Uniform Motion - One Frame Per Second (album stream)

Uniform Motion is an illustrated indie-folk band combining music with visual arts created by Andy Richards and Renaud Forestie in 2008, joined by Olivier Piotte (drums, percussions, keys) in 2011.

During their live performances, Renaud live-sketches using a video projector, while Andy builds up a soundscape with his guitar, loopstation and voicebox resulting in a hypnotising audio-visual experience.



As with most biographies, this story begins with the utterances of hypnotic phrases being repeated over, and over, and over, again; ricocheting through a developing sensitive mind; with the whispering of bitter-sweet music before the age of reason. The words, the sounds and the looks that a young mind has processed cannot be erased. They can only be stored in different places. Under the influence of Steven Heller's Monsters and Magical Sticks, the concept of Uniform Motion sees the light.

The principle is that we go through life in a continual straight line and that the trajectory we are on will never change unless something, or someone, hits us.

After years and years of selectively storing data and cruising down the highway of life (and a quick stint with Angle - We'll Pick Up the Pieces Next Time, 2006), Andrew Richards, the musical half of Uniform Motion picks up an old battered guitar. Two of the strings were missing, but that's how that guitar was meant to me, so she would stay that way.

The 4-string guitar is the backbone of this album. Multiplied, duplicated, interlaced, and dissonant – as if there were different personalities trying to jump out of it. The vocals follow the same pattern - when strummed guitar strings become strings of words, or soft utterances that give substance to a subconscious idea. The beating of African percussion can be heard in the background, emanating from an urban soundscape, evoking a primitive nature, an imaginary journey, a calm floating sensation. The guitars hold this all together.

VISUALLY SPEAKING
The graphical half of the band, Renaud Forestié, does not play a musical instrument. He’s a graphic designer. His comic books have been published by the likes of CFSL, Warum and Chocolat Jeunesse and his website www.reuno.net is a popular destination in the illustration world.

The collaboration started quite simply when Renaud was asked to work on the artwork for the comic strips. He then became a major part of the band when he started drawing illustrations on a laptop, which are projected on screen in realtime during the concerts.

Zigzagging between impertinence and candour, Renaud brings a whole new dimension to a live musical performance.

MUSIC 2.0
Original is a theme that has definitely been a recurrent one throughout the project. From 1st June to 4th December 2008, the group published a series of episodes (every 2/3 weeks) on http://www.uniform- motion-pictures.com, each episode including a song, a video and an interactive comic strip illustrating the song with the lyrics.

In the beginning, the videos of the band playing alternate versions of the studio recordings were all supposed be shot in CDM Studio in Toulouse, where the album was being mixed.

But the project soon had to adapt to real live concerts when the band was invited to play at Apple Expo, and the Maroquinerie (w/ Islands) in Paris after winning a contest organised by the prestigious weekly cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles. Each new adventure became a new episode in the series. A national news channel in France got wind of the project and broadcast a two minute piece (i>TELE/Canal+).

The band put a final touch to the project with a cover of Talk Talk’s Such a shame, released just in time for Christmas. This time, instead of filming a live performance, a real video clip was made.

FROM VIRTUAL TO REAL LIFE
Early 2009, the band decided to release a physical package including the videos (DVD), the songs (CD) and 54 page comicbook.

The record was album of the week on Canal Extremadura in Spain and appeared on Myspace Uncovered on NME Radio, with airplay across the globe in the US, Italy, Germany resulting in Uniform Motion being signed by No-Source in the US and Aaahh Records in Germany just after their German tour in November 2009.

Uniform Motion released their second album, Life, 9th Feb 2009, as a digital download coupled with canvas paintings in the shape of vinyl records and custom made CD's.

Since the studio where the band had produced their first album has been destroyed in a fire, the lads went solo on their second effort, self-producing all the music and artwork. Word of Uniform Motion's unique approach reached several high profile magazines and blogs such as drawn.ca, The Stranger, College Music Journal and The Irish Independent and Life got dozens of excellent reviews.

Word of Uniform Motion's unique approach reached several high profile magazines and blogs such as drawn.ca, The Stranger, College Music Journal and The Irish Independent and Life got dozens of excellent reviews. BBC Radio's Tom Robinson played one of the songs from Life on his show BBC Introducing and Back Up Your Soul was used by RoadTrip Nation, a TV show on PBS in the US. Roll Over, the first single from Life was released as a track on Rock Band Network! At the end of 2010, after playing a few dozen gigs as a duo, Uniform Motion decided to bring in some new blood and added a fulltime drummer to the Line-up., A gent by the name Olivier Piotte. Olivier and Andy started rehearsing new material and recorded the songs that would become One Frame Per Second, the band's third album, in Paris in April 2011.

What a Band Really Makes from Streaming Sales
Uniform Motion had quite some press coverage a couple of months ago, unfortunately not about their music, but following a blog post they made breaking down revenue artists were getting from streaming and digital sales.
Read the very interesting and eye opening article @ gizmodo.com

Links
http://uniformmotion.net/
http://uniformmotion.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/uniformmotion
http://twitter.com/uniformmotion
http://www.last.fm/music/Uniform+Motion