Joel Gilardini
Joel Gilardini: Tales of Forsakenness
A while after my first release «Against Heatwaves» (www.shopendtitles.bandcamp.com/album/against-heatwaves) and the first EndTitles.Kitchen.Lab concert in 2018 at Miyuko (www.endtitles.ch/kitchen-lab), I started to wonder how to continue on the path that opened before me musically.
The process did not begin with a specific musical idea. My mind was focused on the concept of creating a soundtrack for abandoned places. I do not recall when this fascination began, but I always found deserted locations a source of ingenious inspiration. Decadent buildings in the middle of a forest or an old hut on top of a mountain, falling apart, being forgotten by humanity and reclaimed by nature. Also blogs like «artificial owl» (www.artificialowl.net) took me on a virtual journey to many such abandoned places all around the globe.
These forsaken locations develop a special aura, depth and feelings, which only come to life as humans leave. The desolation and change found in these places are what amaze and inspire me the most. With these ideas and pictures in mind I started to work on the album during the summer of 2019. I mostly recorded improvised sessions in my studio, which I cut and edited to what are now the finished pieces.
In addition to my NUDE baritone guitar I have also used different electronics, a touch that gave my sounds an even more haunted ether.
The chosen tracks were mastered at his Transmutation studio in London by Eraldo Bernocchi, who I’d like to thank very much.
Thanks to: Anto, Dominik (EndTitles), Eraldo, Attila, Gabo (Nude Guitars), Nicola (Exagonal Rooms), Nik & Ronin, Exil crew and friends.
Reviews:
Vital Weekly
JOEL GILARDINI – TALES OF FORSAKENNESS (CDR by EndTitles)
While I had some hesitation to Google ‚Baritone Nude Guitars‘, it turns to be safe for work; it’s a brand of handmade guitars. Joel Gilardini plays one, along with something that is only labelled as „Digitakt, Insect N#1“, which is, apparently, a drum machine and some sort of sound effects. The first time I came across the name Gilardini was when I reviewed the release by Mulo Moto & Meanwhile.In.Texas & Skag Arcade (Vital Weekly 1217); he is one half of Mulo Moto. This is a solo release from him, and we should see it as a soundtrack for abandoned places. There is no drum machine in any of the eight pieces on this release, but maybe he has treated to it such an extent that we no longer recognize it. You could say something about the guitar sound here. There is very little traditional guitar playing on this release; sometimes, though, one recognizes the
guitar, being all crumbled and distorted, such as in ‚Duga-3‘. Using his guitar, drum machines and effects, Gilardini creates mostly a massive drone-scape; a rich sound, going from the lower depths to the high mountain top. His pieces are somewhere between three and nine minutes. The shortest, ‚Concrete Ghosts‘ Mausoleum‘ is the oddball in this collection, and as far as I am concerned it could have been left out. It’s broken up collage-style sound is perhaps the drum machine taking a turn, but for me, it breaks the atmospheric modes I got into in the first four pieces. It is not necessarily a quiet album, as Gilardini plays his stuff with vigour and strength. That is another thing that made me enjoy this quite a bit, the heavy force that came from the music. I am not the sort of person to say if this is indeed music for abandoned places, but sure, I can see some desolation here. Great one!
(FdW)
SoWhat: Una scia vitale che lenta e satura emerge da organismi in degrado, inquieto soffio che racconta di una fine apparente che diviene nuovo inizio. Temporaneamente affrancato dal sodalizio che lo lega ad Attila Folklor con cui condivide il marchio Mulo Muto, Joel Gilardini disegna una personale traiettoria sonica nutrita dalla fascinazione per i luoghi dell’abbandono, per gli edifici decadenti incontrati in territori impervi ed affascinanti. Tramutando l’anima di questi luoghi in puro suono, il musicista svizzero dà forma ad un tortuoso percorso attraverso densi paesaggi emozionali modellati con il solo ausilio delle frequenze, ampiamente trasfigurate, della sua fedele chitarra baritona e differenti interpolazioni elettroniche. Frutto di svariate sessioni di improvvisazione le cui registrazioni sono state rimodulate fino ad assumere forma definita, le tracce di questo atmosferico viaggio sono nebbiose istantanee che si espandono fluide e flessuose, gravide di oscuro fascino. Dall’algida sospensione di “Stranded Giants” e “At The Edge of The Desert (A Frozen Cathedral)” fino alla ruvida malinconia di “Majestic Solitude”, passando per ambienti minacciosamente incantati (“Artificial Owls”) e nervosi intermezzi (“Concrete Ghosts_ Mausoleum”), quel che appare è un tracciato ambientale pervaso da indissolubile tensione, sospeso sotto una spessa coltre di un incombente cielo grigio antracite.
Mulo Muto, meanwhile.in.texas, Skag Arcade: ENDURANCE
„Endurance“ is the result of the collaboration between Mulo Muto (Joel Gilardini & Attila, 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 Artic 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.
Meeting the artist. An Interview.
ET: What is your new album «Endurance» about? What was your instrumental approach for the album?
Joel: Back then Attila and I met several times to rehearse and improvise new material, and while recording one of these sessions, we came up with the material which became our track “Tales Of A Lonely Icebreaker Dreaming Of Steam Engine And Enduring Frost”. It was recorded in one take, no additional editing nor further overdubs were done. That’s our modus operandi as Mulo Muto; we relate a lot on feeling and how well we know each other. After so many years of playing together, as soon as somebody plays something different you feel it and the music automatically grows/collapses in another direction. For “Endurance” on the other hand, we exchanged stem files via internet and everybody (due also to the distance) recorded his parts in their own home-studios. As instruments I used baritone 7 strings guitar, Dronin, drone-noise synth, effect pedals and looper.
Attila: Joel already explained the working flow applied on these recordings. As for instrumentation or performance approach, I breathed and whistled into a box with a piezo, I used another box with nails and coins inside and a spring attached outside, effects pedals, Volca Keys and worked a lot on handling feedbacks.
Angelo: Mainly guitar improvisation and sound design. For this record, I also played toy keyboards, DIY square & wave synths and used several field recordings.
Paolo: As already mentioned in the press release, the concept of the album revolves about those audacious and somehow almost mystic Antarctic expeditions that were conducted (sometimes destined to a tragic fate) by a bunch of very brave and fearless men at the beginning of the last Century. Our goal was to basically create a sonic/musical accompaniment for those solitary, scaring, and sometimes doomed extreme epic trips. For what concerns my instrumental (if I can call it so) approach, I’ve been lead as usual by a very empirical and concrete one, based almost to a manic extent on the random and chaotic repetition of small sonic experiments (implementing mostly sampling, cut-up and acousmatic techniques). Thus, I’ve been assembling a big range of random, and sometimes very diversified source-wise, sonic inputs (noises, glitches, samples, found objects, field recordings) and then have intervened on them with a massive manipulation & programming process (using mostly programs as Reaper, Audacity, and on a smaller scale Ableton). I’ve therefore blended them with other sonic sources (which may be other samples/drones/loops or fragments of synths, guitars, found percussions), trying to come out with something completely different, and if possible even transfigured, out of them. I’ve then tried to recombine them so to create something totally new and unheard before, as to give life to another, hybrid and mysterious creature. Eventually, the final step was to make sense out of all that chaotic, beautiful mess (including the inputs & proposals of the other three thinking/creative heads responsible of this output) with what I like to call a process of digital treatment and synthesis.
ET: Tell us more about your work? How or/and where did you guys met?
Attila: 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 Antarctic expeditions of Sir 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.
ET: What are your main music related influences?
Angelo: Influenced by ambient, post-rock and drone music, I really love psychedelic music (especially Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd) and experimental/electronic music projects as Labradford, Pan American, Loscil, Fennesz, Deru, Brian Eno, Machinefabriek, Ben Frost, Phill Niblock and Tim Hecker. Other great sources of inspiration, even though it may seem surprising considering my musical sound, are Sonic Youth, at the drive-in, Fugazi, The Mars Volta, Einstürzende Neubauten, Marcus Fischer, Jackie O’Motherfucker and many others.
Joel: I listen to a broad array of music genres. Ambient-drone, post-rock, noise-industrial, metal (with special attention for the more doomed, blacked and grinded variants), jazz, electronic, dub, Japanese hiphop, Tibetan monks, etc… maybe the only kind of music I was never really into is classical music. If I have to name few artist I love and influenced me in a way then you’ll find Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Killing Joke, David Sylvian/Japan, David Bowie, Deftones, Sepultura/Soulfly, Isis, Crisis, Ephel Duath, Bill Laswell, Sigillum S, KK Null, Chihei Hakateyama, and many many more.
Attila: I come from extreme metal and hardcore punk. In fact, my main band plays grindcore. I started getting interested in other sounds and sources after reaching the extreme. Thanks to the activities of grindcore pioneers like Justin Broadrick, Mick Harris et al., I was able to first get accustomed to records by Godflesh, Scorn, Final, etc., and, secondly, to see and build links with industrial and experimental music in general. Meanwhile, listening to noisecore already put me on the path of harsh noise and power electronics. Thereafter, it was like putting a big messy puzzle together. Beside the already mentioned people and keeping it as short as possible, I must add to the list Messiah (Swiss thrash death metal band that taught me how to approach music playing), Cripple Bastards (infinite source of inspiration and honesty), Sigillum S (perfection and evolution combined), Bloodyminded (intensity!), Tangerine Dream (cosmic and infinite). I could go on and on but I may break the internet…
Paolo: Throughout the years I’ve developed a super eclectic, almost schizophrenic music taste and my interests have been directed towards a wide, almost infinite, range of music genres and stylistic influences, from Jazz to Black Metal, from Experimental/Avantgarde to Folk & Country & Americana in general, from Power Electronics and Noise to Black Music as a unicum (Blues, Jazz, Soul, Funk, R&B, Detroit Techno). During my formative teen-age years, though, I was heavily immersed in the Heavy metal and Rock realms: from Extreme Metal iconic acts (Death, Napalm Death, Celtic Frost, Venom, Slayer, Carcass, Mayhem, Brutal Truth, Sepultura, Pantera, Fear Factory) to the shocking revolution of UK Punk (Crass, Discharge, Damned), so to arrive to the American Hardcore exacerbate forms (Germs, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Negative Approach) and then to the consequent, apical post-hardcore foundations set by unforgettable acts as Husker Du, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Fugazi, Rites Of Spring, Bitch Magnet, Bastro, Lungfish. All the post-punk/wave epopea also incredibly impacted on my Music persona: from the angel dust of Joy Division, The Sound and Talk Talk (a full, separate essay should be made on them) to the punker-than-punk and free-form genius of bands like This Heat, The Fall, The The, Pere Ubu, P.I.L.,Wire, arriving to the new wavey/bluesy post-punk of Gun Club, X, Cramps, Flesh Eaters, which opened to me a whole door into the world of Americana/Roots Music, Alt-Country (Lambchop, Bonnie Prince Billy, Vic Chesnutt, Songs:Ohia, Smog, American Music Club, Wilco) and American Classics and Legends (Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt, Fred Neil, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin, ). Last but not least, some of my first loves ever, aka the Grunge-era (or slightly before) Seattle bands (Wipers, Alice In Chains, Truly, Nirvana, Soundgarden), and the brilliant crossover creativity and freaky genius of Faith No More (my first “favorite band” among all), Primus & Suicidal Tendencies. At last, a special mention for the revolutionary perpetrators of what somebody called the funeral of the rock body, who made possible its transition to other forms and worlds, very special acts to me that go under the names of Slint, The For carnation, Squirrel Bait, Codeine, June of 44, Rodan.
ET: Where do you get your equipment from? DIY?
Angelo: My main sound source is the electric guitar. In the last few years I bought a FM synth, a monophonic synth, a 4-track cassette recorder, a digital recorder and various midi controllers. I build by myself all the rest of my instrumentation: effects pedals, drone machines, spring boxes, contact mics, hydrophones, small synths.
Joel: Like Angelo my main source is a guitar, and then I also use different machineries and synths, depending on the mood/context I play. I used to DIY pedals when I was a student and on a budget, which was cool because I learned a lot about how pedals work and are built. Nowadays when I search/need something, I first take a look on the second hand market. You can find a lot of cool stuff in mint conditions, usually at reasonable prices. For example, I love these old Boss overdrive/distortion boxes, second hand are quite cheap to find, built like tanks and easy to modify, so that I can get the tone I want out of these.
Attila: I get my equipment from wherever I can whenever I can according to needs (less is always more!) and money. Beside small synths like the Volca Keys and the Monotron (later modded by Joel) bought new from Promusig in Zurich (still remember that), I got all my equipment second-hand. Some of my stuff was bought from Joel, otherwise I’ve been using mouth-to-mouth, Ricardo, and tutti.ch. For cables and other utilities I buy from Thomann (in case of big purchases), Swiss websites or local shops. I also got some stuff built by Joel and Angelo.
ET: Best loved hardware vs. Best loved software?
Angelo: Hardware: electric guitars (Fender Telecaster Made in Mexico, Squier Vintage Modified Mustang), Korg Volca FM, Arturia Microbrute, Fostex X-26, Alesis Nanoverb, Boss Rc-20 Loop Station, Electro Harmonix Freeze. Software: Ableton Live.
Joel: Software-wise I only use ProTools for mere recording and editing purposes, I was always an hardware guy. My gears of choice are baritone Nude Guitars, Elektron Digitakt and Digitone synths, various drone-noise synths (Exagonal Rooms, JMT Synth, Martin Howse), Massimo Olla’s Dronins, and many effects pedals and looping stations (AMT, Strymon, Boss, Meris, Zoom, Digitech/DOD, EHX, Earthbound Audio, Pigtronix, MASF and Bananana).
Attila: I love all my hardware because I try to keep the essentials only. When it comes to synths, I love my Arturia Minibrute 2S as well as my Microbrute (huge tractors!!), but I also love the simplicity of the Volca Keys that combined with effects can still amaze me even after years of extended (ab)use. Same story for the simple yet amazing Minimal Drone by Michael Rucci. As for pedals I love the Death Metal distortion for its extremity and high gain output, the Line 6 Echo Park for creamy delays (probably one of the heaviest pedals out there; it’s built like a tank) and the Zoom MS70 CDR for its versatility, quality and affordability. I also love my Portastudio 424 for recording (used a lot also for grindcore and black metal recordings) and tape loops live playing. The Zoom H2n should also be mentioned: easy to use, great quality, affordable. I’d like to upgrade but there is no real need as for now. Software is a tool for recording, mixing and mastering and does not represent a creative outlet; it’s just a set of tools that mimic hardware too expensive to buy and maintain and/or too big to store in a home environment. I use Logic Pro for recording and editing since forever and Ozone for mastering.
Paolo: Hardware = old and ran down electric guitars, Piezo and contact Microphones, Arturia Microbrute, MicroKorg, Korg Volca Beats & Synthesizer, Critter & Guitari Septavox, Critter & Guitari Organelle Sampler. Software = Reaper, Audacity, Ableton Live.
ET: Thank you guys! Cheers!
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)
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.
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)
Joel Gilardini: AGAINST HEATWAVES
Joel Gilardini is an experimental guitarist and sound designer, based in Zurich. Being a self-tough guitarist, and driven by the urge and the will to experiment with sounds, Joel followed a very peculiar path which lead him over a broad range of sound fields, touching different musical attitudes and genres like metal, ambient, doom, dub, and noise. By using live‐looping, improvisation and instant composition techniques, Joel creates a very unique biosphere, where these elements are constantly blended together, giving birth and shape to continuously morphing soundscapes and moods.
Meeting the artist. An Interview.
EndTitles met the artist for a quick chat and a cup of coffee at Café Miyuko in Zurich.
ET: Joel, you are dedicated to Baritone guitars. Why Baritone?
JG: My musical backgrounds and first influences are to find in ‘90s crossover and new metal, so I started quite early to downtune my guitars. Eventually I would switch to a 7 string guitar and after that I went for the Baritone.
I like these kind of guitars for many aspects: They have a longer neck scale, which is better suited for lower tunings (I mostly play tuned in standard B, a 4th lower than a normal guitar), their sounds, and actually I use baritones to play every kind of music, I find them to be very versatile.
ET: What is your new album «AGAINST HEATWAVES» about? What was your instrumental approach for the album?
JG: May I switch the questions first? The recordings for the album were collected between July and August 2018 at my home studio. I play every Monday at Exil in Zürich, as a support for Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, but I always find that these live ambient sets (which are always improvised on the spot) are also shaped by the audience, the place and the band I’m supporting during the evening. When I play alone at home, isolated from everything and everybody, the results go very often in different directions, I would say with a more intimate aura. Up to then I’ve never really recorded any of these house sessions. So I started to record these improvisations as often as possible, and at some point I came up with the ones which compose the album.
«Against Heatwaves» was recorded in the warmest summer time, and when I listened back to these sessions I felt like being on a glacier, between ice banks and cold winds. Hence the album title and the decision to name the songs after Swiss glaciers.
ET: Tell us more about your cooperation with Nik Bartsch and your last show in California?
JG: I first started to go to Nik Bärtsch’s concerts as a normal guest. Slowly I got to know the band and Bernhard Wagner, who was playing the live ambient guitar sets during the breaks back then. Thanks to him I got more into using live-looping techniques, and at some point I was asked to replace him for a few Mondays six years ago. I really enjoyed playing there a lot, and after arranging things with Nik and Bernhard, I started to perform on a regular basis there as well. Since 2 years I’m playing there every Monday, as Bernhard left to follow other paths.
My last shows in California were performed during the Y2K18 International Live Looping Festival (in San Jose and Santa Cruz) together with around 40 other performers (16 of whom come from all over the world). I’ve already played at live-looping festivals in Paris and Zurich in the past few years, and finally this year I managed to be there in California, which is the biggest festival of this kind worldwide.
ET: Best loved hardware vs. Best loved software?
JG: The only software I can list is ProTools, which I use to record, edit and mix my music. I never went for the computer to create my sounds, although I find today there are a lot of great softwares and plugins around: I’m an hardware guy. I need to have knobs and switches under my fingers.
Hardware-wise I could list a few things: MASF Pedals (I love their fuzzes, which can be quite musical and also super noisy at the same time), Zoom Multistomp pedals (which I commonly use for my reverbs), the Strymon Timeline delay and the Digitech Drop Octaver.
ET: Thank you, Joel. Cheers.
Joel Gilardini is an experimental guitarist and sound designer, based in Zurich (Switzerland). Being a self-tough guitarist, and driven by the urge and the will to experiment with sounds, Joel followed a very peculiar path which lead him over a broad range of soundfields, touching different musical attitudes and genres like metal, ambient, doom, dub, and noise.
By using live‐looping, improvisation and instant composition techniques, Joel creates a very unique biosphere, where these elements are constantly blended together, giving birth and shape to continuously morphing soundscapes and moods.
Involved in various projects, he is well known for his live-ambient-guitar sets as an opening act for Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin (ECM) in Zurich’s clubs, as well as being the mastermind behind the experimental-doom-metal act The Land Of The Snow and part of the noise-industrial duo Mulo Muto (together with Attila Folklor, from grind-punkers Insomnia Isterica).
He has worked and collaborated with names in the like of She Retina Stimulants, Aborym, Mingle, Nicolas Stocker, Eraldo Bernocchi, Jacopo Pierazzuoli, Ballett Zurich, dancer Benoît Favre, and the collective House Of Pain.