Rossetti's Compass is a synthpop and EBM music band created in November 2010 by the British musician Mark Warner. It was conceived from a desire to explore different directions in the electro musical sphere, from pure synthpop to dark and menacing electro and EBM. In 2013, the band released three albums, including a limited edition semi-live recording session. True to its self-imposed remit of exploration, the Rossetti's Compass catalogue of works includes track remixes for bands from across the genre, including A.W.o.L. Angst Pop, Kant Kino, HNN, Technomancer, Shatoo, Attrition, and Naked Lunch.
Formation and Evolution
Rossetti's Compass was conceived by Mark Warner during a 2010 visit to Berlin where he was working with Oppenheimer Analysis members Andy Oppenheimer and Martin Lloyd. At the time an active member of the Minimal Wave band Sudeten Creche, Warner was keen to explore the wider EBM sphere, and his early Rossetti's Compass compositions were used as set fillers by Sudeten Creche on their short European tour in April 2011. After Warner split from Sudeten Creche in late 2012, Rossetti's Compass began to grow. A successful collaboration on the first Rossetti's Compass EP, Tear Garden, released in March 2013, led to the synthpop master and former member of Apoptygma Berzerk, Per Aksel Lundgreen, joined Rossetti's Compass as a permanent member. A second EP, My Beloved, was released in August 2013. Like Tear Garden, it was mastered by Martin Bowes, a long-time friend of Lundgreen and a member of the British dark industrial music act Attrition. This second EP release coincided with Bowes joining the band as its third member, completing the current Rossetti's Compass line-up. In November 2013, the band recorded a third, semi-live album entitled Cage Sessions 01, which included guest vocals by Bowes' Engram partner John Costello. The Cage Sessions are a Martin Bowes innovation inspired by the old John Peel band sessions, where musicians spend one day in the studio recording several tracks, and are interviewed at the same time. It is a chance for them to do something a little different. Profits from this release were donated by Rossetti's Compass to Cancer Research. Recording work has started on a full album by Rossetti's Compass, with its release anticipated in early 2014, to coincide with a series of live gigs, the first in the band's history.
Name
The name Rossetti's Compass encapsulates the idea of freedom of musical exploration that is the cornerstone of the band's ethos. While it expresses the concept of direction, this is driven from the heart by passion, thus casting aside the constraints of conformity.
