Marconi Union Vol.2

We are pleased to welcome back Marconi Union with a selection of unreleased compositions from various future projects…

About:

Richard Talbot and Jamie Crossley met while working in a Manchester record shop. At the time Richard was making long ultra minimal ambient pieces of music, Jamie borrowed a CD of these and added more instrumentation, he then gave the new recordings back to Richard who then overlaid more music onto Jamie’s version, they carried on bouncing tracks backwards and forwards, taking turns to add or remove layers of sound. Tracks would develop almost organically sometimes only taking shape after months of work. The process was repeated several times over the course of 18 months. Neither of them had any intention of doing anything more than make music that they would enjoy listening to. Occasionally they would play a track in the shop without revealing who it was by and they found that they quickly started getting repeated enquiries from customers about whether the music was available to buy. After a few months it became apparent that they had recorded the basis of an album almost by default and in response to encouragement from a number of interested people they mixed a final version.

Under Wires and Searchlights, appeared on the small British independent label Ochre Records in 2003, immediately drawing attention for its combination of synths, guitars, strings and cinematic soundscapes. Pressed in limited quantities it quickly sold out. Soon after they played their first gig creating a live soundtrack to a film with an augmented line-up featuring a viola player and drummer, following this one-off performance they returned to the studio and entered a sustained period of silence punctuated only by a couple of remixes.

Over the next 18 months they recorded a number of tracks which saw their sound evolving in a darker more electronic direction. The end result of this can be heard on Distance which was inspired by images of cities and travel, shortly after completing this album they signed to All Saints Records and Distance was released in late 2005 (2006 in the US), this immediately attracted a wider audience for their music, and met with widespread critical acclaim, particularly in the US where it became one of the most successful ambient albums of recent years, receiving widespread radio play. Music from Distance was prominently featured on a number of popular US television shows and independent arts based projects.

Through 2006/7 MU played a number of live dates including high profile gigs at Big Chill and the Eden Sessions and specially recorded a live set for the influential US radio programme Echoes. Then once again they returned to the studio to begin what became their most prolific recording period yet. Within a short period of time they had completed a new album A Lost Connection as well as material for two other untitled albums. Originally it had been planned to release A Lost Connection on All Saints but to both MU and the label’s disappointment it became clear that unforeseen complications made this impractical. MU finding themselves without a label, and increasingly disenchanted with the music business decided to take matters into their own hands by making their music available via their own website where much of their back catalogue as well as new and previously unreleased music is exclusively available to download.

Track List:

1. Glassworks Blue (Derelict mix taken from the forthcoming 12′ on Bine Music)
2. Beautifully Falling Apart (Taken from the unreleased album Beautifully Falling Apart)
3. Section No4 (Taken from Shoot Out Series 2 MU-Transmissions)
4. Blue Light (Taken from the unreleased Organum project featuring Giorgio Li Calzio on trumpet)
5. Endless Winter (Remix by 1210 unreleased)
6. Stationary (Still mix by Marconi Union unreleased)
7. Untitled (Unreleased)

www.marconiunion.com
www.binemusic.de
www.justmusic.co.uk