Northgate is the name used since 1992 by Trevor, vocalist of Camerata Mediolanense, to sign his solo projects. The concept is not having a "one man band", but a group, whose components change according to the style options and the music ideas. Northgate's artistic path swings between electronic-noises and typically Industrial terms. After some demo tapes, during 1995 Northgate releases the LP "Liturgie pour la fin de la Patrie", printed in a very limited edition of 108 copies, now chased relentlessly by collectors and available today in CD including some bonus tracks which refer to the same period. "Liturgie…" represents a fundamental step, underlined by rarefied and penetrating atmospheres… but always under the banner of self-production. Psychodrama (1998) is a tribute to the most extreme "power-electronics": a change of language and instrumentation, made in order to stop being considered an "apocalyptic band" at all costs... Quite different is the structure of the most recent CD "The Blue builders", perhaps the most ripe result at research and experimental level. Preceded by the single "In every Dreamhome a Heartache" (not included in the CD), "The Blue builders" collects the atmospheres of the metropolis and the noise of the construction, in the most physical sense (as underlined by the perturbing cover). Sounds are generated by conventional instruments, and by machines, moving from the "soft" electronics of "Monique Electronique" towards the Eighties passages of "Fidia", down to the devasting title track. With this bases, Northgate moves to a future still to be discovered… It is certainly not easy to understand what made me create the band. But I can say that when I started the scene in the city where I live was packed by rotten bands, courted by independent labels and producing the so called "alternative" rock, really lousy and meaningless. The "industrial" scenario was completely different. There were many other artists like us who used to produce devastating sounds with very limited resources, and counting only on an audience orphan of the Eighties. Actually, it is right in the Eighties that one can find the roots of my fondness for the oblique and underground sounds... While in school I used to get around dressed simply in black, loving to death Siouxsie and the Banshees and collecting all of their LPs. I think still today that in the "gothic" scene there's nothing like them. Later on my focus went to Test Dept., Coil, Eistuerzende Neubauten, Foetus, Sllep Chamber... and to the colorful underworld of the "World Serpent", but before it became fashionable. After some experiences as a guitarist with a school post-punk band, I served Italian Army as a prison guard, and an year later I founded with a friend, a girl, the "Ruins" band, who ended up some months later, without recording nothing special. All of a sudden, I felt the need to create a "gray" entity, but without having to settle for the normality of a traditional line-up: the Northgate project was thus born at the end of 1992, open to the collaboration of other pseudo-musicians. A little later I met Anthony Duman. After the experience of the first "Monumentum", he was dealing with his "Weltscmerz" project, with which he was realizing "Metaphysical Baroque" and was drawing the essential lines of the "L'Alternative Dramatique" label. We went on experimenting for a long time, recording a lot of material, among which there was the first Nothgate track: "Six Marble Trees". Some months later we decided to present live our sound lucubration... the debut – which took place in a Osteria – turn out a disaster, especially for the unfortunate who came to see us! We alternated to guitar and bass, time was signed by a broken drum-machine, and sometimes we touched a mini keyboard connected to a crazy distortion pedal... this caused a nervous breakdown to the shopkeeper, who asked us to stop it! First demo tapes were released, and so did also the LP "Liturgie pour la fin de la Patrie", strongly wanted in vinil... it turned out a little bit difficult to find someone able to make it, because the market success of the CD had forced everyone to drop LP printing machinery. But finbally I found an old factory producing 12" disco-tailored mix and signed an order for 100 copies plus 8 promos. The first edition of 108 copies hand-numbered one-by-one and colored in green was immediately considered quite esoteric... and the times were the right ones for this kind of operations. CONTINUE>>> HOME