Past the Mark is a transatlantic collaboration between Vincenzo Pastano (one of Italy's most in-demand guitar players) and Marc Urselli (New York-based 3-time Grammy award winning producer/engineer/composer). The project started as long-distance collaborative-composing experiment back in 2003, but unfortunately due to their insanely busy schedules, it took a little over 7 years for them to write enough material for a full album, although Pastano has released at least 5 other records of his own in the meantime and Urselli has recorded and/or mixed around 100 records in that timeframe (more about their projects later). Musically Past the Mark is a mixture of the composers' backgrounds in electronic music and rock. The production is entirely electronic-based and mixes drum'n'bass, ambient, world music and downtempo into a unique blend of sampled acoustic and electronic sounds but all the melodies, riffs and counterparts are played by the electric guitar, which is turn is treated, effected, sliced and diced digitally. The compositional process always started with an idea of either one of the musicians, who then would send it to the other to continue writing on and around the original idea. The result is an eclectic mix of influences, styles and moods with deep roots in the rock traditions and the evolutions of electronic music. If you need a frame of reference, imagine what would happen if Jeff Beck, Trent Reznor and Brian Eno got together and wrote some music, and if in turn they were influenced by David Bowie, David Torn, Aphex Twin, Tom Waits, Autechre, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd... Particularly noteworthy is the fact that in spite of all those influences and of the fact that they've been writing together for 7 years, the songs on the album sound quite homogeneous. There is not a disconnect between songs written in 2003 and songs written in 2010, in fact the different influences and musical evolutions complement each other quite well and even the musicians themselves still like the earlier compositions as much as they like the latest. Marc Urselli is a 3-time Grammy Award winning engineer, producer, mixer, composer and sound designer. He is currently resident chief house engineer at the legendary NYC studios EastSide Sound and also does live sound on tours with John Zorn, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Marianne Faithful and others. His credits include John Zorn (of whom he recorded over 25 albums), Les Paul, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Sting, Joss Stone, Lila Downs, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Faith No More's Mike Patton, Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora, Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Rzeznick, ZZ Top, Sam Cooke, Aerosmith's Joe Perry, Simply Red's Mick Hucknall, Luther Vandross and many many more. He also composes music for TV and film and does sound design for commercials and mixing for film and TV. In 2008 alone he recorded and mixed more than half a dozen movie soundtracks. Marc has played in numerous bands in the '90es, most notably the black metal band Funeral Oration and the industrial-metal band the M.E.M.O.R.Y. Lab (www.memorylab.net) who in 2009 just released their posthumous debut CD of 15-year old recordings on the Canadian record label D-Trash records. Marc also is founder and editor of Chain D.L.K. (www.chaindlk.com), an online music magazine/newswire/forum dedicated to electronic, ambient, experimental, dark music which receives more than 30'000 monthly visitors. Vincenzo Pastano is a young but very accomplished guitar player based in Bologna, Italy. He grew up on massive doses of guitar-driven rock and currently plays with Italian pop star Luca Carboni, as well as with his pulp-rock band Pulp Dogs (www.pulpdogs.it), his new age-ambient acoustic duo Araliya (www.araliyaofficial.com) and many other projects. He has played as a session musician on dozen of records and has collaborated with many established Italian singers, songwriters, composers and producers, such as Lucio Dalla (with whom he played on the theater production "La Tosca"), Hiroko Kouda, Beppe D’Onghia, Federico Poggipollini, George Mann, Stef Burns, Barbara Cola, Roberto Terzani (Litfiba), Adrienne Arno, Ignazio Orlando (CCCP, A. Bocelli, G.Nannini), Riccardo Sinigallia, Grazia Verasani and many others. Vincenzo has release his romantic dark-wave debut solo CD "Compro Verità" on UltraTempo records in 2009 and is currently working on a followup solo CD. Past the Mark leaves a mark, and goes past that mark!