«Endurance» is the result of the collaboration between Mulo Muto (Switzerland), meanwhile.in.texas (Italy) and Skag Arcade (Italy, currently based in the USA).
The seeds of this work were sawed by the Swiss label Luce Sia, which has been releasing several records by all three projects. While listening to each other's works, we got in touch to express admiration for each other’s approaches and quickly came up with the idea of recording an album together.
We then decided on how to structure what we were already imagining to be a proper concept album, and finally agreed on the idea of having each project one track (in this respect, Skag Arcade & meanwhile.in.texas are here considered as a unique entity and have written one track only together, since they had already collaborated on two shared albums) and then a third track conceived, arranged and played by everybody.
The concept of the album revolves around the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions that took place at the beginning of the 20th Century. After some internal discussion on the topic, we decided to restrict the field of interest and to focus specifically on Ernest Shackleton's expedition. Hence, the title «Endurance», the name of the ship that Sir Shackleton used during his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), which is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition's attempt to cross the Antarctic continent was eventually destined to a tragic fate. The ship Endurance, in particular, after having battled her way through a thousand miles of pack ice over a six weeks period in the unknown, desolate and mysterious Antarctic wastelands, broke up after being crushed by pack ice and sank below the ice and waters of the Weddell Sea on November 21st 1915, leaving the 28 men of the expedition isolated on the drifting pack ice hundreds of miles from land, with no ship, no means of communication with the outside world and with very limited supplies...
The 3 long tracks composing the album have to be experienced as highly evocative, unsettling and almost transcendental meditations about those trips, almost to evoke the real excursions that took place over a 100 years ago, and represent an homage, if not properly an elegy, to the mostly forgotten men that were involved in those extreme expeditions to the Poles, and that in many cases lost their lives on those remote, unknown places at the end of the Earth.
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Reviews:
Art Noir - Ausdauer ist das zentrale Thema der Kollaboration zwischen Mulo Muto (Schweiz), meanwhile.in.texas (Italien) und Skag Arcade (Italien, USA), die sich mit experimentellen und lärmigen Improvisationen zwischen Ambient und Drones umherschlängelt. Die Auslegung des Begriffes funktioniert mit den drei langen Tracks auf diverse Arten, verliert sich aber niemals in den negativen Aspekten. Sicherlich ist es in gewisser Weise “Arbeit”, wenn man die Klänge und Flächen ausdividieren möchte, vor allem aber benötigt man Zeit.
“Endurance” beschäftigt sich konzeptuell mit den arktischen Expeditionen, welche am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts die Abenteurer und Forscher an ihre Grenzen brachte, Kälte und schroffe Gegebenheiten werden nun in kühle Klänge und unangenehme Feedbacks übertragen. Der Track, an dem sich Mulo Muto, meanwhile.in.texas und Skag Arcade gemeinsam beteiligt haben, ist rau und karg, trotzdem verbirgt sich Schönheit in der unwirtlichen Umgebung. Eine Stimmung, die von “Tales Of A Lonely Icebreaker Dreaming Of Steam Engines And Enduring Frost” aufgenommen und weitergeführt wird.
Mulo Muto bringen die Klänge mit diesem Track noch weiter zu den Extremen, es rauscht, es fiept, es knirscht in den Frequenzen. Bis das Duo am Ende in den Motoren landet, welche metallisch beben und die Musik von der Menschheit wegbringen. So herrschen bei “Dome Argus” die Drones, meanwhile.in.texas und Skag Arcade lassen unsere Ohren vibrieren und zeigen, wie gnadenlos die eisige Welt sein kann, ein Track, der wirklich “Endurance” verlangt. Und dadurch kleinste Lichtblitze zu wunderschönen Momenten anwachsen lässt. (Michael Bohli)
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So What Musica - Aspro e minaccioso, impenetrabile come l’algido territorio che ne ispira la genesi, si sviluppa il suono del granitico vortice scaturente dall’incrocio dei percorsi di Mulo Muto, meanwhile.in.texas e Skag Arcade, assonanza creativa che si tramuta in tracciati che si affiancano per divenire unitario incastro di voci.
Comune punto di partenza di questo sodalizio è la fascinazione per le pionieristiche spedizioni alla scoperta dell’antartico, epiche esplorazioni che hanno visto impavidi esseri umani a volte domare l’insidiosa natura, più spesso capitolare amaramente al suo cospetto. Vicende estreme ed immaginifiche, qui tradotte in tre roboanti flussi risonanti, uno affidato al duo elvetico formato da Joel Gilardini e Attila Folklor, uno alla ormai consolidata fusione tra i progetti di Angelo Guido e Paolo Colavita ed un terzo che li vede attivamente collaborare insieme.
Matrice comune dei diversi itinerari è la drammaticità dell’evento rievocato, espressa come espanso torrente sonico colmo di frequenze ruvide e a tratti dissonanti, modulazioni gelide e riverberi taglienti che sommandosi rendono tangibile l’ambiente ostile in cui tutto è accaduto. Plasmata da Mulo Muto come perentorio crescendo che dall’iniziale andamento misterioso ed ipnotico giunge al suo irruento culmine (“Tales of a lonely icebreaker dreaming of steam engines and enduring frost”) e da meanwhile.in.texas & skag arcade come altalenante flusso sensoriale in bilico tra nervosa stasi e deflagrante ascesa (“Dome Argus”), la traiettoria narrativa della Endurance trova la sua completezza e il suo sviluppo più dinamico e coinvolgente nell’omonimo capitolo corale che introietta le singole istanze fondendole in una visione univoca altamente evocativa.
Affascinante omaggio alla memoria di uomini indomiti.
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Vital Weekly - Three names here, working together, and I must say I had not heard of either of them. Mulo Muto is the duo of Attila Folkor (synths, breathing, feedback) and Joel Gilardini (baritone guitars, synths, dronin); meanwhile.in.texas is Angelo Guido (electric guitar, keyboards, self-built synths & FX pedals, programming field recordings) and Skag Arcade is Paolo Colavita on synths, treated guitars, programming, field recordings, noises, digital treatment. The album is a sort of concept thing based upon the Arctic and Antarctic expeditions of a century ago and in particular Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), the last of the expedition in such a form. An expedition that ended well but was not without problems (let Wiki fill you in on the details; a good read!). The music is an all-out heavy affair. I expected some glacial drones of an icy
nature, but instead we arrive in a full storm. Sure, there is some spacious intro but then on it's all heaviness. There are three tracks. The title track opens up here and it is a collaboration between all three bands, going from pretty loud to very loud and back again. Mulo Muto then has a solo piece that is for most of the nineteen minutes a full blast of distorted noise in which we could discover a likewise distorted rhythmic pattern in the end. The third and final piece is a collaboration between meanwhile.in.texas and Skag Arcade and this is the most tranquil piece of the lot; it's also the longest of the three. This is a fine piece of guitar-oriented drones that get snowed in and became rougher and rougher towards the end, buried under the weight of ice (bass). In all honesty, this was the piece I enjoyed best, even when it also sounded a bit like nothing out of the ordinary guitar/loop/drone music that is around in quite an abundance. If the heavy weather conditions needed an aural picture then these three pieces surely fit that. Not for the weak. (FdW)
credits
released October 31, 2019
Mulo Muto:
Attila Folklor: Synths, Breathing, Feedback
Joel Gilardini: Baritone Guitars, Synths, Dronin
Rec: Winter 2017, Nowhere Studio, Zurich (Switzerland)
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meanwhile.in.texas:
Angelo Guido: Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Self-built Synths & FX Pedals, Programming, Field Recordings.
Rec: Winter 2016 - Spring 2017, Lonesome Studios, Brindisi (Italy)
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Skag Arcade:
Paolo Colavita: Synths, Treated Guitars, Programming, Field Recordings, Noises, Digital Treatment
Rec: San Francisco, 2017-2018
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Mix and master: Attila Folklor.
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Contacts:
mulomuto.bandcamp.com meanwhileintexas.bandcamp.com skagarcade.bandcamp.com
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Thanks to:
Dominik (EndTitles), Stephen (IC), Sacha & Nebo (Luce Sia).
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