sabato 13 dicembre 2014

URNA "Cauchemar" review on Culture Is Not Your Friend!



To hear from Yerevan tapes is to hear the long awaited sound of a new uneasiness that you have been waiting for. This time it’s Urna, the project by Gianluca Martucci, in the album ‘Cauchemar’ which is released on a gray cassette by the unsettling label. The world of Cauchemar is almost subliminal, as the horrifying hissings are whispering the litanies slowly and quietly in a 30 minutes long ceremony.

Through the menacing, four tracks long chant there is a supernova of smaller, piercing sounds and minute events that makes ‘Cauchemar’ so impressive and intense. “Careful what you wish for”, they say, or better yet – as one artist used to say several years ago – “Don’t fuck with magic”. I have a feeling I should seriously consider my thoughts and wishes while listening to this album because something wicked came through these speakers. I am pretty sure about it.

URNA "Cauchemar" finally out on Yerevan Tapes!

Yerevan Tapes is thrilled to release "Cauchemar", a four-song cassette focused on the nightmare dimension. No wonder that for the first time here Martucci is adding a bass to his sonic creations, an instrument well know for its low, disturbing frequencies that properly reflects the feeling of everlasting oppression URNA wanted to deliver with these new tracks. This way "Cauchemar" stands as an exorcism against these nightmares that haunt the artist's mind.

Side A: Umbra / A worm in my bed
Side B: Alp / Cauchemar

Comes on grey tape cassette with artwork by Silvia Anhayt
Limited edition of 100 copies.

for order write me at: 


domenica 16 novembre 2014

URNA "Liber Lelle" reissue on tape

URNA
"Liber Lelle"
reissued on tape by Black Death Production
with two previously unreleased tracks is finally out
limited edition tape
5 € + shipping cost
for order write me here:



Tracklist:

L'Avvento
L'orrenda Notte
La venuta del Pellegrino nell'Anima
L'abbraccio di Cristo morto
Visione di Tenebra
La Spirale e la Montagna
L'Anima dissolta

mercoledì 16 luglio 2014

URNA "Arkaikon" - CDr limited edition 100 copies


A collection of acoustic songs of URNA, 
a compilation of 13 tracks taken from various albums
(with 3 unreleased tracks)

Packaging Handmade by G.M. 
CDr limited edition 100 copies 

€ 7 (plus shipping)

for info and order contact me:

martucci79@gmail.com




Tracklist:

Pan
Renatus in Aeternum
Cibele
Persephone
Regina Caeli
Lunae
Hyksos
Acque dei Morti
Montagna Rituale
Nemeton (Part.2)
La Spirale e la Montagna
Arkaikon
Ophis

URNA live at Tera Salvaria Ur Folk Event - 12/07/2014

URNA live at Tera Salvaria Ur Folk Event





























URNA "Nemeton" review on Darkroom Magazine


Da queste pagine abbiamo sempre dato molto spazio al lavoro di Urna, il solo-project guidato sin dagli anni '90 da Gianluca Martucci, musicista che lo scorso anno abbiamo apprezzato anche nella gradita riscoperta postuma dell'altro suo vecchio act a nome Sagenhaft. In quindici anni di attività discografica, tra split, cassette e CDr il Nostro è giunto oggi alla sua tredicesima release, ancora una volta pubblicata da un'etichetta sicuramente di spessore (l'inglese Paradigms Recordings, negozio e mailorder specializzato in musica esoterica e sperimentale) ma dal potenziale espositivo limitato, oltre che in una tiratura di soli 100 esemplari. Per questa piccola ma particolare realtà del panorama discografico Gianluca realizza un CDr composto da una sola traccia di circa 35 minuti, racchiuso in una pregiata confezione cartonata con inserto annesso. Coadiuvato per l'occasione da M. Leo (per gli interventi di chitarra acustica e per delle vocals in vero poco percettibili), ma sempre impegnato con una notevole mole di strumenti (fiati, corde e percussioni), Gianluca crea questa lunga ma scorrevole suite che, ancora una volta, ci conduce attraverso un cammino fra il sacro, l'esoterico ed i misteri della spiritualità orientale, stavolta in una più stretta connessione fra la Madre Terra ed i suoi elementi. Un evocativo tema di corde e flauto si libra in una Natura incontaminata prima che, con fare suadente, prenda corpo una fascinosa melodia orientale guidata dall'incedere delle percussioni, sino al suo logico crescendo; un lungo passaggio più riflessivo e mesto accoglie lo sciabordio delle onde e la malinconia che queste si portano dietro, finché le percussioni tornano a dettare il ritmo fra toni quasi sacrali, che spingono i suoni verso lidi più ariosi e intensi. Cresce l'alone di mistero in un frangente dal carattere ossessivo, finché il pizzicare delle corde si conquista lo spazio necessario per avvolgere i sensi: il viaggio è quasi terminato, e la musica si 'spegne' verso un finale placido che apre col cuore sereno a nuovi orizzonti. Aspettando che una delle etichette di maggior peso della scena offra a Gianluca la possibilità che merita, mettendo Urna in condizione di godere di una produzione finalmente degna del suo buon gusto compositivo e di una tiratura che garantisca maggiore visibilità, consigliamo a chi già segue ed apprezza il lavoro dell'act nostrano di non indugiare oltre e di far propria anche questa nuova release.


Written by Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi


URNA "Dakhma" review on The New Noise


Tra le produzioni di Angst/Scorze/Suicide non potevano mancare quelle contraddistinte da sfumature più dark ambient. Aggiungiamo che Gianluca Martucci (Urna) è tra i pochi veterani di casa nostra per quanto riguarda queste sonorità. Di ritorno dall’escapismo acustico di Nemeton, Urna riabbraccia lo stile ibrido (un po’ Megaptera un po’ Deutsch Nepal) degli esordi, influenzato anche da tutta la scuola Slaughter Prod., che in passato lo accolse sotto la sua ala. Se poi qualcuno viene dal drone ottenebrato di qualche Sachiko “utechiana”, sarà ulteriormente trascinato dall’ora di minutaggio di Dakhma nel suo buio circolare e nelle sue liturgie esoteriche, trovando uno dei lavori più riusciti dello scorso anno in questo ambito. 

Written by Tommaso Gorelli and Michele Giorgi

http://www.thenewnoise.it/homekilling-taping-music/

http://suicideautop.blogspot.it/

http://scorzerecords.blogspot.it/

http://angstrecords.blogspot.it/

URNA "Larvae" review on Existence Establishment


Urna is a project from Italy that has been around for many years now, but has remained largely unheard outside of his own country except for maybe the early releases that came out on the infamous Slaughter Productions. I first heard his CD-R “Lares” back then when it came out and was very impressed by it. I tried tracking down his other work with little luck, besides the occasional disc here or there. So it was great news when Brave Mysteries announced they were releasing this new tape. Hopefully there will be more in the future. This is unfortunately already sold out, but is still fairly available on discogs or through some distros. As with all Brave Mysteries releases this comes on a nice pro-dubbed tape with a cool body print on the tape and full color artwork. The cover art and inside photo are done well and look nice, a tad generic though and don’t really bring much to the imagination while listening to the music.
The tape starts out with “Klangling” featuring grinding cymbals and an airy ambience, before shifting into struck singing bowls and ringing hand bells. The ambience appears to be made from bowed metal or perhaps deep flutes of some kind. Everything stays primarily in the mid-range to high end until finally some deep bass stabs fill the mix. Moving on to “Mu”, the third track on side A, we are greeted with a minimal hand drum beat to set the mood. This lays the foundation for more clanging metal of various types and a thick mid-range electronic drone, accented by deep vocal chanting. Huge sweeps of reverberated clatter push to the forefront before residing back into the shadows. Gradually the voices get louder and louder in the mix filling you with the creeping dread of running through an underground tunnel beneath the streets, drums come from every direction and you never know if you’re getting closer or farther from the madmen chasing you due to the disorienting echoes of the reverb drenched halls. This same formula get pushed up a notch in the next track “Lha-Mo” with a heavier more plodding beat, less reverb and replacing the vocals with thick beautiful harmonium drones that sound both organic and menacing.
Side B’s first track “Endura” begins with some deep plucked guitar notes before being enveloped in a thick fog of bassy yet windy drones. This eventually gives way to some more chanted vocals, much more “sung” than on the first side, and subtle use of metallic bells. This extremely dark and subtle track is a good come down from the intense ending to the first side. This is followed by “Rakshasa” which uses only metallic percussion to create multi-layered mesmerizing rhythms, and then “Hannya” which starts with deep vocal chants and more multi-layered acoustics. This is the shortest track on the album and can probably be seen as an outro type piece.

All and all, “Larvae” is a fantastic recording by someone with a clear vision, a wealth of talent and a firm grip on multi-instrumentation. Nothing ever sounds wanky or thrown together, it never sounds like someone playing with a bunch of toys, but instead a very talented musician bringing together many instruments from around the world into a very unified and personal album of beautiful folk influenced ritual ambient music. My only complaint would be there seems to be an extra amount of hiss to this tape over others on the same label. Having heard past Urna releases though that always have an excellent production quality, I would guess it’s more the pressing plants fault over any flaw in the recordings. I’m very much looking forward to both new work by Urna and seeing what Brave Mysteries comes out with next.

Written by Andrew Quitter












URNA "LIber Lelle" review on Existence Establishment


Here’s a beautifully delicate arrangement of ritualistic ambient sounds – I believe from Italy? – released on Russian label Abgvrd. The basic drawn artwork doesn’t really compare to the subtle and atmospheric sounds represented here which are quite distinct.
Among the instruments listed in use on Liber Lelle are bells, cymbals, mandolin, balalaika, zither, accordion, and flutes. These instruments do not generally make a presence through traditional means but instead they are used to create sparse compositions of musique concrete and minimal atmospheres. However, it gives the music of Urna a very organic overtone.
The music of Urna has mostly a melancholic and mysterious emotion attached to it. This is best demonstrated in the track L’abbraccio Di Cristo Morto which makes particular use of the accordion and reminds me quite a bit of Chaos As Shelter, an artist that I think is very similar in style to Urna.

Liber Lelle is a great album and one that is perfect for those meditative times of introspection. The sounds are delicate and effective while continuing to be engaging. It is clear that the hand of Urna is one that is well acquainted with restraint and talent. Excellent work.

Written by XDEMENTIA




Sagenhaft "A long forgotten legend" - review on Heathen Harvest


Myth and legend lives on in this 21st-century, hard to capture, yet rewarding and inspirational . Maybe it is the aura of heroism, the adventure, or the resemblance we sometimes see in ourselves and those characters living stories we will never experience. The project Sagenhaft is about all those things, captured into dreamy ambient, reaching towards epic proportions. Gianluca Martucci, standing behind it all, also releases music under the names Il Prato Dei Desideri and Urna. On his blog he describes Sagenhaft as “my old project of symphonic/medieval/esoteric music”. Old or not, compared to much else aiming for the same epic feeling Sagenhaft is minimalistic, but in a way that takes away little of the sentiment, leaving a mystic tale, told quietly.
“A Long Forgotten Legend” is divided into two parts, the first one consisting of old unreleased songs, while the second is made up by the previous cassette release “Lapideus Liber”. Through it all seeps something that can only be described as cinematic, drawing the mind to distant landscapes and adventurous times. The album starts with “The Book”, featuring the only appearance of vocals, served as bright female tunes and male spoken verse. It works as a great opening to the realms of Fae, with enchanting synth pad, harp and drums. The rest of “A Long Forgotten Legend” is completely instrumental, based around synthesisers and melodies that could suit many movies and games with magical themes. In “The Search For the Grail” we are deep diving into the Arthurian universe, with a symphonic quality that is nothing less than heroic. Striking “She Sleeps Under Green Waters” is a simple melody building up, swirling around, creating a dance of light as sun upon a forest pond, filled with beauty. The songs from “Lapideus Liber” are more thoughtful, more refined, deep in atmosphere. “Scire” opens this part with a darker mood, while closing “Notre Mer” is almost angelic, sounding like two harp voices pounding with rain.

I would say the feelings best describing “A Long Forgotten Legend” are bittersweet and peaceful all the same. A contradiction, but so is the classic evil and good streaming through stories and centuries, battling each other endlessly. Here it takes shape into a tapestry of dreams, a place to rest from everyday life’s shores or dullness. The simple arrangements makes the true spirit of each song more clear, putting the melodies in the centre of attention, creating an album both vivid and relaxing. It makes me feel warm, like I have stumbled on a small treasure, shining bright

Written by Navdi

URNA-LCB "L'angolobuio" review on Heathen Harvest


I always find it interesting when an artist I’m quite familiar with begins a collaboration with one I’m totally unfamiliar with. Urna I’ve known for some time, and even had the pleasure of sharing a label imprint with in Quartier23. Gianluca Martucci‘s work is well known, well-respected, and runs the gamut from neo-classical to drone, with a lot of variation in between. From collaborative releases as Sagenhaft, solo albums as Urna , and various other works over the years, he has set himself as a standard in the post-industrial music scene. It is, then, no surprise to find him once again venturing into new territory, this time choosing to collaborate with the Italian project Le Cose Bianche, also known as L.C.B.  
Beginning aural life in 2008, L.C.B. was founded on the mantra that life is here to be lost. He produces music and sound in this vein, seeking to push the lower boundaries of darkness and murky fatalism. From the artist:
His consciousness of his creations, that he consider nothing groundbreaking, saves him from falling into pettiness, banality and pomposity. Le Cose Bianche is The Man, with his languages, his shifts and cracks, his discomfort. With his curved behaviour and the whacked hopes. With his life, too. With his end, above all.
The melding of two distinct, yet totally separate styles is the key to this sort of collaborative effort. Each is certainly an important part of the whole, but the lines truly become blurred, with the outcome the only importance rendered to the listener. Surely, there is no pomp or useless vanity here. This is a darker, more hollow form of Dark Ambient / Power Electronics. It reminds a bit of Abandoned Shelter‘s early work, especially Suprema. There is a crushing urgency in the manic shuffling of chords, expressions, and atmospheres. Gianluca’s vocal incantations help to set a ritual, deathly cadence in several tracks, most noticeably “Diavolo Apocrifo” and “Un’Ombra Nell’Ombra“.
The entire album reeks of death, destruction, and sex. Yes, sex. This work has a certain dark sexual energy attached to its very core, something I noticed on the very first listen. Like the record played during the detective’s hunt for the monster Machine in the movie 8MM, this work gives haunting reference to unspeakable atrocities, such acts that pleasure one while subjugating the other. The pain felt is nearly palpable, drawing the listener into the shadows within the Shadow, as track 8 so effortlessly describes in the title. The fear of the dark is well expressed here, and one can only imagine what this work may be a soundtrack to. As stated in the release itself: “Evil is real, and is Human“.
The music itself, as stated, is a mixture of drone, dark ambient. industrial, power electronics, and glitch. The mastering technique employed, especially on the later tracks, evokes the feeling of imperfection and human failure that this album thrives on. Sounds disappear as fast as they reappear, drowning each other as they compliment the collective. Though the tracks are very different one to the next, they work so very well together to tell the tale of the completed work. Sometimes brutally harsh, other times purely beautiful, the sounds used are as stark as they are filling. Somewhere between Desiderii Marginis, Ouroboros, and Abandoned Shelter, this collaboration finds its way to our darkest fears, and to the bleakest corners of our very souls.

Written by Asche

URNA "Nemeton" review on Heathen Harvest



Rain, melts me into the ground
Dance, turn me into a bird

Wood, cover me with mosses and lichens
Wind, scatter me through the meadows and herbs


So this album begins, a short introduction from the artist to prepare the listener for what comes next.  Not so much a warning as a promise.  A promise that Urna will continue a legacy that has no less than 11 chapters spanning the last 14 years.  This particular outing is presented in similar fashion to his Sagenhaft release, A Long Forgotten Legend.  For those unfamiliar, Gianluca Martucci (Urna) released, with two collaborators, a full-length medieval-inspired neoclassical work under this name while still on the Quartier23 imprint.  It was a beautiful collection of works that had been recorded at various times throughout his career.  That said, Nemeton is both very similar, and at the same time, different than the mentioned work.
Containing only the eponymous track “Nemeton”, this work has only about 36 minutes to express itself.  Urna’s use of flutes, balalaika, saz, cumbus, cymbals, Tibetan bells, gongs, tammorra, sea drum, as well as plentiful field and forest recordings gives this work a very wide sound, as well as realistic depth and feel.  Additional voices and acoustic guitars are provided by M. Leo, and serve to round out the accompaniment quite nicely.  The sounds emitted are pleasant to the ear, with only the slightest hint of drone and excessive sustain.
Though the record shows only one long track, the work is divided into four discernible movements, with droning, melodic interludes serving as the space between them.  A moving and hypnotic work, at once both singular and multifaceted, beautiful and complex.  There is a warm ambience throughout, one that invites both introspection and meditation to be one’s guide through the process of sound and enchantment.  Speaking of meditation, it seems this very thought was foremost during the creation of this album.  The ability to simply close one’s eyes and feel the full saturation of the melodies and sounds is at high probability, and one can easily slip half an hour from the modern world into one from times long passed.
All in all, this work is well produced, certainly propagated by a talented and sincere artist who has proven his commitment to his art for over a decade and a half.  I find that the only complaint I have is the lengthy use of repetitive chords and drones, especially at the 10 minute mark, and again at the end.  Both of these sections really hurt the album, taking precious time to re-insist upon themselves when so much more could be accomplished, especially considering the vast amount of instruments and talent at his disposal.  Repetition is good in regards to the availability of meditative trance, but this is a bit too much.  The sounds used in these episodes are good by themselves, but it seems they start to drag, and go on for far too long.  I found the ending sequence to be quite frustrating, as it continued far too long to the eventual end. Other than this, the album will cater to the needs of those who seek timeless beauty, classical worth, and talent together in one (cardboard) package. The deficient parts (while not show-stopping) are still far outweighed by the good, and the work itself can live on as it was intended.

Written by Asche

lunedì 10 marzo 2014