Mannlicher Carcano

is an improvisational audio collage group that coalesced in the mid-1980’s out of a number of new music, sound art, and post-punk experiments, and has been performing and recording regularly for over 20 years, in spite of not living in the same city for the last 15.

The core members of the group are Really Happening (Los Angeles, CA), Porter Hall (Guelph, ON) and R.F. (Gogo) Godot (Winnipeg, MB), though the group has many occasional adjunct participants, and has played with over 100 collaborators over the course of its history.

MC’s early performances were highly theatrical, with costumes, stage sets, and elaborate collaged light shows providing a visual analog of their densely layered sound. The sound was provided by a wide range of sources, including traditional and invented instruments (spring-strung bass, Ventor, cast aluminum cello), thrift store electronic equipment, portable record players playing warped Montovani at the wrong speed or stuck religious tirades, children’s toys, radios, live phone calls, tape loops, field recordings of environmental soundscapes and contact miced appliances.

In addition to their experimental theatrical performances, MC have participated in numerous sound art exhibitions, academic conferences, new music festivals, experimental radio and radio art broadcasts, as well as participating in the cassette underground with the production and distribution of 9 full length cassettes, as well as a number of quirky vinyl projects. Mannlicher was the subject of a cover story in the Fall 2002 issue of the highly respected new music journal Musicworks. Their first CD Half Duplex Receive Only was released in a limited edition in 2001, followed by 5 further self-released CDRs mostly drawing material from their weekly live 3-city improvised audio collage radio program and webcast “The Mannlicher Carcano Radio Hour”.

The Mannlicher Carcano Radio Hour combines live signals from Really and Gogo, transmitted over phone lines from their respective locations (usually their home studios, but occasionally from as far away as Sweden) then added to and mixed live to air and web by Porter Hall. For over 4 years, The Mannlicher Carcano Radio Hour was hosted by Peterborough’s Trent Radio. In the fall of 2002, the program movecd to CFRU-FM 93.3 at the University of Guelph, and can also be accessed on the net at www.cfru.ca almost every Saturday afternoon at 3 PM EST. CFRU now maintains an archive of one month's programming here.

Click here to download a 2 CD retrospective of live, studio, radio performances... and more - spanning two decades! This is a preview of the forthcoming 3-disc anthology 'Mannlicher Carcano: Trouble Comes in Threes' Extensive liner notes, copiously illustrated.