[UM016] Kommissar Hjuler / Mama Baer / Ninni Morgia / Silvia Kastel “LIVE AT MORDEN TOWER” CS

Imagine a meeting between two neo-dada artists, working their way through voice/body performance and broken tape sounds, one crazy free jazz/alien guitarist, and a synth head who goes from obsessive pulsating bass to ultrasound insect calls… this really happened during a series of performances in the UK last year, the two couples being Kommissar Hjuler (tapes, voice, breaking his hand on various surfaces) & Mama Baer (voice) and Ninni Morgia (guitar) & Silvia Kastel (synth). This is a recording from their epic show at the historic venue in Newcastle, The Morden Tower, home since the 60’s to sound poetry (Allen Ginsberg) and extreme industrial (The New Blockaders, Whitehouse…). The set starts out quiet, with a minimal “bass drum” created by Mama Baer by beating her mic on the floor, screeching guitar brushes by Ninni Morgia, creepy tape stutters by der Kommissar and Silvia Kastel’s hi-pitched alarm synth, then the tension builds up to a roller coaster of heavy wailing, crazy free jazz guitar and feedback, with a sound that comes close to Mars’ live recordings, P.16 D4, SPK and other sound criminals. Awe-inducing and uncomfortable, yes, but also kind of liberating. Double printed J cards with photo of the two pairs (taken outside the Morden Tower) & imprinted green tapes. Edition of 100.

Also comes housed in a limited numbered edition of 12 carboard boxes hand painted, decorated & signed by Kommissar Hjuler. Each box is unique.
Email info@ultramarinerecords.com for more info on the special edition.

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[UM017] Bill Horist “THE SIGNAL INDEX” CS

Guitarist Bill Horist from Seattle is most well known for his solo work and for playing with Masters Musicians of Bukkake (with Alan Bishop and Charlie Gocher of Sun City Girls), Bill Frisell, Chris Corsano, C Spencer Yeh, KK Null and lots more.

Musically, he is known for his ability to shift and merge free jazz, blues, prepared guitar and avant manipulations… on “The Signal Index” though, he goes mostly for the latter: beautifully prepared, plucked, bowed, droned guitar that immediately takes you to a trance state. Various layers and textures cross and overlap, from subtle electronics producing little sketched melodies at times, to an electric fog of thick bagpipe-like drones and harmonic-rich sustains. Both instinct and controlled gestures here, like going on a trip where you know you’ve got all you need, but don’t quite know where you’re headed. The result is psychedelic and soothing, with just the right amount of disorientation. A catharsis for your ears!

Grey imprinted tapes & double printed 3-panel Jcards, with artwork by Brooklyn artist MP Landis. Edition of 100.
Download coming soon.

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

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

It’s surely no coincidence that the cover of this new trio record feels like a homage to Ray Russell’s 1969 album Dragon Hill: guitarist Gary Smith was Russell’s replacement in the Bill Fay Group after they cut Time Of The Last Persecution and in many ways – if there’s any tradition that Smith could really be said to come out of – it’s the Ray Russell school of radical six-string re-invention. Unlike many of his improvising contemporaries Smith owes little to Derek Bailey, despite his own conceptions being just as radically disorientating. Early on he developed a form of stereo guitar playing that involved a clean tone, a volume pedal and a pair of amps that married the kinda ferocious sonic reducer style of Pete Cosey with blunt Japanese psych, austere electronic composition and free improvisation, cutting a series of radical solo albums alongside collaborations with the late John Stevens (released by Thurston Moore on his own Ecstatic Peace imprint), Chie Mukai, Masayoshi Urabe, Shoji Hano and more. Since relocating to Italy Smith has hooked up with guitarist Ninni Morgia and synth/vocalist Silvia Kastel. Anyone who saw Morgia and Kastel in action with Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer on their recent tour and on the Two Couples LP will understand the kind of explosive energy the two bring to the table, combining fire music stylings with post-tongue improvisations and alien electronics. The trio hook-up is nothing short of spectacular. Smith has moved even deeper into subtle string tectonics and Kastel wraps her tonsils all the way around them, gargling notes like ball bearings and make stunning use of post-Monk body soundings while Morgia clashes with Smith with clanging subterranean tones and the sound of metal on metal. Indeed, at points it doesn’t sound like a guitar record at all, with the bubbling notes and sudden dead halts feeling more akin to the radical formal violence of 20^th century electronic composition than anything approaching avant rock. But in its refusal of consensual modes it paradoxically feels closer to the post Ray Russell tradition of radically extended six-string technique. A monster recording that would have sat just *there* on the Nurse With Wound list. Edition of 300 copies with a download card. Highly recommended. David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue

Download on Boomkat

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Ninni Morgia & Marcello Magliocchi

live show + presentazione LP “Sound Gates”

ore 20:00

@ Galleria d’Arte Contemporanea BLUorg
via M.Celentano 92-94
Bari

per info. e prenotazioni: tel. 080-990-4379   posti limitati

Hot on the heels of her mighty performances on TWO COUPLES (see Address Drudion July 2011), comes Silvia Kastel’s hauntingly sexy and eerily disembodied LOVE TAPE cassette album for Ultramarine Records, on which she squeals, cooes, howls, snarls, grunts and yelps through all manner of intriguing analogue-ishness, whilst synthesizers, rough hewn bass and pre-constructed Igjugurjuk jawjaw conspire underneath to create the kind of compelling rudimentary musique concrète that post-punk ensembles such as Factrix regularly stumbled into. Better still, the cassette itself works as an art object of the kind that used only to be the realm of such record labels as Factory, Rough Trade and New York’s ROIR.   Julian Cope / Head Heritage / December 2011

We ran out of love tapes here, but some are still available from various distros.

Ninni Morgia & Silvia Kastel will be playing on Sunday the 13th

NM: Guitar
SK: Blackhole, Voice

Full line-up & Info

Ninni Morgia (guitar) & Silvia Kastel (synth, voice, beats)
@ Fanfulla 101, Roma
info: http://www.fanfulla.org/eventi-fanfulla/programma-fanfulla-101/

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Temperatures
@ 113 Dalston Lane, London
also playing are: L’Ocelle Mare and Bohman/Constance/Nyoukis/Spicer
info: http://www.113dalstonlane.com/113_Dalston_Lane/index.html

The Ultramarine tape series has officially started and here’s our third one:

Ninni Morgia “Ladyboy Sonata” CS

Thirty minutes of guitar delirium from Italy’s finest avant guitarist. Morgia starts off in his own unique warped way, with a noise psych intro filled with fiery bendings and his signature wild distortion. Then the guitar gets modulated until it’s filtered and thinned out to a hammering, hypnotic cicada chant. It’s a Kafkian nightmare, and when the guitar is reduced to bits, it feels like it’s emitting its last cries of help, like Solmania’s face-cutting licks, or better, like a windy February night walk in NY. Morgia’s guitar work resembles the extended techniques applied to trumpet by Peter Evans and Axel Doerner, both in terms of dynamics and research, especially in richness, clarity and overtones, and also in a beyond-limits live performance (there are no overdubs on any of his recordings). Pro-dubbed imprinted black tapes with a foxxy Ninni on the cover. Edition of 100.

Also comes in a numbered limited edition of 9: same packaging but housed in stenciled ladyboy cardboard boxes by SK:

QUESTIONS

FREAKCORE (excerpt)

Review on Vital Weekly:

Following his duo record with Marcello Magliocchi, here is now a solo cassette by guitarist Ninni Morgia. Like on that LP, Morgia is an improviser, but with a rock(ist) attitude: his music is quite loud, due to the extensive use of sound effects (modulation, distortion), played with objects on the strings with a great sense of energy. Sometimes he takes back what he is doing and gets a bit more quiet, but even then his music remains a razor sharp thing with loud sounds. Quite wild, sometimes reminding me of some Japanese music, such as KK Null or Solmania on ‘Vomit Reflex’. It reminded me of the music of Lukas Simonis, solo and with his various impromptu duos. I can easily imagine a dueling guitar battle between these two. This is some powerful thirty minutes. (Frans de Waard)

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Silvia Kastel:   synth, voice, bass, beats, tenori-on, NatGeo artwork

A concept tape packed with unconditional love to whoever hears/buys/does whatever with it.

C30, white shells with watercolor labels by SK; each tape is unique.

Edition of 60; also comes in a numbered limited edition of 9  with different covers, each one featuring an instant picture of/by Silvia Kastel.

UMINE

SO WHITE

Download in WAV/mp3/FLAC

SOLD OUT, CHECK WITH DISTROS!

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[UM011] Marcello Magliocchi
“Music for Sounding Sculptures In Twenty-Three Movements” CS / DL

Twenty-three wonderful pieces recorded live in a tower in Tuscany, in which master percussionist Marcello Magliocchi plays sound sculptures byAndrea Dami, made of various metals including iron, brass, copper, steel, aluminium and featuring other elements like strings, stones and gongs.

Imagine a mix between Indonesian gamelan, Bertoia, Lucier, obscure recordings from Africa, Beaver Harris and Don Moye, all infused with Marcello’s unique approach to polyrhythm, dynamics and modulation, the result of over 40 years of personal studies. Each movement flows through the most disparate sounds: percussive, flute-like, thick drones, lap-steel, bells, cymbals… every sculpture becomes alive and is made resonate in all possible ways, through a fine work of tonal juxtapositions, rhythm interlocks, deep resonation and also using brushes, bows and sticks. The excellent clarity of the recording allows for a total acoustic enjoyment of the rich range of harmonics, pitches and clangs produced.
C60 type II chrome tapes, with photo artwork by Lidia Stranges and watercolor labels by Silvia Kastel; each tape is unique. Edition of 60.

“Magliocchi is a gifted player with a great sense of sound and timbre. Great music” Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

MOVEMENT 11

MOVEMENT 20

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Click to see photos from the recording session

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This is an absolutely crucial slab of wax from Ultramarine records who have previously put out some astounding efforts from the likes of UK’s Chora and, loopy Deutschlanders, Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Baer. For this LP Italian guitarist Ninni Morgia has teamed up with fellow Italian percussionist Marcello Magliocchi. Both musicians have been active in the field of improvised music and experimentalism playing with the likes of Evan Parker and Daniel Carter. The LP is housed in a great photo which evokes the fluidity and lyricism of the pair’s approach to performance. This is most definitely a record fit for vinyl; where the active ritual of listening, flipping the wax and hearing every crackle (due to my overused and dusty turntable!) adds to the whole experience.

It is a tireless and difficult job to capture improvised music and create a feeling of endless possibility and live performance that such a method demands. Here all are achieved to vivacious affect. Both musicians assert themselves with strong voices without constricting one another; playing through varying speeds and volumes without arrogance or competition. There is a feeling of innate mutual understanding that can only come when two units are connected with both knowledge and a shared creative consciousness. Often the record remains as if teetered on a narrow ridge, searching in limited space, yet traversing expansive ground. Few clichés are used and the expansive approach is delivered with a minimal pallet through ingenious twists and turns. The quiet draws one in and the loud throws a bellow of sound that feels somewhat restrained in its aggression. It is the lack of juxtaposition and the oxymoronic expression that creates the jaw-dropping sound-scape. It must be something in the water, but a great point of reference would be Italy’s My Cat Is An Alien. The aforementioned duo have produced some of the greatest alien sounds and improvised dreamscapes I’ve heard and both Morgia and Magliocchi have most certainly matched this singular ability.

The record begins with a minimal and quiet world of rattling leaves, alien warbles and feral strings. Lunar plucks are warped and wrangled with chattering percussion that tremors and tumbles alike. At times it’s like disrupting a muted data-stream of caustic tones, yet its acoustic nature allows for organic warmth to glow trough. Guitar and cymbal play a horny dance in some fucked tryst that is joined by a grinding rhythm. Then the guitar erupts in a ferocious explosion of metallic quality. Bleating electronics sing an ode to the terminal as the percussion gongs with abrasive hands. There is a pastoral lunacy that evokes both Technicolor landscapes and barren remnants of sparsely populated wastelands. The second side continues many of the same themes, collapsing into a decayed and fractious explosion of guitar that absolutely rocks. The final section has similarities to Loren Connors most dramatic explorations. This is most definitely one of the best improvised records you’ll hear this year. Massive thumbs up!

9/10

Peter Taylor

http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/?p=16907