From Solstice to Equinox

Matteo Uggeri (aka Barnacles) has been a huge fan of Nocturnal Emissions early works, especially the albums "Befehlsnotstand" and "Drowning in a Sea of Bliss".
When Nigel Ayers, founder of the band in 1980 in London, contacted him to contribute to Matteo's blog Concrete Shelves, his eyes popped out.

They afterwards met in Milan, played a gig together at the legendary Macao, became friend, and got involved into a remix project for Starlight Assembly on the US label Beacon Sound.
In 2022 it was then time to make something more structured together, so they exchanged some files between Milan and Cornwall.

The result is this album, actually composed "From Solstice to Equinox" of last year. It's focused one of Nigels and Matteo main passions: dub.

But it's of course a deeply weird version of it, with the mysterious vocals of the British cut-up in a nearly pop-oriented way by the Italian, who also added any sort of field recording to the analogue loops (guitar, samples, kbd...) of his companion. Moreover, the arrangements of cellos, violins, bass, ukulele and God-knows-what by the usual several Matteo's friend are completing this "hard to fit into a genre" set of songs.

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Nocturnal Emissions was founded in 1980 by Nigel Ayers together with collaborators Daniel Ayers and Caroline K. They have released numerous records and CDs in music styles ranging from electro-acoustic, musique concrete, hybridised beats, sound collage, post-industrial music, ambient and noise music.
Early albums on the band's own Sterile Records were harsh noisy affairs, until Songs Of Love And Revolution turned to near synth pop melodies.

Matteo Uggeri is an Italian visual designer and composer from Milan. He invests himself in sound poetry of everyday life, organized around personal field recordings, captivating beats and melodic compositions arranged in a story-telling way. He has been active in music since 1996 and has collaborated with many groups from the Industrial and Goth scene, including M.B., Controlled Bleeding, De Fabriek, and This Mortal Coil singer Dominic Appleton.

Together, they create this dub-oriented beats with cut-up vocals that are hard to fit into a genre.

It's a playful affair and a pure pleasure to listen to.