A Touch of Despair, by The Tapes

A Touch of Despair

by The Tapes

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Caesar What makes A Touch of Despair such an extraordinary experience is its ability to transform despair into art, to find beauty in the darkness of industrialisation and in the abyss of the human soul. It is a warning against the passing of time, a reminder of the passion, motivation and creativity that can flourish even in the most desolate places.
www.versacrum.com/vs/2024/03/the-tapes-a-touch-of-despair.html Favorite track: A Touch of Despair Part 2.

crazymaja If this beauty is what despair sounds like, I long to be touched by despair every single day.
This is a brilliant piece of music history, with all the magic of the origins though so modern. This music is eternal

Michael Borella The Tapes consisted of Giancarlo Drago. He recorded this album using low-end analog equipment including keyboards, an echo processor, and various toy instruments. His technique was to not edit out incidental sampling or environmental noises captured during recording. Voices, hums, squeaks, and thuds appear throughout and become important parts of the atmosphere.

avantmusicnews.com/2024/02/25/amn-reviews-the-tapes-a-touch-of-despair-1986-2024-unexplained-sounds-group/

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Unexplained Sounds collection of contemporary and avantgarde music projects by Unexplained Sounds Group.

It contains the following cds:

David Lee Myers, Sonologyst, Lars Bröndum - Unus et Trinus
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/unus-et-trinus

The Tapes - A Touch Of Despair
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/a-touch-of-despair

The Washing Planck - Integrale Sui Cammini
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/integrale-sui-cammini

Mario Lino Stancati - Revision
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/revision

Darja Kazimira & Zura Makharadze
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-an-obscure-matriarchal-tribe

Francisco López - Dynamo
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/dynamo

RhaD - Metamusic
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/metamusic

Cristiano Bocci - Beyond the dark zones
unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-dark-zones

Dl codes available on demand (info@unexplainedsounds.com)

Includes unlimited streaming of A Touch of Despair via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. ... more

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edition of 5

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Full Digital Discography

102

releases

Get all 102 Unexplained Sounds Group releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Anthology Of Contemporary Music From Far East, Unus et Trinus, A Touch of Despair, IDIL Music Award 2024, Unexplained Sounds Group - 9th Annual Report, Integrale Sui Cammini, Revision, Transcendent, and 94 more. , and , .

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1.	A Touch of Despair Part 1 22:22	buy track
2.	A Touch of Despair Part 2 23:19	buy track
3.	Entrance (intro) 01:42	buy track
4.	Entrance Part 1 08:23	buy track
5.	Entrance Part 2 09:30	buy track

about

The project "The Tapes" by Giancarlo Drago developed over a span of 10 years, between 1982 and 1992, before being revived in 2016 in Genoa, Italy. In 1982, Drago was 16 years old and recorded his first tape using toy instruments and creating loops with cassettes, influenced by industrial and new wave music. During that time, a friend gave him a self-built analogue echo unit that produced an incredible background noise, which would become a hallmark of many compositions, along with the radio that Drago constantly used as a sound source in the years to come. Later, Drago incorporated analogue instruments such as the Korg MS-20, the Roland SH-101, a Roland TR-707 drum machine, and the Casio SK-1, which introduced him to sampling (which he would extensively use in his future productions), along with a Tascam 4-track for recording.
Chance and error as a form of art are recurring themes in The Tapes' work. "The screeching of a car outside, my mother passing by, while I'm recording, and talking to me. I manipulate the sounds and keep everything." (author's quote)
The production of The Tapes during the 1980s was extensive, even though only a few things were actually published. One tape for Technological Feeling of F:A.R. in Savona, a tape for Minus Habens by Ivan Iusco, a track on the vinyl "Amen 8" by the Amen collective in Milan, and other tracks on compilations associated with fanzines of the time.

In the final years of the decade, Giancarlo's brother, Roberto, joined The Tapes project, merging his artistic identity with Giancarlo's. Compositions from 1989 onwards were recorded on an 8-track reel-to-reel recorder and using a "real" sampler. The best production from that period came together on the tape "Il tempio," revised and corrected over time, and reissued by Luce Sia in 2017 with the title "Time Out of Joint."
"A Touch of Despair" dates back to 1986. It was recorded live on a standard 2-track cassette recorder, using a 4-channel Fostex mixer, the infamous echo unit, a Korg MS-20, and toy instruments like a plastic trumpet. It is undoubtedly the darkest and most industrial work in The Tapes' production. The cover features a photo of what the musician saw from his bedroom window (where he recorded): the rooftops of industrial factories, with a distant steel mill emitting smoke. Immersed in the music and industrial culture of the time (Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, W.S. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, W. Gibson, B. Sterling, P.K. Dick), "A Touch of Despair" represents one of the brightest examples of the Italian "tape culture" of the 1980s, as well as a significant testament to creating music that defies the passage of time by experimenting with extremely limited technical means and relying on passion, motivation, and creativity. Reissued on CD in collaboration between the Unexplained Sounds Group and Luce Sia, with mastering by Raffaele Pezzella, the cd features three additional unreleased tracks from the same period when the tracks of "A Touch of Despair" were composed, providing valuable material for enthusiasts of the genre.
The two lengthy tracks of "A Touch of Despair" were recorded nearly forty years ago, yet they have a contemporary feeling as if they were produced yesterday. The music of The Tapes serves as an ideal soundtrack for my darkest and most solitary nocturnal reflections.
Raffaele Pezzella

credits

released February 1, 2024

REVIEWS

Avant Music News
avantmusicnews.com/2024/02/25/amn-reviews-the-tapes-a-touch-of-despair-1986-2024-unexplained-sounds-group/

Vitaly Weekly
The music uses a primitive setup of a four-channel mixer, a self-built analogue echo unit, a Korg MS20 and toy instruments, all going into a two-track tape. Perhaps a limited setup but with some excellent results, efficiently meeting with the best of that time. This could be an early example of what we later would call ambient industrial.
www.vitalweekly.net/number-1425

Luminous Dash
luminousdash.be/reviews/the-tapes-a-touch-of-despair-unexplained-sounds/

This is Darkness
A Touch of Despair was recorded in 1986, on a standard 2-track cassette recorder, using a 4-channel Fostex mixer (the infamous “echo unit”), a Korg MS-20, and toy instruments. The album has now been remastered and re-released, and is well worth checking out – the music may be almost 40 years old, but it sounds as fresh and exciting as anything being released today, with it’s analogue tones and strange other-worldliness creating a haunting listening experience that is deep and multi-layered and dream-like in nature. Absolutely stunning!

Ver Sacrum
www.versacrum.com/vs/2024/03/the-tapes-a-touch-of-despair.html

Published by ©Unexplained Sounds Group and Luce Sia
Curated by Raffaele Pezzella in collaboration with Sacha Rovelli e Giancarlo Drago
Cat. Num. USG093
Artwork by Maura Santini
Layout by Matteo Mariano
© 2024. All rights reserved

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Unexplained Sounds Group Italy

Global Network of Aural Disorientation curated by Raffaele Pezzella

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reversealignment.bandcamp.com

zerok.bandcamp.com

therecognitiontest.bandcamp.com

sonologyst.bandcamp.com

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