“This anecdote seems to me significant, but I’m not sure of what exactly.” - Georges Perec
This is the scattered cartography of a submerged (subdued) continent. The album tracks do not only speak of lands which positive knowledge has not yet incorporated into its domain (our distinctions are but the token of our limitations). They are of a vibrant, albeit difficult, closeness.
A ‘classical’ side (chamber music, Vivaldi, even) and a deconstructive side, the latter yet avoiding all excessive and pretentious seriousness. Post-rock, electronics, concrete music, ambient, improvisation, progressive jazz may all be glimpsed, yet the music in this album steers clear of pigeonholing; because of the instrumentation, but also the atmospheres. A strongly cinematic element throughout – MU have often performed live soundtracks for films, this must have made their music more filmic. (A film that fits well with the atmospheres of this record is Werner Herzog’s “The Wild Blue Yonder”.) One is struck by the album’s fragmentation; sound and musical elements are exploded (an exploded vision) and can be perceived separately, but they merge for brief, enveloping moments.
Beckett, Büchner, an ancient inscription found in Persia... surely other references elude us. Things one doesn’t know, things one has forgotten – and things that have been transubstantiated, making them seemingly unrecognizable.
This music is anti-rhetorical, atmospheric and intimate, yet never sentimental. It is rich and strange in timbre, full of small surprises and sudden turns. Not static as a single picture, or a photograph, a freeze-frame; visual, yes, but in the flow of time.
- Jacopo Benci, visual artist and musician, April 2019
released October 14, 2019
Produced by Adriano Lanzi, Federica Vecchio and Marco Contini
Executive production Marco Contini for Kappabit S.r.l.
Published by Folderol -
www.folderol.it
Folderol is a branch of Kappabit Music Division
℗ © 2019 by Kappabit S.r.l. (SIAE) - All rights reserved
All tracks composed by Adriano Lanzi and Federica Vecchio except (1) by Adriano Lanzi, Federica Vecchio and Filippo Edgardo Paolini (Økapi) and (7) by Antonio Vivaldi.
Adriano Lanzi: acoustic guitar, electronics, prepared guitar on (5)
Federica Vecchio: cello
Also appearing:
Økapi electronics and production on (1)
Geoff Leigh alto flute on (2)
Lino Capra Vaccina vibraphone, cymbals and gong on (4)
Amy Denio bass guitar on (6)
Giovanna Izzo vocals on (10)
Recorded (mostly) @ Kiwi Studio in Rome by Adriano Lanzi.
Amy Denio recorded her bass @ Spoot Studio, Seattle, WA.
Geoff Leigh recorded his flute in Hastings (U.K.).
Lino Capra Vaccina’s part was recorded by Alberto Callegari @ Elfo Studio, Milano.
Tracks (3), (8), (10) recorded live @ L’Asilo (ex-Asilo Filangieri), Napoli by Fabrizio Elvetico.
Mastered by Massimo Costa @ RyanRecording, Rome.
Cover and graphic art by Kinéo Studio, Rome.