Marc Urselli (electronics)
Nicola "the Old Nick" Curri (vocals)
Influences
Die Krupps, Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, Sepultura, Faith No More, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, Fear Factory, My Dying Bride, Sisters of Mercy, Skinny Puppy, Pink Floyd, Legendary Pink Dots, Current 93, Psychic TV, Das Ich, Einsturzende Neubauten, Sigillum S, Christian Death and various post black-metal bands.
Sounds Like
Die Krupps, Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, Sepultura, Faith No More, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, Fear Factory, My Dying Bride, Sisters of Mercy, Skinny Puppy, Pink Floyd, Legendary Pink Dots, Current 93, Psychic TV, Das Ich, Einsturzende Neubauten, Sigillum S, Christian Death and various post black-metal bands.
The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab are the 'then' brainchild of the 'now' 3-time Grammy award winning engineer / producer / soun designer / mixer / composer Marc Urselli. The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab was loosely established in Italy, sometimes in the early nineties, but their debut CD sees the light a full 10 years later, thanks to modern technology and the collaboration between the now US-based artist and the Canadian-based record label D-Trash records.
Growing up in Southern Italy in the early nineties, Marc Urselli started in his early teens to experiment with synthesizers, sequencers, samplers, midi while listening to ebm, industrial, ambient, goth, dark as well as rock, metal (death, black, prog, heavy, doom), hard core and everything in between.
Soon thereafter he started writing tracks inspired by everything he was listening to and begun to seek collaborating with some of the rare like-minded individuals of the extremely close-minded surroundings of his upbringings.
One such individual was Nicola “the Old Nick” Curri, metal critic (Metal Destruction magazine) and singer of the famed black metal band Funeral Oration (with whom Marc Urselli also played for a period of time) who added his unique signature style singing/screaming/whispering to the songs.
Throughout the years other members such as bass player “Malfeitor Fabban” (from the bands Aborym and Funeral Oration, and also metal critic for Flash magazine) and dark critic Dario “Lo Snorkio” Campeggio did stints in the M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab line-up (especially during the touring period), but eventually Marc Urselli and Nicola Curri did all the recording.
The name “The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab” is an acronym for “The Modern Expressing Machines Of Revolutionary Youth Laboratory” and summarizes the philosophy of the group.
Between 1994 and 1999 the M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab have recorded several songs to analog tape, contributed tracks to 7 compilations and released one super-limited-edition cassette demo in 1996 but were never able to properly release the songs they were recording as one full-length CD album. The band also played a large number of shows in all of the surrounding area as a duo and as a trio with “Fabban”.
The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab unofficially but effectively disbanded in 1999, when Marc Urselli moved to New York to pursue a successful career as an engineer/producer while Nicola Curri went on to become a prestigious frescos-restorer, stage set designer and artist.
In 2008 Marc Urselli randomly stumbled upon and recovered the original records by The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab from a dusty Italian basement and decided to digitally re-master them in a state of the art recording facility in New York City.
Canadian D-Trash records pretty much immediately decided to release and promote this exclusive collection of material from the The M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab's catalogue.
Influences of the two musicians at the time include: Die Krupps, Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, Sepultura, Faith No More, Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, Fear Factory, My Dying Bride, Sisters of Mercy, Skinny Puppy, Pink Floyd, Legendary Pink Dots, Current 93, Psychic TV, Das Ich, Einsturzende Neubauten, Sigillum S, Christian Death and various post black-metal bands.
10 years after they were originally recorded and for the first time on one CD, these songs can take on a new life and be experienced by everyone with the full sonic impact and depth originally intended.
The CD features all original songs ever recorded by the band. The only other recordings by the band to ever exist (which are not included in this CD) are a M.E.M.OR.Y. Lab remix of a song by a local band called Lily of the Valley and a Joy Division cover that to this day could never be located.
Today Marc Urselli is based in New York and enjoys a successful career as a recording engineer, mixer, remixer, music producer, sound designer for film/TV, composer and writer. He has won 3 Grammy Awards in 2005 and works and tours with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Les Paul, Sting, Eric Clapton and many others.
He still composes electronic music on the side under the moniker Past the Mark together with italian guitar player Vincenzo Pastano. Their debut CD is in the works.
Nicola Curri lives in Italy and continues to focus on visual arts as an art-restorer, stage set designer, painter and sculptor.
CHRISTIAN DEATH - Ashes FAITH AND THE MUSE - ankoku butoh SANTA HATES YOU - Rocket Heart THE CRUXSHADOWS - Quicksilver AAVV - Lunar Sea AAVV - Nikolaevka
