textura

Albums
2562
3ofmillions
3 Seconds Of Air
Monty Adkins
Agoria
Anduin
Natalie Beridze TBA
Black Eagle Child
Boduf Songs
Bodzin Vs Romboy
Build
Marco Carola
Blake Carrington
Codes In The Clouds
Dreamsploitation
Federico Durand
Elektro Guzzi
Emanuele Errante
FiRES WERE SHOT
Rick Frystak
Garin & Gobart
Gerard and Graydon
Kraig Grady
Guthrie & Budd
Marcus Intalex
Jumpel
Slavek Kwi
March
Maschine
Melodium
Alton Miller
Obsil
Phaedra
Semiomime
Shaula
Kate Simko
Sleepingdog
Nobuto Suda
Moritz Von Oswald Trio

Compilations / Mixes
5ZIG
20 F@#&ING Years
Michelangelo Antonioni
Fabric 56: Derrick Carter

EPs
Agoria featuring Kid A
Aleph
A Story of Rats
Orlando B.
Ceremony
Cex
Matthew Dear
Entia Non & Tanner Menard
Nick Kuepfer
Clem Leek
Mat Le Star
Lulacruza
Paul Lyman
Moss
Resampled Part 1
Resampled Part 2
Snoretex
Subeena

Obsil: Vicino
Psychonavigation

Giulio Aldinucci's third Obsil—Ob(serving)sil(ence), that is—album is relatively brief at thirty-six minutes yet nevertheless contains a teeming multitude of sounds. Born in Siena in 1981, the Italian electronic musician weaves acoustic instruments, lush classical strings, field recordings, and digital synthesis methods into a nine-track electro-acoustic collection. In its iridescent sparkle, Aldinucci's material invites comparison to the music of Susumu Yokota and Marsen Jules. A typical Obsil piece conjures a fairy tale-like oasis that allows the listener to easily transport him/herself into the track's imaginary universe. That template is established clearly at the outset when sunshowers of music boxes, kalimbas, and strings surface in “Poi Gli Alberi Sono Cresciuti” and when clock chimes and field recordings appear during “A Smile in Summer.” Aldinucci's classical-leaning inclinations come into view during “Lenti Silenzi” when billowing strings swell into an impenetrably dense mass of keening sound, and “Pendii (Siena, Metà Gennaio)” similarly registers as a modern classical-styled improv for strings, piano, and field recordings.

There's often a focus on multi-layered textural flow as opposed to melody per se, though “Nebbie D'Ottobre” offers one such case where flute and piano melodies stand out, if fleetingly, from the incessantly mutating flow of sound. That song in particular is a kaleidoscope of rapidly changing scene-painting, with orchestral passages and pulsing pianos alternately bobbing to the track's surface during its six-minute run. If anything, one wishes that Aldinucci would allow his restless material to settle in one place for longer, rather than have it change so rapidly. That's especially felt, to a frustrating degree even, during the closing piece, “Unseen,” when so many parts, so appealing when broached singly, repeatedly collide with another, resulting in something more akin to a collage than a satisfying compositional whole.

April 2011