Formed in 2007, Noise Hifi was inspired by bands and artists like Throbbing Gristle, Lull, Mokira, Einsturzende Neubaten and Lustmord. With his new project, "Rockis" wanted to make a different approach compared to his Dub/Ambient/Experimental project Beatundercontrol.

On the debut album Red Distortion Ulf Ivarsson who previously has toured and recorded with artists such as Thåström, Sky High, Bill Laswell, Youth (Killing Joke, The Orb) Tatsuya Yoshida and Hedningarna (The Heathens) moves in a new direction. With repetitive drones, noises and manipulated textures, Noise Hifi redefines the world of Dark Ambient and Industrial Music.

The title track Red Distortion is a minimalistic pulsating composition based on three different ambient elements. Ships, the second track, contains ambient noises and treated atmospheres with some cutting edge deep bass drones and throbbing analogue synths. Darklands Dub, opens with scary, dark athmospheres before it takes off with a distorted synthezised beat. The composition is built around the energic and sonic boom-dub electric bassline and with its typical "mute and fade dub" technique the whole track have a pure dub feel. 21 minutes and 44 seconds long Around the Lake the album's final track is the darkest moment on the album, with different dark mine sounds and arpeggiated analog synthesizers.

For the Red Distortion sessions "Rockis" invited his friend and employer Joakim Thåström for some Pro One (mono analouge synthesizer) overdubs. "Rockis" has played with Thåström since 2005 and last year produced Thåström's latest Swedish Grammy Award-winning album Kärlek är för dom.

Thåström is one of the most profilic and best known rock musicians in Scandinavia. He started his career in the celebrated Swedish punk band Ebba Grön (1977-1983) and reached an even bigger audience with the equally influential indie rock band Imperiet (1983-1988). In 1989 Thåström started his solo career as with his self titled solo album Thåström. In 1991 he released the follow up: Xplodera mig 2000 (Xplode Me 2000), an album that was extremely computer-based and in 1992 led to the development of the heavy industrial rock band band Peace Love & Pitbulls. Before their break-up in 1997 the band released three studio albums.

Through the years Thåström has moved between a number of genres, from punk to rock, electronic music and autobiographical singer-songwriter music. In 1999 Thåström continued his solo career and have so far recorded 6 successful solo albums that have established him as one of the most important artists in Sweden.

With the release of Noise HiFi's debut album, both "Rockis" and Thåström continues their mission to break down musical borders, find new paths and create new exiting ways to express themselves.

You can also check Ulf's second project here on Magnatune, Beat Under Control and more information on his own website or MySpace page.

Red Distortion