Gruppo Infernal - Sunny Day

from recent to older. The last track dates from 2003 and was my first recording as Me, my Thumb and Jack, my then Dogma-style analog approach to sound making. The 2 tracks directly above were a bridge between MMTJ's naked brutalism and a more digital sound, allowing samples and oscillators

Gruppo Infernal - dark ambient & chill

Cartoon Vandal

when spirits
high and low
come randomly
sound will
level out 
eventually

28/12/2021

Random Spirits

One night while working on another track to honor a lost friend, emotions ran deep and the only way to cope with them was with what you hear on this track. Loop based track with live improvisation. Lament for D wherever he may be

Lament 4 D

And now for something completely different...
It was the first warm and sunny day after a long gray period. I was happy and just for a minute I got soft and made this. And that doesn't bother me at all.

On a sunny day

Native

As the Noise of Many Waters

Lust smolders in the shadows of the mind and fires up the body. It's impossible to ignore. The thirst for something that refuses to be quenched. Though it rarely leads to peace, we chase it because in its pull, we feel furiously alive

Lust

Niksen is a Dutch/Flemish expression for the art of doing nothing. A deliberate act of setting aside structured tasks and embracing stillness. To be stripped of excess and distraction. Mind wandering isn't aimless—it's a mental playground where ideas grow and imagination thrives. Doing nothing isn't lazy; it's an essential pause, a breath in the rhythm of life. It’s where inspiration whispers and the chaos of the world recedes.

Niksen

Ghosts

From a new album coming soon http://pyrk.bandcamp.com

Meeting of the Pharaos

"She sat beside him, their shoulders almost touching, yet a canyon of unspoken volumes stretched between them—longing for what could have been and mourning what never was.  Each silence echoed with a thousand words neither dared to speak, the air heavy with the ache of both wanting and withholding.  In the quiet, their hearts told stories their lips never would—have missed chances, of the right words arriving too late, or not at all." 

There's this Flemish/Dutch expression "het spreekt boekdelen" which means something like "speaking volumes". In Flemish it means saying a lot, not with words but with a look or a gesture, usually in emotionally heavy situations. I wondered how one would put it if these emotions, however very present and clear to all concerned, would not be expressed at all. Hence the title "unspoken volumes".
I was reading about synth architecture then and wondered how an electric piano would sound like if I had to program it with a DX7. So I tried to emulate it using FM synthesis. The "unspoken volumes" theme came to me while messing about on the keyboard. The choir seemed like a fun contradiction to this idea of something unspoken.

unspoken volumes

perpetual occlusion

Old school sampling in a nutshell. Using an Emu E4X dinosaur, best filters I've ever heard, but what do I know. The Emu was horrible to work with, that I do know. Bounced the lot to Ableton

a voce piena

A place for sound freaks lashing out from the dark. 

So there's all kinds of stuff on this page, but after months of schizophrenic debates about who was playing with who and who took the lead while doing it, finally, the decision was made: all my alter egos got together and decided to form a band. From 2020 on new tracks are created under the moniker Gruppo Infernal. Only pure MMTJ tracks will still be named as such. 

Gruppo Infernal still relies on my work as Me, my Thumb and Jack, an ongoing quest for a liberating approach to sound creation where the human body acts as an oscillator amplifying the natural 50hz hum. Direct live recording, improvisations and delay loops only using analog filters and effects. No editing, no overdubs. Gruppo Infernal adds digital treatment to this original sound material. 

UnterPitch was an alter ego using samples & synths.
Bleached Coffins was a one-off project using guitars.

earliest work when I was still a pup:
https://blindsightrecords.bandcamp.com/album/throbbing-flip-out