Every reviews about KrysaliSound releases…
[krysalisound] Materia densa che lentamente scivola generando ruvide stratificazioni pervase da un senso di grave solennità. È un universo tattile dalle atmosfere umbratili quello definito dall’unione delle istanze creative, differenti eppure complementari, di Roberto Galati e Federico Mosconi , fuse in un connubio capace di dare vita ad una ribollente sequenza di immaginifici paesaggi sonori. […]
GALATIMOSCONI – Penombra (KrysaliSound, 2017) La fisicità esplorata da Roberto Galati e l’impalpabile paesaggismo ambientale di Federico Mosconi si combinano si combinano in un terzo genere di materia sonora, collocato anche simbolicamente in una linea indefinita e variabile di “Penombra”. Non è nemmeno necessario scorrere i titoli degli otto densi brani dei quali si compone […]
Robero Galati & Federico Mosconi craft unusual and emotionally compelling atmospheres on the narrative of “Penombra”. Throughout the album, the duo touches upon noise, drone, industrial, and even hints of shoegaze. By opting for such an approach the songs possess such heft to them while they lament ever-changing aural landscapes. Instrumentally rich the songs contain multitudes with so many elements of distortion allowed throughout never ceasing to dazzle. Even within these rather cacophonous pieces the duo brings melody and light into the mix, helping to further emphasize their tragic beauty. Flourishes further add to the weight of these suites, emphasizing their chaotic nature.
Elongated strings introduce the powerful “Pietre” whose wall of sound approach works wonders. Going a little gentler “Eclissi” serves as an album highlight, allowing for a great deal of exploration, giving the space true room to roam. Nearly glowing “Nadir” feels comforting, a comfort that is unsettled somewhat by “Opale” with its deeper rumbles and layers of sound moving ever downward into the abyss. Hard to pin down, “Monolite” lingers with a kind of malice even as gentler melodies playfully hover overhead. Uncertain glitch effects work alongside the piano on the strange gorgeousness of “Basalto”. Metallic sheens hover about on the whispered hush of “Ruggine”. Massive “Amen” closes the album off with tremendous power, with a virtual wave of sound crashing overhead.
Tension and moments of loveliness intermingle on the satisfyingly expansive scope of Robero Galati & Federico Mosconi’s “Penombra”.
In some respects, Giulio Aldinucci & Francis M. Gri‘s new five-part collaboration Segmenti explores a parallel soundworld. Again, there’s a meditative depth of space (no short durations this time), though the emphasis here is on pitched rather than noise-based materials. Partly for this reason Segmenti approaches closer to the world of ambient music, Aldinucci and Gri creating beautiful large-form swatches of gossamer. There’s an interesting contrasting sense of perspective displayed in these pieces. ‘Anchor’ behaves in an aloof way, its droney texture, moving from a lower to a higher registral emphasis, is ostensibly light but sufficiently dense that it’s hard to know where or on what to focus. However, this is no bad thing, inviting a rapt listening focus that’s able to move freely through its wealth of details. Dronal elements recur elsewhere; in ‘Divisi’ the duo creates a fixed pitch centre that sounds distinctly sun-kissed, motes and particles of sound swirling around it, and which is twice subjected to impressive swells from within. It ultimately reduces to a cycling, drifting mass, very slowly subsiding in a transfixed process of slow dissolution. If noise features anywhere, it’s in the third track, ‘Magma’, where heavily reverbed piano notes are approached by a gritty cloud texture that coalesces around them. Gradually this becomes encrusted with content such that individual details becomes secondary to the by now seething accumulated mass. Though clearly much too intense to be described as peaceful, it nonetheless retains an idyllic quality due to never really becoming abrasive.
In their own way, each of these five pieces undergoes a unique form of slow-burn, and this is especially clear in the opening two pieces. ‘Remnants’, like ‘Anchor’, is initially vague and distant, though over time clarifies to form an exquisitely pretty sound object seemingly slowly turning in space. Around two-thirds of the way through, Gri and Aldinucci push it forward, revealing a number of texturally differentiated strata. ‘Faglie’ is arguably the album’s high point, a 14-minute shape-shifter that moves at an almost glacial pace, initially placing the gentlest of emphases on small harmonic shifts (including an ostensible, deeply buried perfect cadence). It sounds as though a melody is going to materialise, but instead, having bobbed around in the middleground for a time, the piece opens out into a warm ambient field with glimpses of a female voice singing somewhere deep within. Even more so than in ‘Divisi’, the music becomes entranced, entering a state of ecstasy, simultaneously delicate yet seemingly continuing to strengthen while it remains essentially static. Considering this is Aldinucci and Gri’s first collaboration, Segmenti is a magnificent achievement. It’s released on Gri’s own label Krysalisound, available on CD and digital from their Bandcamp site.
Francis M. Gri sculpts disorienting yet beautiful worlds of drone on the dazzling “Apart”. With one foot in the real world and the other firmly planted in the surreal, the way the two elements interact results in an aural universe that rushes by with such grace. Melodies rest deep in the soulful textures, as the usage of guitar punctuates the pieces giving them a summery lightness. Beside the drone there are classical framing devices which help to further emphasize the joyful spirit that seems to imbue itself deep inside every piece.
Tactile guitar work opens the album up with “In This Room”. From such small moments, the song gradually builds up into a blissful world, one which seemingly is without end. With each reiteration of the sound everything grows larger, as if Francis M. Gri is constantly uncovering new lands to explore. By far the highlight of the album the loveliness of the track is obvious, in how Francis M. Gri lets space and the sprawling size of the song add to its mysterious otherworldly aura. At first quite tense but gradually coming into something serene is the glowing work of “Hidden Reflections”. Over the course of this piece the way Francis M. Gri draws from so many instruments gives it a colorful spirit. Ending things on a heavenly note is the infinitely soothing waves of “Last”.
With “Apart” Francis M. Gri crafts something so tender, so full of life and hope.
Due anime si sono incontrate lungo lo stesso cammino, due diverse espressioni del medesimo sentire. L’una tendente alla dissociazione e conseguente ricostruzione di un suono altro dall’originale, al tempo stesso nuovo e intensamente antico. L’altra da sempre legata ad un percorso intimamente riconoscibile, lento nel suo progredire attraverso gli anni, un suono che ha saputo raggiungere pienezza e lievità commoventi. Aldinucci e M. Gri si sono incontrati ed hanno prodotto una delle migliori releases dell’anno. Il sound artist senese ha fatto un passo indietro abbandonandosi nuovamente alla purezza della melodia, accolta e abbracciata da M. Gri con altrettanta silenziosa e dolcissima virulenza. IPNOTICO MAGMA
Nuova collaborazione in casa KrisaliSound, stavolta tra Francis M. Gri – creatore dell’ottima etichetta italiana – e Giulio Aldinucci, due musicisti che abbiamo imparato ad apprezzare in svariate occasioni negli anni recenti, entrambi protagonisti di un 2016 incredibilmente ricco di soddisfazioni e di ottimi album (“Flow”, “Thisorder” e “Introspections” per Francis M. Gri, “Agoraphobia” e “Goccia” per Giulio Aldinucci).
“Segmenti” trova un punto d’incontro tra le precedenti esperienze dei due musicisti; le ricerche ambient con sovrapposizioni vocali, le melodie sussurrate e la continua ricerca di una spiritualità di Francis M. Gri si coniugano alla maggiore imponenza delle costruzioni sonore di Aldinucci, a quei muri elettronici fluidi ma impenetrabili, a volte persino carichi di un certo senso di magico e misterioso. È come se spiritualità ed esoterismo si incontrassero, come se la ricerca di pace e l’inquietudine esistenziale si scontrassero nel tentativo di trovare una sintesi.
Punto altissimo di “Segmenti” è il brano iniziale “Faglie”, quattordici minuti di sogni e speranze, di visioni celesti che trovano dopo il minuto 4.40 il culmine sublime dell’album (dove la parola sublime assume i connotati della pittura romantica di Caspar David Friedrich o William Turner). I cori femminili della straordinaria cantante Lilium e le note di un piano filtrato trovano una sintesi che rende quei minuti trascendentali e ipnotici, quasi provenienti da suoni non appartenenti a questo mondo. Se per adesso l’anima di Francis M. Gri è più presente, nei brani successivi sembra che Aldinucci prenda il sopravvento, come in un crescendo impetuoso e continuo dalla spiritualità all’inquietudine.
La breve “Remnants” è costruita su synth e piano, ma la strada continua perigliosa con i successivi “Magma”, inizialmente quasi cageana nelle sue poche note di piano per poi essere sommersa da venti elettronici e da impalpabili chitarre. L’imponenza aumenta sempre più sino ad “Anchor”, che fa coesistere magniloquenza e fragilità, e i nuovi quattordici minuti della finale “Divisi”, cinematica nell’incedere, a tratti caotica e persino intimorente nella sua potenza, che si conclude in un finale etereo e poetico; l’elemento spirituale, non religioso, che aveva dato l’abbrivio a “Segmenti” prende il sopravvento e ci porta per mano alla fine del viaggio.
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