“Fernweh” is the first collaboration between the two Italian music projects Skag Arcade (Paolo Colavita) & meanwhile.in.texas (Angelo Guido), born out of the common will to freely experiment with the widest range of sounds & frequencies possible (using & drawing from drones, samples & found sounds of every kind), in order to explore new sonic possibilities & to build up hauntingly evocative and unsettling soundscapes, regardless of binding & restraining boundaries.
The inspiration for the concept at the root of the two-tracks album comes out of the abiding astonishment consequent to the reading of Roberto Bolano’s final masterpieces, “2666”, with its elegiac yet vicious & desperate portrait of the human abyss, against the backdrop of a crazed Mexican metropolis (an imaginary, transfigured Ciudad Juarez afflicted by senseless brutality).
The album consists of two extended, hypnotic load-bearing drones, which in turn are composed of different micro-sequences & several layers of acidly manipulated synths & buzzing guitar feedbacks merging into each other, with an eerie, lysergic vibe of hopelessness on the background.
Now available both digitally and physically, "Fernweh" is out on the already-cult Swiss tape label LUCE SIA (catalogue number 010), on white C40 cassettes, in a limited edition of 60 numbered copies.
You can get a physical copy at the following link:
discogs.com/Skag-Arcade-meanwhileintexas-Fernweh/release/8197149
You can also find a few copies at the mythical californian store "Aquarius Records", located at the 1055 of Valencia Street in San Francisco, CA.
aquariusrecords.org/bin/search.cgi
Official Teaser:
vimeo.com/157751522
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kfrOvVnuD0
soundcloud.com/meanwhile-in-texas/skag-arcade-meanwhileintexas-fernweh-luce-sia-010-2016-teaser
/// /// ///
“An impressive collaborative debut from two Italian turgid noise projects, Skag Arcade and Meanwhile In Texas. The A-side floats along a sea of corrosion and toxic blooms by way of discordant coronas of controlled feedback and amplifier form destruction. These layers of grit, dust, debris, hiss, and fuzz bleed together into a murky swirl of noise, whose tangles appear carcinogenic at first but devolve into desolate atmospherics tinged with dread. All of this wouldn’t be out of place next to any of Matthew Bower’s freeform projects of psychedelic noise (Sunroof!, Total, etc.) or even more drone-centric aspects of the NZ free-noise community (Dead C, RST, and especially Surface Of The Earth). The B-side bares its teeth with a ferocious amount of scalding noise that strafes the aggregated drones of coalesced fuzz and woozy yet radiant tone-floats. As with all of the Luce Sia cassettes, limited to 60 copies”. [Aquarius Records]
www.aquariusrecords.org
"Fernweh, meaning literally "farsickness" or "longing for far-off places", is a the debut tape for the Italian duo (just for this very occasion) Skag Arcade / meanwhile.in.texas on the old-fashioned label Luce Sia from Switzerland: a journey into destruction and desperation, an intimate look at one's inner tragedy".
[Pay no mind to us, we're just a minor threat.]
www.paynomindtous.it
“Due progetti italiani nuovi di zecca che di fatto esordiscono [...] per l’attivissima label svizzera Luce Sia, molto attenta sia nel recupero di progetti storici che nelle nuove proposte “Made in Italy” in ambito ambient/industrial ed annessi. [...] L’attacco monolitico si/ci immerge nel giro di un minuto scarso in un vero e proprio “maelstrom” che pare non avere alcun spiraglio di luce, con un muro sonoro che va ad arricchirsi lentamente e progressivamente di nuovi elementi. [...] La coda finale del brano stempera progressivamente le ruvidezze dei minuti precedenti dissolvendosi in un avvolgente e rassicurante drone ambientale, quasi a darci una speranza che il cratere dell’abisso possa essere riconquistato alla disperata ricerca di una via d’uscita. [...] La complementarietà dei due brani è notevole, con la suite del lato B che impiega poco più di due minuti a decollare (occhio al crescendo del minuto 2:09!) facendoci a nostra volta precipitare in un nuovo abisso senza fine. [...] “Santa Teresa” lievita con il passare dei minuti in un crescendo lento quanto inarrestabile, andando a raggiungere nel suo apice centrale quello che potremmo a buon titolo definire un vero e proprio “symphonic noise wall”. Gli ultimi frangenti atterrano lentamente verso un’agognata quiete, ma la voglia di riavvolgere e premere nuovamente “play” non tarda a farsi sentire!". [Rosa Selvaggia]
www.rosaselvaggia.com/recens.dischi_05_04_16.htm
"[...] L'anima del nastro è rappresentata dal romanzo "2666", opera postuma dell'autore cileno Roberto Bolano e dichiarata fonte d'ispirazione per le due tracce. Attraverso un accumulo disturbante di materia audio divisa tra rumori, suoni e linee tonali perpetue, i due danno vita alle emozioni che contraddistinguono alcune fasi del testo e, parallelamente, al vortice distruttivo della società contemporanea fotografato nei suoi aspetti forse più annichilenti: dal caos spersonalizzante delle metropoli, al clima mortuario e definitivo che alberga nella nostra epoca. Accomunati da un'evidente passione per il noise-dronico (vengono utilizzati sia strumenti che synth e field recordings), Paolo ed Angelo raccolgono la fondamentale lezione dei maestri dell'industrial classico (Throbbing Gristle, Maurizio Bianchi) usando un noise modernizzato e più complesso che diventa voce diretta e mezzo di riflessione di una conditio humana senza speranze (eloquenti in tal senso le foto allegate al nastro), dove tecnologia, distruzione e follia diventano coordinate chiave di un anonimo agglomerato urbano. [...] Una piacevole scoperta, confezionata col gusto ricercato a cui ci ha abituato la Luce Sia e corredata da foto evocative e informazioni".
[DarkRoom Magazine]
www.darkroom-magazine.it/ita/108/Recensione.php?r=3600
"A collaboration on cassette limited to 60 copies is the new work under the Luce Sia (the Swiss experimental label) banner: we are talking about Fernweh by Skag Arcade and meanwhile.in.texas, two Italian artists dedicated to experimental electronic music and the mixing of noise, walls of sound, abstract sonic structures, drone music and much more.
Skag Arcade has a self-released album, Post tenebras lux, where he has shown his love for harsh electronics, while meanwhile.in.texas is a new artist that displays here for the first time his kind of ambient, drone, noise, and field recordings. A match made in heaven we can say, which give us a synergistic work composed by two very long tracks, The silent crater of the abyss by Skag Arcade and Santa Teresa (Across the dark fields of bleakness) by meanwhile.in.texas.
The first track starts with subterranean and eery sounds, soon encompassed by dark ambient movements and sharp effects. An “earthquake-like” crescendo finds its place between strident feedbacks and dissonant edges, in a completed transition to a chaotic and dreadful sonic world. We can perceive tortured guitar arpeggios and different sound sources, all digested in a new, primordial and antithetic form; but a pure noise affair this is not, as orchestral elements have their place, eery voices and symphonic sounds. Then, an obsessive loop is generated by a feedback, giving us a noisy sound with ritualistic qualities, which transcends genres picturing a majestic baritone. Orchestral elements return having their say, in a closing motif that enthralls us with a hypnotic sequence made to be experienced with transcendence, which is enhanced by dark ambient sounds.
The second one welcomes us with drones and static sounds, generating a misty atmosphere dominated by distant evocations and primordial urges. Tribal rhythms are connected to jarring industrial movements, while orchestral sounds are buried in the obscure mix. Then they find relevance, organized by field recordings samples in a continuous mantra. It is time for a more ambient section, without forfeiting noise elements. A sound narrative we could say, where throbbing souds and distant, sampled and filtered, ghostly voices are used as “music” instruments in an opera for the damned. The rest of the track is devoted to a noise loop, which envelops the songwriting in a post-industrial dirge for wasted lands, closing with a drone mantra made of static beauty.
An interesting work, not for everyone (in sound and availability), that shows the ever present will of Luce Sia to give home to many Italian experimental artists, and to create works where music finds a reasoned structure even in the way the single parts are placed and combined between each others. Not simply a collection of works by two different artists to show them to the public, but a collaborative effort that has a meaning in the totality of the listening experience. More than two tracks, two sides of a tape that guide us between menacing and creeping soundscapes, in an “orchestral noise” fashion that defies tags and simple classifications. Food for the curious and adventurous listener".
[Flux Webzine]
fluxproject.altervista.org/en/skag-arcade-meanwhile-in-texas-fernweh/
/// /// ///
skagarcade.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/Skag-Arcade-773992912610773
/// /// ///
meanwhileintexas.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/meanwhileintexasmusic
Released on the 2nd of March 2016
Recorded in Brindisi/Rome, March-August 2015
/// /// ///
PAOLO COLAVITA: digital treatment & synthesis, noises, samples, field recordings, drones, guitars, synths
ANGELO GUIDO: guitar drones & loops, treated guitars, analogue and digital synths, keyboards
/// /// ///
“The sky, at sunset, looked like a carnivorous flower”
