 we received an email by Italian bassist Lorenzo Feliciati, asking us to consider releasing a recording he had recently finished editing, featuring himself on bass joined by Mr Mister, XTC, The Rembrandts’ and King Crimson drummer extraordinaire Pat Mastelotto, by organist and keyboard maestro Roy Powell and by Pat Metheny Group trumpet innovator Cuong Vu. An ardent fan of Mick Karn, Lorenzo’s interest in RareNoiseRecords had been aroused by a charity compilation we had co-released late 2010 to support the great bass player  in his fight with cancer. In-depth listening of the demo revealed it to be incredibly interesting and innovative, a unique blend of late Crimson, Cecil Taylor and early 80′s Miles Davis artfully tailored and stitched together by master editor Lorenzo Feliciati. The recording by  the group, called Naked Truth, was released early July 2011, generating very positive responses in press and music lovers alike. Cuong Vu’s decision to decline further participation in the future development of Naked Truth led us to search for a temporary replacement to perform in Genoa on July 22nd 2011 (RareNoiseRecords night, part of the Gezmataz Genoa Jazz Festival), a role temporarily but admirably filled in by Nils Petter Molvaer. The future though, was not assured – long searches eventually lead us to the great Graham Haynes, but this is a matter for a future article. For the time being, enjoy  ”Faster Than An Automatic Door”:

The artwork for Shizaru, Naked Truth’s first recording for RareNoiseRecords, was again invented by Petulia Mattioli. It depicts the Four Monkeys of the Confucian tradition (See, Speak, Hear and, most importantly Do No Evil, i.e. Shi-Zaru).

RNP003 – SEMETIPSUM 2011 (@Michele Satta’s wine cellar)

In the previous episode of our myopic retrospective, we had talked about the event held in 2010 in Michele Satta’s wineries in Castagneto Carducci, Tuscany, Italy. The event was repeated again this year early July, this time with Nils Petter Molvaer performing solo trumpet and electronics. Semetipsum 2011 will see a signed bottle of 2010 Viognier (“Giovin Re”) in the now well known limited edition box, accompanied by the beautiful graphics of Petulia Mattioli. Head over to Michele Satta’s internet portal to secure yourself a limited edition boxset.

RARENOISERECORDS NIGHT (@GEZMATAZ GENOA JAZZ FESTIVAL)

On the 22nd of July 2011 we were honoured to be given the opportunity to host a two-set night as part of the Gezmataz Genoa Jazz Festival at the Arena Del Mare in Genoa, Italy. About 700 people came to see Brainkiller and Naked Truth perform to great acclaim and commotion.

Witness here Brainkiller’s new track “Otaku Goes To The Rave” (which will grace their new 2012 recording – out late 2012 or early 2013 on RareNoiseRecords)

and Naked Truth, performing here with Nils Petter Molvaer, showcasing their entire new album “Shizaru”

We thank Marco Tindiglia and Gezmataz for the opportunity afforded us, in the hope we might organize a further date for 2012.

RNR020 – OBAKE – OBAKE

We always knew that our relentless search for ever-mesmerising music to offer RareNoise aficionados old and new would eventually lead us to confront the world of doom and doom drone. The opportunity arose halfway through 2011 when the collective creative juices of Eraldo Bernocchi and Massimo Pupillo (remember for example Black Engine, released in 2008, featuring Eraldo Bernocchi’s guitar alongside ZU – Massimo Pupillo, Luca Mai and Jacopo Battaglia) coalesced and were joined by, once again Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari and by the great hungarian drummer Balazs Pandi to give rise to a music behemoth of rare power and intensity. Named after the japanese term for “Ghost/Shapeshifter”, their collaboration has its feet strongly rooted in doom, drone and grind, interweaved by onirical, lunar passages and lifted by Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari’s extraordinary vocals, here ranging from tender growl to near operatic crescendos . Released in September 2011, Obake encountered the favour of large parts of the press in UK and Italy. It was nominated 6th in the first 50 Albums of the Year by Rock-A-Rolla and among the 50 best by great british music blog The Quietus, by great writer John Doran. Obake will be performing live from late spring 2012, with Trevor Dunn on bass.

The next three releases are the most recent, dating back hardly a month, and we recently dedicated each of them a separate article – see here, here and here). Nevertheless, we think it appropriate to spend more words on each of them. We love all of our releases to bits, and could go on talking about them forever ….

RNR018 – ANIMATION – AGEMO 

Late Q1 2011, about the time we released Asiento by Animation, our friend Gaudi introduced us to a new recording and mixing process he had been involved in, when producing a remix of David Gilmour’s and The Orb’s Metallic Spheres: 3D60. This process, squarely aimed at the new and blossoming market for high quality earphones, allowed the creation of a new spatial/3-dimensional mix of existing recordings. Always looking out for innovative ideas to enhance the listening experience we were immediately fascinated by the recording technology invented by Mike Brady and Ian Thompson with the collaboration of Killing Joke and Fireman bass player/producer Youth. Very quickly we decided to submit Animation’s Asiento, which had been released early April, to this transformation. The results were rather astonishing, as they deeply affected the listening experience – a wider, near-spherical listening stage, focused instrument placement, accompanied by a much softer mix, aimed at increasing the dynamic range of the music (up to 20db!). – HOOK UP YOUR EARPHONES TO YOUR COMPUTER OR MOBILE PHONE to listen to the 3D60 Mix of track 3 from Animation’s Asiento, “John McLaughlin” so as to make sense of our words above:

Concurrently we had started to toy with the idea of producing a recording of remixes of Asiento – as we were fascinated by the opportunity of giving world-class remixers the opportunity to express their own point of view on Miles’ Bitches Brew. For a variety of reasons, chief amongst which legal and of respect, most remixers would have shied away from producing mix reconstructions of original Miles Davis material (with the notable exception of Bill Laswell’s Panthalassa). Presented with the opportunity to remix material which itself was an interpretation of the original left them with much greater freedom. Six remixers were given a track to work on in isolation, and were impeded from listening to each other’s work in the process. The result, again, was astonishing, as it was both cohesive yet markedly individual, ranging from Laswell’s drum’n bass take on Pharaoh’s Dance to DJ Logic’s deep dub take on Bitches Brew, to Youth’s Dancefloor/Trance take on “John McLaughlin” (listen to it just below) to Gaudi’s fast dub take on “Miles Runs The Voodoo Down” to Fanu’s Breakbeat take on “Spanish Key” to Joaquin “Joe” Claussell’s complete Hypno re-construction of “Sanctuary”. The red thread behind this release was, as was now clear to us, that of “transformation” and change (many of our releases deal with that notion): in this case transformation through technology and process (3D60) and transformation through artistic wizardry (the remixes).

Agemo, Vodun deity of transformation, gave the 2 CD recording its name, and influenced Petulia Mattioli in producing a most striking artwork superimposing the original vision of Asiento onto a chameleon skin.

Agemo is dedicated to the memory of Dora Ramos Claussell and Manuel Claussell, respectively mother and brother of Joaquin “Joe” Claussell, both of whom passed away during the making of Agemo. We would have expected Joe to either not deliver his work at all or to deliver it with great delay. He delivered on time, providing us with a potent example of professional coherence, focus and incredible intensity. We are deeply grateful to him and share in his grieving for his loss.

RNR021 – BERNOCCHI/BUDD/GUTHRIE – WINTER GARDEN

A near simultaneous release to Agemo was Winter Garden, which sees Eraldo Bernocchi join forces with Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie. Their journey had started mid 2010, when they played two live events, in the old Enel powerhouse in Trezzo d’Adda and in Genoa, in Palazzo Lomellino. Around the same time Harold Budd had sojourned in Tuscany, where he started recording the Eraldo Bernocchi (with whom he previously had performed – see Fragments From The Inside from 2005) – they were joined by Robin Guthrie and laid the foundations of this incredibly dense and delicate recording. Further trips to France sealed the work, giving it the dry, frosty and winter-silent qualities associated with its very title.  Listen to “Stay With Me” and rejoice as we do:

and look at their performance in Trezzo

Needless to say, once again the cover was admirably created by Petulia Mattioli (who had provided the spectacular live visuals for the trio’s performance at the Taccani / Enel powerhouse in Trezzo d’Adda in 2010).

RNR022 – THE MANTRA ABOVE THE SPOTLESS MELT MOON – GHOST DANCE 

Agemo and Winter Garden were joined by the second full-length release by The Mantra Above The Spotless Melt Moon, Ghost Dance. This record has currently been launched only in the UK (although it is physically available everywhere). We will talk about it in greater detail when an important announcement regarding the band’s UK and Italian tours are made in about a week. For the time being, enjoy reading about it here and listen to the beautiful “Trieste”:

The wonderful artwork for this release is by Infinity Artworks (who is none other than Adriana Salomone, the band’s lead voice), the spectacular photography is by Lucio Carbonelli, whose photographic work also appeared in the feature on the Mantra which recently graced the pages of Classic Rock Prog. We are very thankful to Adriana and Lucio for the beautiful work they conceived of and consequently created.

So here we are, full circle. The next article will be the MYOPIC PER-SPECTIVE, detailing the numerous new releases  that will grace our catalogue in 2012 – we truly hope we will able to blow your mind 

Cheers to all, and thank you for allowing us to indulge in this romantic exercise in short-term memory titillation.

RNR

Dear Friends,

short on the tail of the second part of our myopic biopic,  we immediately start on the third episode of this journey. Late 201o I receive an email from Eraldo Bernocchi saying “We must absolutely release the material of this kid that is active in dub-techno, he’s amazing”. “Who is he?” “He’s a German guy – uh, no, sorry, he’s Russian”. “Where’s he from?” “Kazan”. I immediately focus my mind and imagine a small village in the middle of the russian federation. Yep right, a small village…inhabited by 1.2 million people…Crickey how little I know of the world surrounding me. So this is roughly how we got in touch with Marat Shibaev a.k.a. Martin Schulte.

RNR011 – MARTIN SCHULTE – SILENT STARS 

Martin Schulte’s work draws, as his pseudonym suggests, from the German tradition of Glitch and Clicks’n Cuts (Oval, Mark Ernestus, Moritz Von Oswald, Basic Channel, Thomas Fehlmann, a tradition going back to the early/mid 80′s that received its consecration by the end of last century), but enhances it with a very “Dub” Sensitivity. His release for RareNoiseRecords, Silent Stars unites elements of the fragmentation of C’nC but imbues them with the basso continuo of Dub … the effect is other-worldly, one feels like a spectator of an under-water concert. Music pervades, titillates and overwhelms the listeners’ auditory apparatus. Soothing, entrancing, Silent Stars is another work of great wonder by this young yet already very prolific musician of the world.

The inspired Artwork for this release was again due to the great Petulia Mattioli, whose collaboration with RareNoiseRecords produces ever more fascinating results – “Look, The Sky Is Full Of Glitch”.

2009 and 2010 also saw our production arm, RareNoiseProductions working hard. RareNoiseProductions is the moniker we use when we work on music projects that might be released on a different label or are works commissioned by some public entity or are to be sold as part of a music related (but not music-centric) product.

RNP001 – COSTITUTO – (2009 for 21st Recordings)

In 2009, the City of Siena celebrated the 700th anniversary of its City Constitution (the Constitutional Charta of the medieval city-state of Siena) literarily the “Costituto”. To celebrate this incredibly important event in the City’s history, the authorities decided to outsource production of a double CD (via 21st Recordings) – the production of part of this celebratory release was entrusted to Eraldo Bernocchi. The recording, roughly set up as a long suite of songs (based on arrangements of 13th century text) interspersed with moments of great musical delicacy, involved Eraldo Bernocchi (guitars), Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari (voice, electronics), Markus Stockhausen  (trumpet / electrified trumpet), Giovanni Lindo Ferretti (author of all the lyrics and main singing voice), Ezio Bonicelli and Raiz. In the caustic tradition of the underlying text, several passages are not without humour as “Porci e Troie” (sung by Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari and Giovanni Lindo Ferretti highlights) – we are in Tuscany after all …

RNP002 – SEMETIPSUM 2010 (2010 with Michele Satta wineries)

Our second production (which we talked about in this previous post), was again a born of a moment of genius involving Eraldo Bernocchi, Petulia Mattioli and this time ebullient wine producer and theoriser Michele Satta. The driving idea behind these performances was to create a multi-sensory experience, first by having a musician/musicians of great renown play live in the cellars of the Satta vinery, then to transport this “moment/being there” into a high-end package containing a magnum of a very special wine (depending on the year) and a recording of the performance itself. The recording should be as untainted as possible to allow a recreation of that self-same moment. All transactions would be settled in bottles of wine and the recording would only be released as part of a very specific Lifestyle package. The first Semetipsum concert, held in 2009, was a live performance by Eraldo Bernocchi and Harold Budd; Wine (a magnum of Sangiovese 2008) and music were released in limited, numbered quantities late 2010 

For all information about Semetipsum please view the Semetipsum Website which also contains information about Semetipsum 2011, with Nils Petter Molvaer.

That’s all folks for part 3 – see you at the next episode…