Stellan Veloce

HEX 006 - 08/04/2022

Stellan Veloce’s first record for Hyperdelia is not only their debut album but simultaneously the inception of a band: Stellan Veloce’s Complesso Spettro. At Veloce’s disposal, the players have turned into a Frankensteinian super group: with Andreas Dzialocha (Slip, Serenus Zeitblom Oktett) on electric bass, Bridget Ferrill (Real Surreal) doing electronics & processing, Julia Reidy (Editions Mego, Black Truffle) on guitars, Marta Tiesenga (Wild Up, Wendy Eisenberg) on baritone sax, Earl Harvin (My Brightest Diamond, Tindersticks) and Jesse Quebbeman-Turley (Similar Fashion, Eyvind Kang) on drums, Elena Kakaliagou (Zinc & Copper, Zeitkratzer) playing horn, Carlo Spiga aka Makika at the launeddas, Pierpaolo Lorenzo playing harmonium and Stellan Veloce (Dear Reader, Peaches) on cello.

The A-side (‘Brackish’), initially recorded live at Robbie Moore’s Impression Studio, is the result of hours of improvisations loosely based on Veloce’s graphic scores. In the hands of the composer, the recording material soon turned into an abstracted collage. Despite the asynchronous addition of further drums and saxophone, the piece remains the outcome of a noisy live band due to the heavy leakage on the different takes and spatial distancing effects inherent in the recordings. The B-Side (‘Briny’) responds to the staggering layers of space and time. ‘Briny’ is a drone piece that emerges from the interplay of cello, bass and horn and acts as a Romanticist counterpart to ‘Brackish’ while the addition of launeddas – a Sardinian woodwind instrument –, harmonium and electronics returns it to rougher timbral territories.

Stellan Veloce’s Complesso Spettro is an exceptional music that combines the power of band playing with Veloce’s sense for deconstruction and rearranging. The record takes its cues equally from Talk Talk’s meticulous recording and editing processes, the grand narratives of Nate Wooley’s Seven Storey Mountain, Animal Collective’s textured noise or the free-wheeling play of Zeena Parkins. The album is the work of a shoegaze ensemble that is indebted to Italian prog rock and Free Jazz as much as to pastoral post rock and spectral composition.

Bio

Stellan Veloce is a Sardinian composer, performer and cellist living and working in Berlin. They compose pieces for acoustic instrumental ensembles and develop installations and performance pieces focusing on timbre, repetition and sound densities. Veloce also works as a touring band member and studio musician, recently with Peaches, Kat Frankie, Dear Reader, Kenichi & The Sun. They have collaborated with composers Marta Forsberg and Neo Hülcker, choreographer Sheena McGrandles and others. They are co-founder of the collective and online platform Y-E-S.org and are part of the group Fem*_Music*_.

Veloce‘s work has been performed amongst others at Rainy Days Festival (LU), Kölner Philharmonie (DE), London Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Signal Festival (IT), Neue Musik Festival Rümlingen (CH), Dark Music Days and Cycle Festival (IS), CTM Festival (DE), Sound Acts (GR), Inact Festival (FR), BAM! Festival Berlin (DE), HAU Berlin (DE), Münchener Kammerspiele (DE), Ufer Studios Berlin (DE), The Place (UK), Akademie der Künste Berlin (DE).

Tracklist

• 18:36 - Brackish
• 16:10 - Briny

Media

• 200 x 140g, 12” vinyl, 33 ⅓ rpm (via R.A.N.D. Muzik)
• download (mp3/wav) and online streaming

Release Concert

8th April 2022 @ KM28, Berlin

Credits

Composition, editing, production by Stellan Veloce

Stellan Veloce - cello, additional bass (A, B)
Andreas Dzialocha - electric bass (A, B)
Bridget Ferrill - electronics, processing (A, B)
Julia Reidy - guitars (A)
Marta Tiesenga - baritone sax (A)
Earl Harvin - drums (A)
Jesse Quebbeman-Turley - drums (A)
Elena Kakaliagou - horn (B)
Carlo Spiga aka Makika - launeddas (B)
Pierpaolo “the coach” Lorenzo - harmonium (B)

Recorded by Robbie Moore, Stellan Veloce, Andreas Dzialocha and Ole Jana in Berlin; and by Marta Tiesenga and Jesse Quebbeman-Turley in Los Angeles. Mixed by Robbie Moore at Impression Studio, Berlin. Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering, Bonn. Artwork by Ale Rodriguez, Design by Xerox Martins.

Space