Gary Smith / Silvia Kastel / Ninni Morgia “BRAND” LP

“Brand” is the new trio of Gary Smith (guitar), Silvia Kastel (voice and synth), Ninni Morgia (guitar).

Gary Smith. Heavyweight improviser. Stereo guitar pioneer. Aufgehoben guitarist. Played in the Bill Fay Group and made a great debut duo album with John Stevens on the Ecstatic Peace label in 1993. He has worked and recorded with Hugh Hopper & Drummer Shoji Hano, Masayoshi Urabe, Chie Mukai, Mass, Rhys Chatham, Bernhard Gunter & more. He now uses just an amp and volume pedal, no effects whatsover and through extended techniques produces music closer to computer generated sound, prepared guitar, bird song etc. He now spends his time between Italy & London.

Ninni Morgia lived in NY in the early 2000’s, where he played with Daniel Carter, William Parker, Peter Evans, Lee Ranaldo and many more. Since his relocation to Italy, he is now in a duo with free jazz veteran percussionist Marcello Magliocchi (they put out the LP “Sound Gates” on Ultramarine last summer) and in the group Control Unit with Silvia Kastel. Morgia has extensively toured the US and Europe, and has been widely recognized as an innovator of the electric guitar, both for his personal playing techniques and a creative use of effects and electronic textures.

Silvia Kastel is a singer, electronic musician and artist who studied with Joan La Barbara and Indian singing with Lee Torchia and graduated in electronic music and sound engineering, while living in NY. Since she has moved back to Italy, she has toured and recorded with Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer, Temperatures, Chora, played shows and festivals including the recent Colour Our of Space in Brighton, UK (together with Ninni Morgia). Her first solo release ‘Love Tape’ is a charming blend of synths, bass, beats, whispering, moaning, screaming, howling…

On this recording Gary Smith produces the playing for which he’s considered a master of avant guitar: multiple layering, complex grainy textures, dense counterpoint, influences of birdsong. Fused with the guitar of Ninni Morgia, which floats between minimal movements of primordial electronics, pre-war slide blues and Hendrix-esque feedback. Over, and blending with them, Silvia Kastel’s moaning, screaming and howling, alternates with her delayed, bubbling, glitchy or round bass synth.

It’s a dense sound for 3 people. Not just visceral and intense, but articulate and defined, and in some instances very delicate. The depth of sound and the strong group style give the nine pieces their own character and atmosphere. There’s no fear of tempo, pulse, more conventional musical devices, or pushing to unpredictable extremes. LP comes with free download card, edition of 330.

BIRDCAGE

DROPS

“Gary Smith swims circular; parting water, breaking the waves. He plays to his pulse, he breathes in, he breathes out, each lung full of muggy feedback clouds, smoke circles hovering round his head” David Keenan

“Silvia Kastel squeals, cooes, howls, snarls, grunts and yelps through all manner of intriguing analogue-ishness, whilst synthesizers conspire underneath” Julian Cope

“Ninni Morgia’s technique is pretty interesting… he does a lot of baffling note suffocation and chocking that ends up being real damn intriguing” Byron Coley

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Gary Smith / Silvia Kastel / Ninni Morgia “Brand” LP
comes with free download card