Ultre
All The Darkness Has Gone To Details

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What their label says...

Ultre is Finn McNicholas, who started his musical career performing in “loud” bands in the independent music scene. His evolving interest in sound design and structure spawned an obsession for creating solo computer works with the hope of becoming a film composer, although computer animation, graphic design and digital media proved to offer a complimentary and more immediate avenue for his artistic expression. Over 10 years, Finn has progressed from playing home-made instruments hewn from metal and wire, to composing music for TV, PSP, short film and performing audiovisual shows throughout Europe. Ultre has already made an impact on the live circuit playing his energised and beautiful sets with the likes of (Chris) Clark, Tim Exile, Freeform, Carsten Nicolai and Max Tundra. He has performed live visuals alongside Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Plaid. Finn's animation work is used as a part of the on-going Warp Works & 20th Century Composers tour which has reached Europe's most prestigious venues. Ultre’s debut release contains complex digital sounds and the distressed acoustic presentations of piano, strings and guitar. His quest for perfection is carefully set against a context of subtle erosion and beautiful mistakes. Ultre embraces artefacts found within acoustic imprecision, wear, and tear and places them within a frame of calculatedly imperfect digital precision. The aesthetic of the music is placed in some nondescript time and place. It appears to draw on the work of artists whose impact has been replaced but not forgotten. Finn believes the form and structure of his music reflects influences as diverse and extreme as Buddy Holly’s songwriting technique or Edit Piaf’s voice. Technology will never out-date beauty and Finn’s perspective allows him to stop, reflect and present beauty in a unique manner. “Warp's influence is in evidence in the rhythmic chassis, with intemperate bursts of squalid rhythm counterpointed by more placid sequences. There's a nice contrast between the conventionally sleek, futuristic aura of the electronic components and a bustling, clankier DIY element suggestive of creaky doors and busy toolsheds.” (The Wire)…. Ultre takes acoustic sounds into the computer domain and, basically, fucks with them for some often stunning results - a little unsettling but also quite mesmerising. He demonstrates a remarkable understanding of production and composition and I would have said ‘this lad will go far' if he hadn't already.”  (Future Music).