Ultramarine

The music of Canterbury duo Ultramarine resists easy classification, sketching since it does from ambient, techno, folk, and eclectic ’70s Canterbury art rock artists just like the Soft Machine, Caravan, and Robert Wyatt, who occasionally performed live with the group and appeared on the United Kingdoms album. The group, that is comprised of Paul Hammond and Ian Cooper, includes a distinctively English feel and uses an array of musical instruments and noises. Hammond and Cooper initial collaborated within the avant-garde music group A Primary Sector during the middle-’80s. When that music group divide, the duo called themselves Ultramarine and documented Folk in 1990. Their second record, Every Man and Girl Is a Superstar, made an appearance in 1992 and gained compliment for the duo among the initial home-listening digital groups. Sire agreed upon Ultramarine in 1992 and released their initial U.S. discharge, United Kingdoms, the next season. Despite a high-profile cooperation with Robert Wyatt (with Kevin Ayers for the associated Hymn EP), the record practically vanished both house and abroad. Even so, Hammond and Cooper continuing to record within a quirky digital folk-pop vein for 1995’s Bel Atmosphere. Three years afterwards, User’s Guide noticed Ultramarine’s sound getting close to the trip-hop/electronica mainstream. Following a longer break, the duo came back in 2011 with two singles (“Discover a Method” and “Acidity I Butch”), while 2013 noticed the release of the sixth studio record, THIS TIME AROUND Last Year.