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Here’s a video of Author and Punisher recording two tracks for something called “The Bush”
The doom-metal “Drone Machines” of Tristan Shone’s Author and Punisher don’t really make us think of fairytales—but apparently they had that effect on Diego Buongiorno, an Italian musician/composer who’s made the ominous sounds of A&P part of his ambitious multimedia project, The Bush. Described by Buongiorno as “a new kind of work created by the author’s desire to promote the return of magic,” The Bush features contributions from over 60 different musicians, photographers, visual artists, designers and video directors, and will eventually encompass everything from a soundtrack album to picture and audio books, a “surrealistic film,” live performances, gallery exhibitions and who knows what else. You can read more about the whole crazy thing here.
Although The Bush seems to still be a work-in-progress, Buongiorno did release its first major component this past December: a 25-track album featuring contributions from several guest artists, including our man Tristan and his experimental Drone Machines. He’s also released several short videos, including the one below showing Shone at work in his studio on his two Bush tracks, “Intro” and “It Really Could Happen.” We’re guessing the “It” in this case refers to some part of the fairytale where really, really bad shit goes down.
Author and Punisher
Photo by Jeremy & Claire Weiss. Swiped from Wired.
What’s up, weirdos? Did you spend your whole Weird Wednesday waiting for us to post a new Band of the Week? Was it torture? Probably not, but hey, it makes a good segueway into this week’s band.
Tristan Shone is an engineer from San Diego (why is it always the sunny places that produce guys like this?) who makes electron microscopes by day and doom-metal “Drone Machines” by night. Then he takes his Drone Machines out and performs with them under the name Author & Punisher, making “music” that sounds like androids howling in agony as they’re slowly ripped to pieces.
Onstage, Shone looks like a man trapped on the world’s most hellish assembly line job. In one hand, he’s got a giant piston-like machine that triggers drum sounds; in his other, he’s got throttles that trigger bone-rattling waves of heavy bass, or possibly something that looks like a cross between a drafting table and a giant deli slicer. A eight-piece MIDI controller microphone obscures most of his face. It’s all very badass and industrial and doom-metal-looking, which is the whole point.
If you want the full A&P story, check out this cool video interview/profile someone did with him for Ground Control magazine back in 2008. Or, if you have short attention spans (and we know you do), just peep this little three-minute video of Tristan and his machines getting it on in the studio. Trent Reznor has to do a Nine Inch Nails reunion tour just so this guy can be his opening act.
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