Ultramarine / Live in Glasgow

with Failed System Test, Hanna Tuulikki and Tommy Perman
Saturday 24 September 2022 at The Glad Cafe, Glasgow G41 2HG

Blackford Hill and The Glad Cafe present a showcase of recent and future projects in an evening that includes a live performance from electronic duo Ultramarine.

Failed System Test will play a live supporting set while artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki and experimental music producer Tommy Perman will DJ throughout the night.

Tickets are available to purchase from The Glad Cafe’s website.

Ultramarine are the London & Essex-based electronic duo, Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond.

Formed in 1989, their early releases were issued on the seminal Brussels-based label Les Disques du Crépuscule. Their classic second album Every Man And Woman Is A Star (1991), was neatly described by Simon Reynolds in his book Energy Flash as:

'Perhaps the first and best stab at that seeming contradiction-in-terms, pastoral techno... all sun-ripened, meandering lassitude and undulant dub-sway tempos... like acid-house suffused with the folky-jazzy ambience of the Canterbury scene.'

The group's collaborative work has included partnerships with Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Anna Domino, Lol Coxhill & Iain Ballamy. Signals Into Space, the duo's acclaimed seventh album (Les Disques du Crepuscule, 2019), features songs written in collaboration with Anna Domino and contributions from saxophonist Iain Ballamy (ECM, Loose Tubes) and percussionist & vibraphone player Ric Elsworth. A companion ambient mini-album Meditations was released in November 2019. Early in 2023, Blackford Hill will release the duo’s latest development of the Blackwaterside project on 12” vinyl.

Live support will come from Failed System Test. Using saxophone, bass and electronics, Sonia Killmann and Aidan Lochrin create live ambient soundscapes. Most of the tunes are co-written and performed using improvisation.

Following the release of their first album System_Test.exe, Sonia and Aidan also released a second EP with the independent label Dead Hound Records. In March 2022, the duo created an audiovisual set for Cryptic's Sonica festival. The performance can be found on YouTube, Bandcamp and Spotify.

They have performed at various Glasgow venues, such as the Old Hairdressers and can be heard on independent Scottish radio stations, such as Clydebuilt Radio.

Artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki and experimental music producer Tommy Perman will DJ throughout the night.

Hanna and Tommy’s recent Echo in the Dark EP forms part of their forthcoming touring outdoor bat rave inspired by and featuring bat echolocation sounds collected with communities in Arbroath, Angus, and across the UK. Find out more