At the end of September Kscope hosted a special night at the Union Chapel in London. Nosound, Engineers, Bruce from The Pineapple Thief and Anathema all performed stripped back sets in this breath-taking venue.

Live recordings of the artists involved along with interviews, recorded at sound-check, backstage and aftershow, are featured in the latest Kscope podcast which is now online.

The Union Chapel in north London; arguably London’s nicest venue. It’s a working church, built in the Victorian gothic revival style in the 1870s, it’s also a centre for the arts. It’s unspoiled inside, the audience sit in pews, it’s gorgeous. We invited four of the Kscope family to perform unique versions of some of their repertoire: you’ll hear tunes from Nosound, Engineers, Bruce Soord from The Pineapple Thief (with Alx Leeks) and Anathema. PLUS pre-show, backstage and aftershow interviews with all the artistes as we were (very kindly) allowed to go running around with a microphone.

A gallery of photographs from the night by Anne-Marie Arpin is now online at www.kscopemusic.com/union-chapel and Classic Rock Prog’s review of the evening can be read here.

Podcast content:
Interviews with Giancarlo Erra (Nosound), Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief), Mark Peters (Engineers), Vinny and Danny Cavanagh (Anathema)
Tracks featured:
Nosound – Lightdark (original from ‘Lightdark’)
Engineers – What it’s Worth (original from ‘In Praise of More’)
Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief) – My Debt to You (original from ‘Tightly Unwound’)
Anathema – A Natural Disaster (original from ‘A Natural Disaster’)

Click here to download the podcast as an mp3

A new edition of the podcast will be available at the end of every month.

Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here

Or copy and paste this Soundcloud code onto your Facebook profile: http://snd.sc/u4cNiJ

To buy Kscope albums visit our store at Burning Shed
Follow us on Twitter @kscopemusic

]]> http://www.kscopemusic.com/2011/11/24/the-new-kscope-podcast-is-now-online-and-its-a-union-chapel-special/feed/ 0 http://www.kscopemusic.com/2011/09/01/kscope-presents-a-night-at-the-union-chapel/ http://www.kscopemusic.com/2011/09/01/kscope-presents-a-night-at-the-union-chapel/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:55:48 +0000 Kscope http://www.kscopemusic.com/?p=1467

Kscope presents… ‘A Night At The Union Chapel’ featuring Anathema , The Pineapple Thief, Engineers and Nosound – 7.30pm, Friday 30th September 2011

On Friday 30th September Kscope will be hosting a one-off night at the Union Chapel in London, with a number of acts from the roster performing special stripped back sets in this breathtaking venue.

Anathema will headline the show, performing a special acoustic show comprising of members Vincent, Danny and Lee. They will be joined by Engineers, Bruce Soord from The Pineapple Thief and Nosound (solo set).

Click here for tickets, for what promises to be a very special night, are available from the Union Chapel costing £18 (plus booking fee). Get in quick.

Union Chapel

Anathema
Engineers
The Pineapple Thief
Nosound

The Northern Religion of Things was recorded by Giancarlo Erra during the rehearsal process for a special one-off ‘Nosound solo’ gig that took place in London in August 2010. Giancarlo explains: ‘Last year I was asked to perform Nosound songs on my own in a small club, in a more intimate setting. I immediately liked the idea and welcomed the challenge to create a completely new live setup’

For the gig Giancarlo had to create new arrangements for all the tracks along with the new live setup that allowed him to play keyboards and/or acoustic guitar while singing as well as using and recreating all the original sounds and effects from the original studio albums. No backtracks were used, only loops/tapes and real live played instruments.

He was so pleased with the way the results that the rehearsals were recorded and a selection from the best takes and the songs are presented here. The tracks were recorded straight from stereo outputs with no overdubs or edits involved resulting in unique interpretations of tracks from throughout the band’s catalogue, which Giancarlo has described as ‘a very personal take on the Nosound music that I really felt inside, and I hope everyone listening to this will share similar feelings.”

Giancarlo also created a promo recently for the Tender Claim track, watch it below or on our Vimeo channel.

Pre-order the album here
www.nosound.net

The long awaited reissue of Nosound’s 2005 debut album Sol29 will be available on Kscope from August 16th 2010 and to celebrate there will be a special Nosound performance at the BlagClub in Notting Hill in London on Friday 13th August.



The gig will feature a special stripped down set in an intimate setting and promises to be a special occasion. A limited amount of tickets are available for only £5 for the gig and these can be reserved by emailing unplugged@nosound.net. Signed copies of the album along with other Nosound merchandise will also be available at the gig for people who sign up to this list. There is also a Facebook event page here.

 Sol29 has been out of print for almost two years, during which time it has become a collectable (and much requested!) piece. The album will be expanded to a 2disc set (CD + DVD) and will be packaged in a super jewel case with slipcase and feature new and revised artwork as well as the original photographic booklet.



The audio CD will feature completely new digitally restored and analogue mastered audio from the original 2005 album, plus three extra re-mastered tracks (clocking in at 78 minutes of music!).

 The DVD features a brand new 10 minute video for Sol29, plus the original three ambient/experimental audio video tracks included on The World Is Outside DVD-R. As an extra for fans who missed the first release, the Kscope edition will also include all the original mixes of Sol29 as they were released on 2005 album version. This will be the final and official Sol29 release, collecting all the Nosound early studio material in one single release.

 Go to www.sol29.com for more details and to check out the video for Sol29 or go to the Kscope store to pre-order your copy.

An extensive interview with Giancarlo from Nosound will also feature in the next Kscope podcast which can be listened to, or downloaded from the podcast page.

Nosound have announced that the long awaited reissue of their 2005 debut album Sol29 will be available on Kscope from August 2nd 2010. The album has been out of print for almost two years, during which time it has become a collectible (and much requested!) piece. The album will be expanded to a 2disc set (CD + DVD) and will be packaged in a super jewel case with slipcase and feature new and revised artwork as well as the original photographic booklet.

The audio CD will feature completely new digitally restored and analogue mastered audio from the original 2005 album, plus three extra re-mastered tracks (clocking in at 78 minutes of music!).

The DVD features a brand new 10 minute video for Sol29, plus the original three ambient/experimental audio video tracks included on The World Is Outside DVD-R. As an extra for fans that missed the first release, the Kscope edition will also include all the original mixes of Sol29 as they were released on 2005 album version. This will be the final and official Sol29 release, collecting all the Nosound early studio material in one single release.

Before this release the band will be returning to the stage starting with a special homecoming gig on May 29th. Following the success of their recent gig at the famous CrossRoads venue in Rome where they were joined on stage by a full wooden string quartet to play the whole of the A Sense of Loss album, the band return to Rome on May 29th for another gig which promises to be an equally special night.

For this gig, a headline slot for one of the Unprogged.com nights, Nosound will return to their original five piece rock band formation playing a 90 minute set featuring a selection of their favourite tracks from their three albums at the small and intimate Dissesto Musicale venue in a rural village near Rome. More information can be found at the band’s official website www.nosound.net

The band has already started work on their fourth studio album which will be released in 2011. Writing and recording sessions already started in UK, and will continue during the summer with the whole band recording in their brand new recording studio located on the hills around Rome.

Click here to order Nosound albums

For the second year in a row Nosound have won the Best Recording award at the Italian Prog awards. A Sense of Loss beat off competition from Osi, Muse, Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree to scoop the prestigious award. Full details of the award can be found HERE.

The album was also reviewed in a recent issue of Classic Rock Prog who described it as ‘a powerfully distinctive record.’ They went on to state:

“Founder member and leader Giancarlo Erra has moved his band purposefully forward from their 2008 album Lightdark, tightening up his songwriting and reining in some of his more wilful atmospheric excesses in the process. The steady well of keyboards and acoustic guitars, the gentle skitterof Gigi Zito’s brilliantly under-the-radar percussion and the soothing sweep of well-placed strings that Erra fuses together into a lush and alluring whole amounts to a unique and shrewdly layered sonic world and a glorious  advert for lightness of touch in the pursuit of impact that counts and endures. Despite their penchant for subdued tempos, sober reflection and humble collective restraint, Nosound pack a rela punch, so that even on the fragile lament of My Apology, the expression of their loss is indubitably our substantial gain.”

The 2 disc edition of the album which includes a DVD containing 5.1 surround and 24bit mixes of the album, video footage, picture gallery and more is available from the Kscope store.

For information, audio samples, downloads and more, go to nosound.net or www.kscopemusic.com/nosound

• Best Recording of 2008 at ProgAwards for Lightdark
• Best Recording of 2009 at ProgAwards for A Sense of Loss
 

It now seems obligatory that whenever a band releases a new record they trail the release by releasing a free mp3 to fans who sign up to their mailing list.
 
These free tracks can give anxious fans a welcome glimpse of what to expect or introduce curious browsers to their sound. Sometimes though, given the work and effort that has gone into creating the album, it seems unfortunate that many people’s first experience of the album is a highly compressed audio file often listened to through tinny computer speakers.
 
Giancarlo Erra of Nosound is one artist who has raised these concerns.  Renowned for their epic soundscapes, which fuse elements of progressive, ambient and post rock, Nosound have just completed the recording of their third album, A Sense Of Loss.
 
Erra states that

‘I have always loved spending a lot of time crafting layers, sounds, details, all nuances of acoustic instruments, and when you have to mix such complex palette of sounds, you’re always concerned how many people will be able to listen that 45hz kick or that 18khz air over drum sounds… there’s a problem of dynamics, frequencies and ‘detail’ in sound and stereo projection. The new album was thought and made for a careful listening experience, in the best possible technical situation, and the 5.1 is probably the ideal mix for it.’

To address this issue Giancarlo has decided to distribute one of the tracks from the album as a free high quality DTS 5.1 surround quality download that can be burned onto a normal CD and played on almost any home theatre system or DVD player.
 
The track can be downloaded from www.thebenchmusic.com/nosound. We believe this is the first time anyone has offered a track as a legitimate free download in this form.
 

A Sense Of Loss is the follow up to the 2008 album Lightdark and is in stores from November 2nd 2009 but is already shipping from Kscope. It was preceded by the single Constant Contrast which was released on October 26th and is available from all major download stores.
 
Giancarlo describes the album as a ‘move from the classic ‘rock’ or (or rock ambient) approach used in Lightdark to a more unique sound, with influences from more contemporary alt and post rock.’
 
To create this sound the band used less synths (any that were used were almost all a strict selection of vintage synth sounds) and more real instruments including a string quartet, leading to ‘an even more emotional recording than Lightdark’.
 
Erra goes on to state, ‘The overall production and sound have moved to a more ‘natural’ overall sound, combined with some different sounds and approaches, a little far from Lightdark, but still distinctively Nosound (probably more now than before).’
 
The video for Constant Contrast, also filmed and directed by Giancarlo, is now online at www.kscopemusic.com/nosound and can be seen here:

The new studio album from Nosound

Formed in Italy in 2001, Giancarlo Erra’s Nosound create a seductive and original fusion of elements of progressive, ambient and post rock.

Regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the most interesting up and coming alt/art rock bands in Europe, A Sense Of Loss is their third album, the follow up to the 2008’s Lightdark.

Lightdark was described by Classic Rock (UK) as ‘more great stuff from new label Kscope’ and A Sense Of Loss builds on this album by introducing alternative post rock songs to Nosound’s ever evolving sound.

Giancarlo describes the album as a ‘move from the classic ‘rock’ or (or rock ambient) approach used in Lightdark to a more unique sound, with influences from more contemporary alt and post rock.’

To create this sound the band used less synths (any that were used were almost all a strict selection of vintage synth sounds) and more real instruments including a string quartet, leading to ‘an even more emotional recording than Lightdark.

Erra goes on to state, ‘The overall production and sound have moved to a more ‘natural’ overall sound, combined with some different sounds and approaches, a little far from Lightdark, but still distinctively Nosound (probably more now than before).’

The album was written, recorded, produced, mixed and mastered at Nosound Studio (Rome) by Giancarlo Erra. Additional production was by Paolo Martellacci, Gigi Zito, Alessandro Luci, Paolo Vigliarolo. Additional recordings made at PanPot Studio (Rome) by Gigi Zito and Diapason Studio (Rome) by Simone Satta.

This 2 disc edition of the album includes a DVD containing 5.1 surround and 24bit mixes of the album, video footage, picture gallery and more.

A video teaser for the album is now online at www.asenseofloss.com and the album is available to pre-order from the Kscope store and will ship from October 26^th. All orders placed through the Kscope store will receive a exclusive signed postcard.

www.kscopemusic.com/nosound

Lightdark, the new album from Nosound, recently released on Kscope, has been nominated for three awards at the Italian Prog Awards.

The album is up for the best Italian album and best recording awards while the album’s stunning artwork (photography and design by Giancarlo himself) has been recognized in the best artwork category.

Full details on the awards can be found at www.progawards.it or visit the mini-site for more info on the album, the new video for the track Kites, downloads and more.

Stranger Inside, the new solo album from Richard Barbieri is out now.

Spanning four decades, Richard Barbieri’s eclectic musical career has encompassed innovative contributions to Japan in the 1980s and contemporary worldwide success with Porcupine Tree. 

Following the artistic and critical success of his 2005 debut album Things Buried, Stranger Inside further develops Barbieri’s unique approach to texture, harmony and rhythm.

Writing and producing the album himself, the album includes contributions from long-term creative partners Steve Jansen (mixing/ co-arranging), Steven Wilson (mastering), Gavin Harrison (drums) and  the legendary double bass player, Danny Thompson (currently enjoying renewed acclaim as part of the reformed Pentangle). In addition the album features the sampled voices of Tim Bowness (No-Man) and Suzanne Barbieri. 

The CD comes in digipack artwork by Carl Glover and Luigi Colasanti.

To download a FREE track from Stranger Inside, download desktops and more, go to the mini-site at www.kscopemusic.com/richardbarbieri/strangerinside

Tracklist
Cave
All Fall Down
Hypnotek
Byzantium
Decay
Abyssyn
Morphia
Retina Blur
Stranger Inside

Stranger Inside is also available to download from the following stores:

Also released this week is the 2CD edition of the new Nosound album Lightdark.

Formed in Italy in 2001, Giancarlo Erra’s Nosound creates a seductive and original fusion of elements of Progressive, Ambient and Post Rock.

Regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the most interesting up and coming alt/art rock bands in Europe, Lightdark sees the Nosound identity evolve into something even more focused and powerful.

Lightdark inventively combines influences from ’70s psychedelia, ’80s/’90s ambient and contemporary alt/progressive rock.

Recorded in Italy, England and the US throughout 2006 and 2007, the album develops further the promise of debut album Sol29 and exhibits a stronger group identity which reveals a greater contrast between atmospheric detail and the walls of sound created by the band on stage.

Highlights include the 15 minute epic From Silence to Noise, the ethereal The Misplay (with cellist Marianne DeChastelaine), and the epic piano/mellotron driven ballad Someone Starts To Fade Away (which features No-Man’s Tim Bowness on vocals).

This 2 disc edition of the album includes an exclusive five track bonus disc including the video for Lightdark.

Tracklist
Disc One:
About Butterflies And Children
Places Remained
The Misplay
From Silence To Noise
Someone Starts To Fade Away
Kites
Lightdark

Disc Two:
Cold Afterall
Like The Elephant?
You Said ‘I Am.’
Clouds 
Lightdark (Enhanced Video Track) 

The Lightdark mini-site is now online at www.kscopemusic.com/nosound. The site features the video for Kites, a downloadable 15 minute sample of the album, including The Misplay (Instrumental Coda) & From Silence To Noise recorded live, as well as desktop and mobile phone downloads and other audio samples.

Lightdark is also available to download from the following stores:

A brand new video for Kites, filmed and edited by Giancarlo Erra, is now streaming at the Nosound mini-site. The mini-site has also been updated to include a new downloadable desktop created by Giancarlo Erra too.

Formed in Italy in 2001, Giancarlo Erra‘s Nosound creates a seductive and original fusion of elements of Progressive, Ambient and Post Rock.

Regarded by critics and fans alike as one of the most interesting up and coming alt/art rock bands in Europe, Lightdark sees the Nosound identity evolve into something even more focused and powerful.

Lightdark inventively combines influences from ’70s psychedelia, ’80s/’90s ambient and contemporary alt/progressive rock.

Recorded in Italy, England and the US throughout 2006 and 2007, the album develops further the promise of debut album Sol29 and exhibits a stronger group identity which reveals a greater contrast between atmospheric detail and the walls of sound created by the band on stage.

Highlights include the 15 minute epic From Silence to Noise, the ethereal The Misplay (with cellist Marianne DeChastelaine), and the epic piano/mellotron driven ballad Someone Starts To Fade Away (which features No-Man’s Tim Bowness on vocals).

This 2 disc edition of the album includes an exclusive five track bonus disc including the video for Lightdark.

Lightdark will be released on September 15th.

Tracklist
Disc One:
About Butterflies And Children
Places Remained
The Misplay
From Silence To Noise
Someone Starts To Fade Away
Kites
LightdarkDisc Two:
Cold Afterall
Like The Elephant?
You Said ‘I Am.’
Clouds 
Lightdark (Enhanced Video Track) 

To download the usual desktops and other audio samples, go to the mini-site at www.kscopemusic.com/nosound