CURSE, the new record by Unknown Mortal Orchestra, is out today. Enjoy it, post it, share it
stream/buy CURSE here: unknownmortalorchestra.lnk.to/curse
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we're heading out on tour in north america this fall! tickets go on presale wednesday 6/18 at 11am CT, sign up to receive the presale code here: laylo.com/unknownmortalorchestra
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I studied fine art in college. Specifically, majoring in painting at Elam art school in New Zealand. My department was based in two dangerously dilapidated and leaky ancient colonial villas referred to euphemistically as “the mansions” (they were condemned and demolished a short time after I graduated). I spent hours there painting.The department had somewhat perversely used some of its annual budget to buy something called “The Painting Machine”. It became a big subject to those of us who acquired skills and were training to paint stuff. Was this machine going to make us obsolete? A lot of my work became a response to the anxiety of studying painting in a world where I thought a machine could just paint anything. I painted the same portrait or picture of a flower over and over to imitate the cold repetition of an automaton. One of my artist’s intent manifestos for school simply read “Ruban, you’re a machine”, which someone had said to me when they discovered I’d often stay all night in the mansions working.
Eventually the device arrived and was set up in part of the school. Not in the rickety old mansions with us mere mortals but in a newer, cleaner part of the school where the video art and more conceptual or “relevant” art was being made. Honestly, I was somewhat terrified. I went to watch one of the first paintings made by the machine. It whirred and whined in that way you expect a robot to whir and whine as it operated, and in a short amount of time it completed its artwork. Slowly I realized upon surveying the huge canvas that it was surprisingly lifeless and ugly. The way it applied and mixed paint revealed it for what it was: just a giant printer. Unable to say anything of interest other than what its human operator had to say. I realized then that an artist will always be safe from obsoletion. This was just an inert tool. This was just another machine.
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BOYS WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOLVES is out now. Link in bio for mailing list for news about everything coming up.The new project CURSE is out June 18th! listen/preorder here: unknownmortalorchestra.lnk.to/curse watch video on watch page
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The new album from UMO, "IC-02 Bogotá," is out now! unknownmortalorchestra.lnk.to/IC-02-Bogota watch video on watch page
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Our new album "IC-02 Bogotá" is out next friday and we can't wait for you all to hear it. Listen to the first track, "Earth 1," and watch the video made by Ruban himself: watch video on watch page
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The new album from UMO, "IC-02 Bogotá," is out 3 weeks from today, on March 28! Listen to the first single, 'Earth 1' now: watch video on watch page
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UMO is playing Mexico City on May 8th! tickets are on sale now at www.unknownmortalorchestra.com/tour
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The newest project from Unknown Mortal Orchestra: IC-02 Bogotá is coming March 28th. See the visualizer for “Earth 1” on YouTube now: https://youtu.be/Y4LCgqCH80w
The song features a beautiful electric piano solo by Christian Li. Also sign up for umo news (including more pre-release singles) by clicking the laylo link here: laylo.com/unknownmortalorchestra
The IC (Improvisation, Collaboration) series by Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a mostly instrumental series dedicated to live jamming and collaboration. Each record is taken from a series of jam sessions in a specific place the band chooses to travel to, where they jam as a band, with friends and with local musicians.
2018’s “IC-01 Hanoi” was the first of the series and for the sophomore entry to the series the band traveled to Bogotá, Colombia.
Unlike the normal UMO albums, the IC series put a premium on experimentation, spontaneity and improvisation over vocal-based songwriting and arrangement, and the results are headier and leave the pop genre altogether. In that sense, the IC series is seen as something for musicians and hardcore umoheads, but also for anyone curious to hear what happens when a band goes to a city they love and without words, records the experience of a certain place and time on their instruments. Pre-order the album now: unknownmortalorchestra.lnk.to/IC-02-Bogota
Credits for EARTH 1:
Ruban Nielson: Bass
Kody Nielson: Drums
Jake Portrait: Guitar
Chris Nielson: Horns, Juno
Christian Li: Keyboards (main solo)
Jose David Infante: Percussion
Engineered by: Jose David Infante
Mixed by Ruban Nielson
Recorded at Estudio Naranja, Bogota Colombia
Mastered by JJ at Golden Mastering
Album cover photo by Kody Nielson
Band photo by Juan Ortiz-Arenas
Video by Ruban Nielson
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link here for upcoming unknown mortal orchestra news: laylo.com/unknownmortalorchestra
new music very soon.
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The band Unknown Mortal Orchestra sometimes enjoys making purely instrumental music. In addition to the vocal-based records they’re more well-known for, they’ve also begun to make an instrumental series called the IC where they spend time in a chosen city and improvise and collaborate on non-vocal music. Recently the band spent time in Colombia to make music and initiate their new keyboard player Christian Li. The resulting sessions have become IC-02 Bogota, a musical document of the time they spent in that exciting city and the possible background music for some strange parties and night drives in your future.