NoSound was started as a one man studio project in late 2002 by Giancarlo Erra (also a founding member of the Porcupine Tree tribute band Redshift), but has since become a band for live performances, the current line up is Giancarlo Erra (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Paolo Martellacci (vocals, synths, keyboards), Alessandro Luci (bass, upright bass, keyboards), Paolo Vigliarolo (acoustic guitars) and Gigi Zito (drums). The first NoSound live performance was in April 2005. NoSound take inspiration from early Porcupine Tree, No-Man, Pink Floyd, Sigur Ros, Bark Psychosis and electronic/ambient music. Despite the large number of similarities between Nosound and Porcupine Tree and No-Man, NoSound's music has its own unique feel and sound.
I got in touch with the band and here is their story.
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Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. But why did you set up Nosound and why
did you choose that name ?
The
Nosound name was something I had in mind for a music project even
before I thought about the actual Nosound music! I remember at some
point I bought a domain name for that name because I thought it was
something I wanted to keep for the future...and so I did! I always
liked the contrast between the word's meaning and the fact I always
like music quite full of sound. At the end it was kind of a natural
process to give this name to my music project and band.
This
is an archive based interview also intended for the fans you get well
after both you and I have passed away so let's go straight to your
releases. Please tell us more about.....
Waves
On Russia (cd-r) from 2002
This
was actually a demo release without Nosound name on it, but was the
first 'available' to the public, sold for a few months from a music
website. It contained all instrumental music, and we performed with
the band the title track several times live..we would like in the
future to record another 'band' version...who knows! Some of the
other pieces were used sometimes in our gigs 'intro'
sequences/videos.
Sol29
from 2005
This
was the first edition of Sol29, the one I produced completely myself,
writing and recording all instruments with Alessandro Luci (Nosound
bass player) on bass in four tracks. This edition was published
without any label, I just started selling it from our website
packing/shipping all orders, and contacting personally other
distributors/websites and magazines to let the word spreading out..it
was a quite intense and hard working time (20% on music and 80% on
all the rest!) but it always pays off.
The
World Is Outside from 2006
This
was a dvd-r release after our first ' full band' gig in Rome. We had
a crew of friends of mine that filmed the whole gig, and we decided
to put it out as it was quite decent (at that time!). On the dvd-r I
decided also to include the outtakes from Sol29, to make it a good
companion release to the first Sol29. This dvd-r was sold out and was
again produced and sold by us without any label, and again the hard
promotion work made it a quite successful release despite the release
nature.
Slow,
it goes from 2007
This
was another live release (on cd-r), another self produced/released,
that was strictly limited and signed by the whole band. This release
is available now as digital release, like the other ones now out of
print.
Clouds
from 2007
Clouds
was a curious release between the two different Lightdark releases.
The first version of Lightdark was distributed by Burning Shed on
their online shop, and soon after we signed with Kscope/Snapper and
we started releasing again the whole Nosound catalog of studio
albums. Clouds was originally released after the first Lightdark
version and contained the outtakes from recording sessions. It was
available only for a very short time because it became then the
second disc of the Kscope edition of Lightdark, with a new added
track (You Said I Am).
Lightdark
from 2008
This
is (I think!) the second version of Lightdark, expanded to two discs
(second one containing the original Clouds cd-r), with a different
expanded graphics/photos and a new deluxe package (double digipack
with 24 pages booklet).
A
Sense Of Loss from 2009
This
is the latest full band studio album release, published by
Kscope/Snapper, available originally as deluxe double digipack and
now available in jewel case, containing two discs (the cd and the
5.1/high resolution dvd). This is for me a very special and personal
album, linked to a quite difficult time of my life, and for this
reason probably the saddest of Nosound albums! We used a full strings
quartet for this release and I think it still contains some of our
best things (apart obviously the new material I'm working on!).
The
Northern Religion of Things from 2011
This
is the latest release for Nosound and is a more particular one, as it
contains a studio rehearsal session for a 'solo' gig I played last
year in London. It was a challenging task to rearrange some of the
songs for this new unusual setup, with me playing singing and playing
keyboards or acoustic guitar. At the end I enjoyed it so much that I
decided to record the rehearsal sessions in studio like a studio
live, and Kscope decided to release it between the last band studio
album (A Sense Of Loss) and the new one that will arrive in 2012.
How
is the availabilities of your releases ?
I
receive this question quite often, so it will be a pleasure to reply!
My first demos (Radici and Waves On Russia) are ot available anymore,
apart from the track Waves On Russia that is available for free
listening on our Soundcloud page. The other studio releases (Sol29,
Lightdark, A Sense Of Loss, The Northern Religion Of Things) are all
currently available in all stores, and also online from our official
shop on Burning Shed and from the likes of Amazon etc. All these
releases, as well as the other ones now out of print (dvd-r, cd-r)
are all available also on all main digital shops (iTunes, Amazon
etc.).
How
would you describe your music and which bands would you compare
yourself with ?
It's
ever easy to describe your own music, but for Nosound I would say
that my music is 'for feelings', in the most extreme meaning of the
expression. I never liked to be a good instrument player or to study
music theory, but I always wanted to put in music my feelings because
since I'm kid music always moved 'something' in me. I always wanted
to be able to put out of me some of these feelings, usually the
sad/melancholic ones, and transform these in something not painful
anymore, in something beautiful, to share with others. For this
reason I always learned myself playing guitar/keyboards, singing,
working in a studio, to be able to achieve this in the most pure way,
without any external influence. I think Nosound music is always just
genuine, never planned or forced, because if I don't like something
100% as a listener I will never put it under Nosound name. For me is
a sort of no compromise, it must be something that moves feelings in
me, and so it can be only something coming from feelings and nothing
else. And this is why I really feel lucky to play with the other
members of Nosound, friends and excellent musicians that decided to
share this 'view', trying to 'tune' in these feelings and providing
each time their palette of colours to make it real.
About
bands I started listening to music with Pink Floyd, King Crimson,
Genesis, so that side of music was always very important, together
with early Porcupine Tree and Radiohead releases. Electronic music
like Brian Eno and soundtracks were also always a central part of my
listening experience. I also like bands like Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and
lots of less known music from north Europe mixing post rock,
psychedelia, electronics and folk roots... Usually as a listener as
well I don't like to listen to a genre...if it's pop, metal, folk or
prog the only thing that keeps me listening to a band or an album is
if it moves something in me or not!
How
is the creative processes from coming up with an idea to it's being
recorded ?
Usually
I work in my own studio writing the music/lyrics and demoing it all,
because being so personal I usually need that kind of situation and
feeling. Obviously it happens I write some music ideas or lyrics on a
piece of paper or on my iPad, but even then I usually finish it all
on my own in my studio. Ideas for the first albums usually came out
maybe from a sound or a chord, while now I tend more to having
‘self-contained’ ideas, things like complete songs, melodies,
lyrics. I think it’s probably a natural process with
creativity..with time I feel I can focus more and more, choosing when
to experiment and when to go done directly to the point.
A
Sense Of Loss is your so far last studio album. What have you been up
too since the release of A Sense Of Loss ?
We
made some gigs around, we published last year The Northern Religion
Of Things, and I worked in the meantime to the new material. For me A
Sense Of Loss was a very demanding task both emotionally and
musically, I needed the time to go over it, refresh my emotions and
feelings, and prepare for something new for the new album.
What
is your current status and what is your plans for this year and
beyond ?
We’ll
start 2012 with a soon to be announced gig in March, where we’ll
play almost half an hour of material from the new album plus very old
things we don’t play live since a lot of time. Then we started
working on the new material to start soon recording for release of
the new album for the end of the year..so it’s going to be an
exciting new year! We are also planning more gigs to promote the new
album, but still nothing confirmed yet..
To
wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add to this
interview ?
I’d
just like to say thank you to ProgArchives for this interview, and
I’d like to introduce also the other members of the band: Paolo
Martellacci on keyboards and vocals, Paolo Vigliarolo on guitars,
Alessandro Luci on bass, Gigi Zito on drums and vocals. As I already
said they are a really important part of Nosound for me, because they
are always able to join in my vision and help putting their own minds
and sensitivity at service of the music, creating a unique
combination and synergy.
Thank you to Giancarlo for this interview
Their PA profile is here and their homepage is here
/PAlogo_v2.gif "Progarchives.com Homepage")
Nosound
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