Ulan Bator is a French

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

post-rock band founded in 1993 by Amaury Cambuzat and Olivier Manchion. They got their name from

Ulan Bator Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...

, the capital city of

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. They create lengthy instrumental music with influence from

industrial Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

and krautrock bands like Can,

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plan ...

and

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

History

Amaury Cambuzat (vocals, guitar) and Olivier Manchion (bass) began to play together in 1987. While in Paris in 1993, they formed Ulan Bator with drummer Franck Lantignac. They built a recording studio in an unused chalk mine and recorded their first three albums there: ''

'', '' 2 Degrees'', and '' Vegetale''. In 1996 they began a long relationship with krautrock band

during a French tour. The first meeting of Zappi W. Diermaier, Jean-Hervé Péron (of Faust), Olivier Manchion and Amaury Cambuzat (of Ulan Bator) was recently released as Collectif Metz/Faust. Ulan Bator performed in prestigious festivals such as Les Transmusicales de Rennes and Roskilde. Their albums ''Polaire'' and ''Vegetale'' plus multiple live recordings were released in Italy by CPI. Afterwards, they signed to Sonica. In 1999, Ulan Bator recorded its '' Ego:Echo'' (

Young God Records Young God Records is an independent record label formed by Michael Gira in 1990 that specializes in experimental, avant-garde and often non genre-specific releases. The label was named after an EP released by Gira's band Swans called '' Young Go ...

), produced by

Michael Gira Michael Rolfe Gira (; born February 19, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author and artist. He is the main force behind the New York City musical group Swans and fronted Angels of Light. He is also the founder of ...

(

Swans Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Someti ...

, The Angels of Light) together with drummer Matteo Dainese. Later in 2002 they released '' OK:KO'' from the Ego:Echo tours and demo sessions. In late 2001, Olivier Manchion left and would not return until 2005. In the meantime, he founded Permanent Fatal Error and released "Law Speed" in 2004. During that period Ulan Bator under the name Amaury Cambuzat (with Matteo Dainese on drums, Manuel Fabbro on bass and Egle Sommacal on guitar) recorded '' Nouvel Air'' and then (without Sommacal) '' Rodeo Massacre'' (January 2005), both released by Jestrai. During this time they performed around 200 shows in Italy and France. After a 4 years without speaking, Olivier and Amaury met by "pure chance" at a show in which Lantignac was performing and started to perform again together in June 2005 as members of Faust. They decided to invite Franck Lantignac for a special Ulan Bator reunion featuring the original line-up for the Avant Garde Festival. In Fall 2005, Amaury and Olivier joined Faust for a UK tour, recordings of which were released as '' ... In Autumn'', a 3 CD + DVD box set by Dirter. From there the trio went on a "D-Struction" tour in January and February 2006 in parts of Italy and Slovenia. Then in late Spring 2006 Cambuzat and Manchion toured as Cargo Culte, also known as the Ulan Bator Duo. Alessio Gioffredi (drums) replaced Franck Lantignac and the new trio toured until June 2007, when Manchion left too, being replaced on stage by Adriano Modica (bass). Few weeks before was released

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north ce ...

, a compilation of unreleased songs based on the first years of the band (1993–1998). Cambuzat revived the group in 2013 with a completely different line-up for a tour of the US and a new CD and DVD entitled "En France/En Transe". The new line-up included Cambuzat's previous bandmate Diego Vinciarelli from Chaos Physique and

Ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...

player Nathalie Forget.

Discography

Albums * ''Ulan Bator'' (1995) * ''2 Degrees'' (1996) * '' Vegetale'' (1997) * '' Ego:Echo'' (2000) * ''OK:KO'' (2002) * ''Nouvel Air'' (2003) * '' Rodeo Massacre'' (2005) * ''

'' (2007) * '' Tohu-Bohu'' (2011) * '' En France / En Transe'' (2013) * ''Abracadabra'' (2016) * ''Stereolith'' (2017) EPs * ''D-Construction'' remixes (2000) * ''Soleils'' (2009) 45RPM * ''Ursula Minor'' (1996) split UB/etage34 * ''Echo#5'' (2000) split UB/chevreuil

History

Discography

References

External links