BRIANZA – MATTEO UGGERI / HUE Posted On: April 24, 2012
Matteo Uggeri has been making music since 1994, at times under the moniker Hue, and within different collaborative projects such as Der Einzige (noise / industrial) and Sparkle in Grey. Over the years he has also collaborated with De Fabriek, Claudio Rocchetti, Ether, Punck, Cria Cuervos, Nicola Ratti, OvO, Nuno Moita, Mujika Easel, Andrea Serrapiglio, Telepherique, and others. His first solo release Un’estate senza pioggia (2006, Grey Sparkle), released under the Hue moniker, mixes field recordings with melancholic sounds of acoustic and electric guitars, glitch electronics and other instruments (organ, didgeridoo). His latest album, Pagetos, a collaboration with Luca Mauri and Francesco Giannico, is the final chapter of the Between the Elements quadrilogy initiated by Maurizio Bianchi, Spyros Abatielos and himself… Q: You seem to specialise in field recordings, what is your musical background? A: I grew up listening to electronic pop (Howard Jones, Depeche Mode…), and then new wave (The Cure, Joy Division, Bauhaus…) before moving to industrial music (SPK, Controlled Bleeding, Caba-
ret Voltaire…). In the ’90s I discovered Warp and later Morr Music. I never really studied music, but I have always loved to record sounds in different places. Having said that, I am not such a big fan of Francisco López or similar artists… I didn’t even know the term “field recordings” when I first took some crap mic to try and record things around me. My biggest influences, have been other Italian musicians and friends, such as Fhievel, Logoplasm, Punck and my Meerkat mates. Q: You sometimes record under the moniker Hue. How did you choose the name Hue? Also what differentiates Hue from Matteo Uggeri? A: It’s an old moniker that I prefer not to use anymore. I loved it at the time, because I like sinesthesias and, from what I could gather, it means both ‘scream’ and ‘colour’ in English. Also, it recalls the initial of my surname, “U”. Q: Your first album as Hue, Un’estate senza pioggia (A Dry Summer) was born from a journey you undertook on your own between Bologna, Arezzo, Roma and L’Aquila. At the time you carried a minidisc with you and a microphone.
How has your use of field recordings changed throughout the years, both from a technical and a conceptual point of view? A: It hasn’t really changed. I’m not really into technical equipment and I do not invest that much in it. Back then, I had a tiny Sony stereo microphone, of the kind one uses for interviews, and a minidisc. Then I bought binaural mikes and a M-Audio digital recorder, but it wasn’t very good (unreliable batteries and ugly interface) so I got myself a Zoom H1. Always pretty cheap stuff… I’m more interested in the concept of field recordings as such, in the emotional meaning they may hold for me or for the listener, rather than in the purity of sound, even if I spend hours in post-production and EQ afterwards. Still, when I read an interview with Chris Watson on The Wire I must admit I was pretty envious of his equipment. Q: More often than not, you seem to indicate the locations of the field recordings on the linear notes of your albums. Why is it important to you, if indeed it is, to be able to locate precisely each track? Is it a way of introducing a narrative element or simply a way of grounding the music into a specific space and time framework? A: It’s related to this “emotional” and meaningful approach I have to field recordings, yes. A while ago, I read that Francisco López doesn’t give titles to his files, so that he can completely forget where and when they were recorded. Some other artists use them with documentary purposes, when visiting very special locations and somehow it feels as though they were taking sonic photographs of these places. In my case, on the other hand, what is important to me, is my relationship with a specific place and its people; it’s more of a personal sound diary, sometimes a way to document moments from the life of friends and family, or even of myself. Un’estate senza pioggia is, in fact, full of (credited) sound recordings from the people who
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