{"id":12183,"date":"2012-11-12T12:21:32","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T12:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=12183"},"modified":"2017-03-01T13:44:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-01T13:44:37","slug":"new-noise-ultraista-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2012\/11\/12\/new-noise-ultraista-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW NOISE: Ultra\u00edsta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at Wonderland<\/em>, we listen to a lot of new music – but if there’s one way to grab our attention, it’s the words “produced by Nigel Godrich”. The genius Radiohead musicmaker doesn’t pick his musical projects lightly, so trust us: Ultra\u00edsta<\/a>, his latest band, is pretty damn good. <\/p>\n

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\"Ultraista\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Killer beats pound against dazzlingly, densely layered electronica – you wouldn’t expect any less of Godrich and fellow multi-instrumentalist Joey Waronker, who’s also worked with Thom Yorke’s supergroup Atoms For Peace. But the entire project is held together by the enchanting frontwoman Laura Bettinson, who started working with them while still at art school. We talk to Bettinson here.<\/p>\n

You guys are named after a group of surrealist writers. Why the choice?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigel was reading a book of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges at the time of making the record. On reading up a bit more on Borges he discovered he was part of the Ultra\u00edst movement in literature. This movement was forward looking, modern, futurist, colourful, energetic and quite abstract and surreal. All qualities we thought fed back into our music and visual aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Could you tell us more about how all of you met? What were you doing before Ultra\u00edsta?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nigel and Joey met years back when they were both working on Beck’s Mutations and even though they’ve worked with each other on countless records since, they’ve never sat down and created a project of their own. They started jamming with the loose aim of making organic, electronic dance music. They hit a point where they needed a singer to bring something else to the table. I was then introduced to the guys a few years ago through a friend. They came to see one of my solo shows, we hit it off and started to throw some ideas around. <\/p>\n