Volcano The Bear

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Volcano The Bear
Origin Leicester, England
Years active 1996–present
Genres Experimental/Improvised
Labels Volucan, Pickled Egg Records, Misra, Beta-Lactam Ring, United Dairies

Volcano The Bear are an improvisational/experimental British band formed in Leicester in the mid-1990s. They are currently comprised of Aaron Moore (drums, trumpet, vocals), Nick Mott (saxophone, guitar, vocals), Clarence Manuelo (tapes, electronics) and Daniel Padden (keyboards, guitar, clarinet, vocals). Although the principle roles of each member as as listed, the group use a large array of additional soundmaking objects to create their music.

Their early work was characterised by theatrical live performances and unconventional recording methods; for example The One Burned Ma, their second full length album, contains no tracks on which all four members appear. Having self-released a handful of cassettes and CDRs, they came to the attention of Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound, who revived his United Dairies imprint to release The Inhazer Decline, their first full length album. However, a proposed colaboration with Nurse With Wound was not completed. They continued to release regular live CDRs on their own Volucan imprint and later albums such as Five Hundred Boy Piano and much of The Idea Of Wood were performed live in the studio.

A hiatus in group activity occurred in the early part of the 2000s with Mott and Moore reviving their pre-Volcano the Bear unit Songs Of Norway. Manuelo created an album and EP as Earthtrumpet. Padden founded The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden, initially a solo project later expanding to a quartet, with Chris Hladowski, Peter Nicholson and Aby Vulliamy. Moore has recently drummed for The Nightingales, formed Dragon or Emperor with occasional VtB collaborator Stewart Brackley and released The Accidental, a solo album upon which he collaborated with Alex Neilson and Andrew Liles. Volcano the Bear have recently performed live as a quartet for the first time in four years, followed by many other live gigs around the UK and Europe. In early 2006 they released a double album called Classic Erasmus Fusion to excellent reviews. They will be shortly be issuing a further vinyl-only album on Volucan.

[edit] Discography

Year Title Format Label/Cat.No. Notes
1996 Vol One Cassette Volucan 001 Limited edition of 25.
1996 Vol Tu Cassette Volucan 002 Limited edition of 50.
1996 Vol III (iii) Cassette Volucan 003 Limited edition of 20.
1997 Volfur CD-R/CD Volucan 004, later Beta-Lactam Ring mt053.1  
1998 Volve CD-R/CD Volucan 005, later Beta-Lactam Ring mt053.2  
1998 The Inhazer Decline CD-R Volucan 006 Limited edition of 6.
1998 Volseptor CD-R/CD Volucan 007, later Beta-Lactam Ring mt053.3  
1999 Volwheat CD-R Volucan 008 Recorded live in Leicester.
1999 Yak Folk's Y'are LP Pickled Egg 7  
2000 The Inhazer Decline CD United Dairies UD055 Fewer tracks than 1998 version.
2000 The One Burned Ma CD Misra MSR006  
2001 Five Hundred Boy Piano CD United Dairies UD50  
2002 Guess The Birds 10" EP Beta-Lactam Ring mt028  
2002 Volnono CD-R/CD Volucan 009, later Beta-Lactam Ring mt0 53.4 Some tracks previously featured on Volwheat.
2002 Xvol CD-R/CD Volucan 010, later Beta-Lactam Ring mt053.5 Live in East Hampton, Massachusetts.
2002 The Mountains Among Us LP/CD-R Beta-Lactam Ring mt045/Volucan 011  
2002 Voleven CD-R Volucan 011 Only available with the Volucan edition of "The Mountains Among Us", features material by VTB and various other projects.
2003 The Idea Of Wood CD/LP Textile Records TCD3/TLP3  
2004 All The Paint I Can Breathe 10"EP Beta-Lactam Ring mt059 Material from the first three Cassettes. Some with additional 7".
2004 Voldozer CD-R Volucan 012 Recorded live in Glasgow, Paris and Nijmegen
2004 "Shake Your Crow Remix" / "Tunnels And Wheels" 7" Gold Soundz GS#13 Limited edition of 310.
2005 Catonapotato CD Broken Face/Digitalis Industries DIGI14 Recorded live in Leicester, Sheffield, Paris and Norrköping. Only Mott & Moore appear.
2006 Classic Eramus Fusion 2xLP/2xCD Beta-Lactam Ring mt092a/b Some 2xLP sets come with an extra 7" and a special edition comes with a bonus LP and the 7".
Other Projects
The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden (Solo and group works by Daniel Padden.)
2002 The One Ensemble Of Daniel Padden CD Catsup Plate CPR714  
2003 The Owl Of Fives LP/CD Textile TCD4/TLP4  
2005 Live at VPRO Radio CD-R Brainwashed Handmade Series HAND002  
2006 The Isaac Storm LP Ultra Eczema UE37  
Songs Of Norway (Improvised music by Aaron Moore and Nick Mott.)
2003 Despite The Cloak LP/CD Beta-Lactam Ring mt058 Some LPs with additional 7".
2004 The Great Work 3" CD Olwyn Plant SB007  
Earth Trumpet (Solo work by Clarence Manuelo.)
2000 Earth Trumpet CD Cenotaph Audio CT004  
2001 Roman 2xCD-R Beta-Lactam Ring mt053.6 One audio disc, one with Quicktime movie.
Guignol (Aaron Moore, Jeremy Barnes and Clarence Manuelo.)
2003 Angela, David And The Great Neopolitan Road Issue CD Cenotaph Audio CT009  
El Monte Aranos (Nick Mott and Aranos.)
2003 Allied Cooking But Not As You Know It! CD Pieros 003CD  
Aaron Moore (Solo project.)
2005 The Accidental CD Elsie & Jack #017 Some with additional DVD by Francesco Paladino with extra track.

[edit] Compilation appearances

[edit] External links