Quartet (Ultravox album)

Quartet
Ultravox studio album
Publication (s)	October 15, 1982
Label (s)	Chrysalis Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Rock , new wave , synth-pop
Title (number)	9
running time	36:46
occupation	Vocals / guitar / keyboard: Midge Ure Bass / keyboard / vocals: Chris Cross Drums / Percussion: Warren Cann Keyboard / violin: Billy Currie
production	Ultravox and George Martin
Studio (s)	Air Studios , London , Montserrat
chronology Rage in Eden (1981) Quartet Lament (1984)
Single releases September 16, 1982 Reap the Wild Wind November 12, 1982 Hymn March 11, 1983 Visions in blue April 18, 1983 We came to dance

Quartet (dt. Quartet ) is the sixth album of the British band Ultravox . It was released on October 15, 1982 by Chrysalis Records and is assigned to the New Wave genre.

A double album of the same name was released on February 24, 2009 as a Remastered Definitive Edition . In addition to a remastered version of the original album on the first CD, it contains a second CD with some B-sides of the single releases, live recordings and previously unreleased songs.

History of origin

After working with Conny Plank on the production of the three previous albums, Ultravox aimed to further develop the sound. After initially focusing on Chris Thomas and Chris Hughes , the choice fell on George Martin . Martin co-produced the first of a series of concerts with Pete Townshend for the Prince's Trust Rock Gala at London's Dominion Theater on July 21, 1982. In the all-star band, Ure played guitar alongside Townshend and met Martin. From the engagement of the former producer of the Beatles , the band hoped for a commercial breakthrough in the United States in addition to stylistic changes after success in Europe and Asia. In contrast to Plank, Martin, together with his sound engineers Geoff Emerick and Jon Jacobs, not only took care of the technical aspects of the sound generation, but also the arrangements of the songs. The album was recorded in about four weeks in June and July 1982 at AIR Studios in London and completed, mixed and digitally mastered in July and August in the branch on the Caribbean island of Montserrat . Up to five multitrack tapes with 24 tracks each were used, so that a total of 120 tracks were available for the mix. Technological progress made it possible to produce several remix versions, which were published, among other things, as a so-called extended version on maxi singles .

Cover design

The company of the British graphic designer Peter Saville took on the entire artistic design, from the design of the album and single covers to the equipment of the music videos to the construction of the set for the band's live performances. The concept is based on a building in the style of old Italian architecture with postmodern elements . In keeping with the album title, the structure can be seen from four side-by-side perspectives: floor plan , cross plan , elevation and axonometric . The drawing comes from the graphic artist Ken Kennedy, employed by Peter Saville Associates, who also drew the cover for the orchestral maneuvers-in-the-dark album Dazzle Ships . It was colored by the painter Bill Philpott. The back of the album cover with the list of titles shows a supplementary schematic representation in the background. The Quartet lettering on the front is based on the Perpetua Titling Light font and underlines the classic architectural approach .

The concept is continued in the form of building fragments on the covers of the two singles Reap the Wild Wind and Hymn , which were first released . On the cover of Hymn you can also find symbols of Freemasonry , including angles , compasses , sun , moon and an implied halo .

The main idea, known as Monument , later gave its name to the world tour, the accompanying live album and an instrumental studio song on this album. The stone-gray background of the album cover, initially for the long-playing record with a marbled effect, for later editions without this effect, was reflected in the entire set of the tour. Not only was the stage set-up including the building facade in the background, which was based on the cover, gray, but almost all instruments were also colored gray for the tour. When illuminated with different colors, the gray took on the respective color. This effect is documented in a recording of the concerts in London's Hammersmith Odeon in early December 1982, which the band released in 1983 parallel to the live album as a 31-minute VHS edition and in 2009 together with the live album in DVD format as a Remastered Definitive Edition.

instrumentation

For the album, Ultravox used instruments with digital sound synthesis for the first time. The new acquisitions included the PPG Wave 2.2, manufactured in Germany by Palm Productions, with wavetables and an integrated sequencer, and the E-mu emulator from the US company E-mu Systems , one of the first commercially available samplers . In addition, the Yamaha GS1 , which works on the basis of FM synthesis , paved the way for the Yamaha DX7 introduced in 1983 , which the band used, among other things, at live concerts of the two following albums.

Track list

1. Reap the Wild Wind - 3:49
2. Serenade - 5:05
3. Mine for Life - 4:46
4. Hymn - 5:46
5. Visions in Blue - 4:41
6. When the Scream Subsides - 4:20
7. We Came to Dance - 4:14
8. Cut and Run - 4:19
9. The Song (We Go) - 3:58

The Remastered Definitive Edition contains on the second CD:

1. Reap the Wild Wind (Extended Version) - 4:44
2. Hosanna (in Excelsis Deo) - 4:22
3. Monument - 3:13
4. The Thin Wall (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, October 1981) - 5:54
5. Break Your Back - 3:24
6. Reap the Wild Wind (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 1982) - 4:02
7. We Came to Dance (Extended Version) - 7:35
8. Overlook - 4:03
9. The Voice (Flexi-Disc Edit) (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 1982) - 4:34
10. Serenade (Special Remix) - 6:02
11. New Europeans (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 5, 1982) - 4:18
12. We Stand Alone (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 5, 1982) - 5:33
13. I Remember (Death in the Afternoon) (Recorded Live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 5, 1982) - 6:24 am

Publications and chart successes

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Quartet   DE 13 11/29/1982 (18 weeks)   UK 6th 10/23/1982 (30 weeks)   US 61 03/12/1983 (17 weeks)

Singles

Reap the Wild Wind   UK 12 09/25/1982 (9 weeks)   US 71 04/30/1983 (5 weeks) Hymn   DE 9 02/07/1983 (19 weeks)   CH 6th 04/10/1983 (5 weeks)   UK 11 11/27/1982 (11 weeks) Visions in blue   UK 15th 03/19/1983 (6 weeks) We came to dance   UK 18th 06/04/1983 (7 weeks)

The album reached number six in the UK, number 13 in Germany and number 61 in the US album charts. It received gold status in Great Britain on December 6, 1982 for more than 100,000 records sold.

A total of four singles were released from the album: Reap the Wild Wind on September 16, 1982 (before the album was released), Hymn on November 19, 1982, Visions in Blue on March 11, 1983 and We Came to Dance on April 18 1983. The religiously tinged hymn was the most successful release overall with position ninth, the second-best chart position of all Ultravox singles in Germany. Reap the Wild Wind was the only single the band was able to place on the US Billboard Hot 100 (71st).

The music video to the four released singles realized Midge Ure and Chris Cross for the first time on their own. Reap the Wild Wind ("Harvesting the Storm", based on the Bible verse from Hosea 8,7) links two storylines. On the one hand, the four musicians erect a monument based on the album cover with the help of construction plans , while at the same time - supplemented by documentary recordings from the First and Second World Wars - they are portrayed as aviator heroes. The second single release Hymn (“Loblied”) takes up the final sequence of the first video and shows the band members initially in different roles in unsuccessful pursuit of their respective professions. A dubious contract partner, played by the British-Swiss actor Oliver Tobias , promises quick promotion after signing a corresponding agreement. On the face of it, the lyrics resemble a creed in terms of their choice of words and style . The use of Faustian motifs in the film, on the other hand, suggests the interpretation of a devil's pact that leads from fame to downfall. The video for Visions in Blue combines live recordings with some revealing content and was therefore shortened by the BBC before it was broadcast. The uncensored original version is included on the first VHS edition of the 1984 compilation The Collection and the 2009 DVD The Very Best of . We Came to Dance tells a tragic love story in a fictional communist country in the Far East .

tour

Four weeks after the album was released, the Quartet World Tour began , which initially led through Ireland and Great Britain until the end of 1982. At the beginning of the following year there were appearances in Germany and other European countries. Further concerts took place in April and May 1983 in the United States and Japan. Danny Mitchell and Colin King supported the band as messengers with the instrumentation and backing vocals .

Because of the set design, the tour was also called the Monument Tour .

reception

The press called Ultravox "the leading representatives of electronically processed rock music". Dave Thompson from Allmusic awards 3 out of 5 points and attests the album a “weight of importance” between “nostalgia” ( Reap the Wild Wind ), “faith” ( hymn ), “lament” ( Visions in Blue ) and “fear” ( When the Scream Subsides , Cut and Run ). In a movement marked “by fashion victims and superficiality”, Ultravox bounces off the “ Frankenstein they created ”. Using the example of Serenade and We Came to Dance, the music scene has the “terrifying quality of releasing both Dionysian devotion and militaristic conformity ”. On the other hand, one is inclined to forget the gloom in the themes of the band through “rhythms that are inviting to bounce feet”, “swirling synthesizers” and “waking melodies”.

In the annual survey of the British music magazine Record Mirror for 1982, the album took tenth place. The music videos for Hymn and Reap the Wild Wind came in third and fourth, while Ultravox as a band came in sixth. Duran Duran won all three categories , her album Rio , released in May 1982, and the music videos for Save a Prayer and Rio .

literature

• Christian Graf and Burghard Rausch: Rock Music Lexicon . Europe / Vol. 2, Lake Zombies. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12388-7 , pp. 751-1515 .
• Robin Eggar: Midge Ure, If I Was… The Autobiography . Virgin Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7535-1077-4 , pp. 116-118, 126-127, 242-243 (British English).

Web links

• Quartet at Allmusic (English)
• Lyrics of Quartet on LyricWiki
• Booklet of the Remastered Definitive Edition by Quartet (PDF; 11.8 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Eggar, pp. 116–118
2. ↑ Michael Norman, Ben Dickey: The Complete Synthesizer Handbook . Zomba Books, London 1984, ISBN 0-946391-35-1 , pp. 112 .
3. ↑ Ultravox: Hymn. In: freemasonry.bcy.ca. Retrieved November 25, 2012 . 
4. ↑ charts.de: Ultravox - Quartet in the German album charts
5. ↑ officialcharts.com: Ultravox - Quartet in the British album charts
6. ↑ allmusic.com: Ultravox - Quartet in the US album charts
7. ↑ officialcharts.com: - Reap the Wild Wind in the UK single charts
8. ↑ billboard.com: Ultravox - Reap the Wild Wind in the US single charts
9. ↑ charts.de: Ultravox - hymn in the German single charts
10. ^ Hitparade.ch: Ultravox - hymn in the Swiss hit parade
11. ↑ officialcharts.com: Ultravox - hymn in the British single charts
12. ↑ officialcharts.com: Ultravox - Visions in Blue in the British single charts
13. ↑ officialcharts.com: Ultravox - We Came to Dance in the UK single charts
14. ↑ Certified Awards Search. In: BPI.co.uk. Retrieved October 16, 2014 . 
15. ↑ See Eggar, pp. 126–127
16. ^ Ultravox - Ultimate Discography: 1975-2004. (No longer available online.) In: Discogs.h17.ru. 2005, archived from the original on November 15, 2012 ; accessed on November 26, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung , quoted from Graf, Rausch pp. 1375–1376
18. ↑ Record Mirror: Poll Winners '82. (PDF: 0.6 MB) In: chartarchive.org. Retrieved December 29, 2012 .