Ure Thrall aka U-R-I has been molding sonic constructions since 1985 and before with the intent of creating sounds he envisioned but had not yet heard produced elsewhere. Throughout the years he has collaborated with a scintillating array of talented experimental musicians ranging from VOICE OF EYE to TROUM. He curates the self-created labels DISCORPOREALITY RECORDINGS and AUDIO ODDITIONS and releases collaborative works under the group names ASIANOVA, SMOOTH QUALITY EXCREMENT, CRUOR, DARMSTADT PHARMACY and SILVA MIND KONTROL among others. Most recently he has completed a seven inch LP put out by Drone records (limited to 260 copies and sold out in 2 months!) as well as a CD entitled ALIEN SOUNDTRACKS FROM THE HUMAN BODY.
'Genius sad deep & ethno ambient from this ex VOICE OF EYE / ASIA NOVA member, soon on Drone Records with an EP !!!' (coming in December 2002)
['The Bone Tree Soundtracks' review from The Drone Records Newslist]
'The loneliest sound in the universe'
[Anonymous]
'This CD screams. Screams with vitality, vibrance and most importantly, screams with life. It screams at having lived this day, and the prospect of living another. It screams with a white-hot flash of passion at the blinding luminescence of the Sun. This disc sparkles like broken glass on a city street. It feels like stepping on the broken glass, not because of the pain, but the raw burst of sensation. This sort of music validates what I do. This is not the music of the past or the future. This is music without memory. It exists on a separate level than we do.'
['Forbidden Fruit' review by Nirav Soni from Ink19]
'We experience moments of chaos and moments of beauty. Mostly drifting through its colossal length, with crackles of surface texture. This is really music for shutting your eyes - one of those live events where everyone sits around zonked out. Bass heavy to shake you from your sleep, and swallow you whole. The twinkle of stars looking on, untouched by the drones and motions with which we content ourselves.'
['Forbidden Fruit' review from Remote Induction]
'Liquidous yet shimmering and fractured multi layered tones rendering themselves void of any recognition to the original sound source due to massive amount of pre and post production undertaken. Much as in a relay, segments arise, surge forward then interlink with the next section with the former slowly receding, creating a seamless flowing voyage, navigating a myriad of peaks and troughs in the sonic ocean. Rather than utilising mostly subliminal or minimalist drone elements, this is much more dynamic, creating a quite playful take on what some may have considered a genre that contains certain limitations. This is highly recommended for any drone' fan, and is still awash in brooding sentiment to entice fans of darker groups like Yen Pox.'
['Forbidden Fruit' review from Spectrum Magazine]
'Next All-Hollows eve I think I'll put them on instead of that monster tape, heh. Ure Thrall & the Fruitless Hand seem to represent the coaxing of their stress and pain in their music. A must have for ambient music lovers anywhere'
[Writer unknown]
My alter-ego 'Ure Thrall' was manifested through a traumatic incident that occurred while I was cleaning the women's bathroom at my workplace. This somehow triggered into existence the personality and outlook of Ure Thrall which revolved around the notion that all forms of creative expression are simply shades of human excrement rudely dousing the planet with poorly conceived / executed works of music and art. Appropriately, ‘Ure’ and I then joined this foray, flaggelating ourselves tirelesly in the making of 'industrial noize' beginning in 1985.
After putting out a seemingly endless stream of severely limited cassette releases with titles like 'It’s All Yer’ In' and 'Thrall My Children', making random noise was simply not satisfying my craving for creating music with real substance. After many years of solo experimentations / improvisations I began working with Jim Wilson and Bonnie McNairn (See ASIANOVA page) and found that I wanted to enlarge upon some of the techniques previously applied in our work as Asianova. Basically after all these years of creating accidental musical constructs I wanted to COMPOSE.
This didn't mean I wanted to abandon my experimental roots, but rather assimilate them into a new vision that would first took shape in my collaboration with THE FRUITLESS HAND (a.k.a. J Greco) in 1996. A sheer battle of wills this project was, resulting in a maelstrom of beauty and madness as evidenced on our first release URE THRALL AND THE FRUITLESS HAND "Forbidden Fruit" on J’s label HYDRYX DELUSIONS. This project was a comprised of 2 tracks recorded live in our home studio preceded by a 30 minute masterpiece of multitracked collage work carefully assembled by the Fruitless Hand from various pieces we’d recorded throughout this period, including one live performance piece and the first track ever recorded with Paul Locasta of our Smooth Quality Excrement collaborations. It was the most meticulous and demanding work I’d been involved with up to that point, and the end result was well worth the effort.
Eventually this new approach demanded a new persona and so 'U-R-I' manifested at the suggestion of my new partner Kaosmikitty after I’d decided to discard the Ure Thrall persona in the search for something a bit more positive (and less childish) in the way of an alter-ego. Kitty had arranged for my first trip to Burning Man in 1998 and soon got me involved in a dream collaboration with her for a return to the festival in 1999. My first paid work as a soundtrack artist and my most grandiose collaborative project to date, 'the Bone Tree Soundtracks' was culled from 200 minutes of effluvial sonic darkness composed for the almighty BONE TREE installation, a 30 foot tall mobile tree installation composed entirely of bones created by Dana Albany. The elemental / astrological Butoh performance that Kaosmikitty choreographed for the piece was integrated specifically with the soundtrack on many levels, all of them magickal in origin and intent. The performance continued from dusk until dawn and was repeated at the 2001 festival (perhaps instigating the numerous dust devils that arose magickally from the Man as it burned that year!) There will be a second volume to the Bone Tree soundtracks, hopefully in 2003, seeing how there are still at least 5 pieces that merit releasing in my opinion.
Also be sure to look for the U-R-I seven inch EP to be released on DRONE records out of Germany in December of 2002. The A side ('premonition 9 / 11') is meant as a soundtrack to the infamous events of 9 / 11 as seen from the eyes of the terrorists and their victims simultaneously and incorporates the actual sound of the twin towers collapsing into the piece. This is meant to be a statement made on the endlessly futile pattern of constantly repeated aggression and violence still seen throughout the world. The follow-up to this 7' will be a CD release called 'ARABIAN KNIGHTMARES' on which I am currently working. The title speaks for itself. All this from such a happy-go-lucky fellow!
Ure Thrall CASSETTE RELEASES:
Ut-A: It’s All yer’ in (1985)
Ut-B: Ghost Light Pen / Mysterious Deafenings (1986)
Ut-C: Turnbull Slog (1987)
Ut-D: Sinistarecase (1988)
Ut-E: Holy Violence (1989)
Discorporeality # 3 Technological Abyss
Discorporeality # 13 Robotic Warchants of 2084
Discorporeality # 20 The Ure Thrall Experience
Discorporeality # 28 Ure Thrall and the Fruitless Hand "At The Buzzer" (documents live performances from 1996)
Discorporeality # 17 (as SHAUERROMAN) Shauerroman
ALSO Released in 1985 were two tapes called "THRALL MY CHILDREN" (live improv with kiddies!) and "WOMAN HOOD". Even I don't have copies of these anymore! Help!
Rarely at present, though I've often enjoyed it in the past. I do have a show scheduled in the San francisco Bay area in September of 2003.
I was crucified on stage once while moaning into a microphone to celebrate the demise of one collaboration and that was kinda fun...
Lustmord, Voice of Eye, Troum, Current 93
My Brain
See my website http://www.radiantslab.com/asianova/
for more current info
and other Mp3 sites for Asianova, silva Mind kontrol, Cruor, Smooth quality Excrement here on Soundclick!