Marconi Union
Encyclopedia
Marconi Union are a British musical trio Richard Talbot, Jamie Crossley and Duncan Meadows, with strong links to the Manchester based DOTCA arts collective. Their music incorporates elements of electronica
, ambient
, jazz
and dub
.
(a label strongly associated with electronic musician Brian Eno) releasing their second album, Distance, which featured a darker, more electronic sound.
The band played at the 2006 Big Chill Festival and Eden Sessions and granted their first interview in October 2006 for the widely syndicated American radio show Echoes, where they also played only their second live performance. Their tracks have also appeared on several compilations albums, and they have done a number of remixes for other artists.
Recording for their third album, A Lost Connection, began in 2007. Originally slated for release on All Saints, the band became victims of a label take over by Warner Bros and a number of contractual complications arose. Frustrated by the delays and now with apparently two full length albums recorded and awaiting release, Talbot and Crossley decided to take matters into their own hands and utilize web technology. In July 2008 they launched their digital label MU Transmissions which started to sell their music via their own website, with the first release being the long awaited A Lost Connection.
In 2009 the Marconi Union website released a new album, Tokyo on the German Binemusic label. According to press releases and reviews Tokyo was inspired by media images of the city.
In 2010 A Lost Connection was remastered and belatedly released on CD, and the band announced that Duncan Meadows had joined on a permanent basis having previously played with them at a number of live gigs.
In July 2011 a new album, Beautifully Falling Apart (Ambient Transmissions Vol:1) was released on Just Music.
Weightless was made available as a free download and quickly became a runaway success with 60,000 downloads in the first 36 hours.
Characteristically, MU declined almost all requests for interviews with the exception of a brief interview with Jarvis Cocker, during which they explicitly stated that they refused to make any claims about the so called therapeutic properties of the track, their interest in the project had been limited to the process of writing it in collaboration with the sound therapy professionals and they had set about making a piece of music they liked. They had taken no part in the testing, and that all the claims made about Weightless came from scientists and the media. Since then they have reverted to type and declined all further interview requests.
In November 2011, Marconi Union were featured in Time magazines' list of Inventors of the Year, for writing and recording Weightless.
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
, ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
.
History
Marconi Union formed in 2002 when Talbot and Crossley met while working in a record shop. Their self-produced debut album, Under Wires and Searchlights, appeared in 2003 on the small British independent label Ochre Records. The album was followed with a sustained period of silence only punctuated by a couple of remixes. They were then picked up in 2005 by All Saints RecordsAll Saints Records
All Saints Records is a British independent record label. It was established in 1991 by Dominic Norman-Taylor. They have published Ambient music from the likes of Brian Eno or Biosphere.-History:...
(a label strongly associated with electronic musician Brian Eno) releasing their second album, Distance, which featured a darker, more electronic sound.
The band played at the 2006 Big Chill Festival and Eden Sessions and granted their first interview in October 2006 for the widely syndicated American radio show Echoes, where they also played only their second live performance. Their tracks have also appeared on several compilations albums, and they have done a number of remixes for other artists.
Recording for their third album, A Lost Connection, began in 2007. Originally slated for release on All Saints, the band became victims of a label take over by Warner Bros and a number of contractual complications arose. Frustrated by the delays and now with apparently two full length albums recorded and awaiting release, Talbot and Crossley decided to take matters into their own hands and utilize web technology. In July 2008 they launched their digital label MU Transmissions which started to sell their music via their own website, with the first release being the long awaited A Lost Connection.
In 2009 the Marconi Union website released a new album, Tokyo on the German Binemusic label. According to press releases and reviews Tokyo was inspired by media images of the city.
In 2010 A Lost Connection was remastered and belatedly released on CD, and the band announced that Duncan Meadows had joined on a permanent basis having previously played with them at a number of live gigs.
In July 2011 a new album, Beautifully Falling Apart (Ambient Transmissions Vol:1) was released on Just Music.
Weightless
On October 16th 2011, Marconi Union created an eight minute track, 'Weightless' in collaboration with the British Academy of Sound Therapy. In a scientific study commisioned by Radox, it was labelled as the "most relaxing song ever". According to scientists at the renowned Mindlab institution it induced a 65 per cent reduction in overall anxiety and brought test subjects resting pulse rates to a level 35 per cent lower than their usual resting rates. The song features guitar, piano and manipulated field recordings. It is punctuated throughout by low tones that supposedly induce a trance-like state. This propelled the band into the media spotlight and news reports, and was reported in newspapers worldwide..Weightless was made available as a free download and quickly became a runaway success with 60,000 downloads in the first 36 hours.
Characteristically, MU declined almost all requests for interviews with the exception of a brief interview with Jarvis Cocker, during which they explicitly stated that they refused to make any claims about the so called therapeutic properties of the track, their interest in the project had been limited to the process of writing it in collaboration with the sound therapy professionals and they had set about making a piece of music they liked. They had taken no part in the testing, and that all the claims made about Weightless came from scientists and the media. Since then they have reverted to type and declined all further interview requests.
In November 2011, Marconi Union were featured in Time magazines' list of Inventors of the Year, for writing and recording Weightless.
Albums
- Under Wires and Searchlights (Ochre Records, 2003)
- Distance (All Saints RecordsAll Saints RecordsAll Saints Records is a British independent record label. It was established in 1991 by Dominic Norman-Taylor. They have published Ambient music from the likes of Brian Eno or Biosphere.-History:...
, 2005) - A Lost Connection (MU Transmissions, 2008)
- Tokyo (Binemusic, 2009)
- Beautifully Falling Apart (Ambient Transmissions Volume 1) (Just Music, 2011)