Today, multi-instrumentalist Fierro Ex Machina shares his expansive and reverberating new album ‘Processions.

The brainchild of artist Alex Norelli, Fierro Ex Machina aims to explore the emotional journey in sensory responses through the study of the process. A student of many artistic disciplines, Alex has always analyzed the methodology behind art itself.

“I spent a good deal of time doing printmaking, painting, mixing colors, and I think that has carried over into the music-making, thinking about the interrelation of layers, the emotional chemistry of various admixtures, and the effect of compositions on the whole in relation to their parts and processes,” says Norelli.

Tome to the Weather Machine premiered the first single “A Sail of All Tears” commenting on the “tension-mounting strings, percussive elements that are sampled and filtered to recall post-industrial scrapes sounds of decaying machinery and eerie drones”.

Monolith Cocktail shared their review of the record saying, “There’s a dark majesty and gravity to all four of these heavy evocations. The dissonance is nowhere to be found however, and so even in the abyss each one of Norelli’s visceral statements remain in a sort of ominous building harmony; a synthesis of sonorous emotion, journeying towards the void: A soundtrack for our frightening times.”

1. A Sall of All Tears
2. Do You Know the Sorrow of the Horse
3. The Shadows of Plants at Night
4. Praeter Nexus

Fierro Ex Machina is the brainchild of multi-disciplinary artist Alex Norelli. Their artistic journey has been one of constant exploration. A study of the process.

Originally from Brooklyn and now living in Los Angeles, Norelli’s formative years were spent in rural Pennsylvania taking influence and inspiration from the wisdom of nature. They learned how to use their hands, build things, and mold the world around them. This way of thinking pervaded the rest of their artistic career and how they now view their musical method of expression.

Despite honing in artistic sensibilities through photography, painting, and writing Norelli’s journey did not lead to music until turning twenty-five years old. From the beginning, music involved experimenting with effects and tapes. Learning guitar evolved into building a home studio and soon with that came the ability to mix and manipulate.

From this mindset, Fierro Ex Machina was born. The debut LP ‘Processions’ contains both intricate and sparse movements that trigger dynamic responses through neoclassical structures. They study the emotional journeys experienced in a sensory world.“There is potential energy and there is energy being passed through matter and all is altering in the process,” says Norelli. It’s one thing to understand these ideas, it’s another to experience them viscerally through emotions. On ‘Processions’ this is where Norelli aims to go.

Norelli’s methodology is almost as fascinating as the end goal itself. Their non-traditional lens is guided by the view of an outsider. The result is primal, emotive music that twists and turns, excites and scares. When conventional instruments fail, that’s where Norelli harkens back to their own experience building things.

“I’ve been building instruments for several years. I call them “noise harps” which are deconstructed electric versions of classical string instruments basically. I also collect unwanted instruments and have my grandmother’s S-1 Hammond organ from the 1950s that is completely out of tune. I like to use instruments in ways that are not typical, and take the long road instead of using typical go-to chords or progressions. I try and subvert some of my initial inclinations to find more nuanced and unique sounds always.”

It is in this vein, Fierro Ex Machina serves as the “fiery machine” by which Nicroelli relays their experiences.