Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Andrea Marutti / Tommaso Cosco - Turra [Afe Records - 2008]

The mysterious Archiaro is to be found in Catanzaro of Southern Italy – Tommaso Cosco describes it as “a countryplace where memory and becoming merge in a present full of inspired consciousness”. Occasionally it seems to be used as a low key venue for friends to perform experimental, ambient works in a natural setting – something that Andrea Marutti, head of Milan’s Afe Records, took advantage of in 2007 when he incorporated some of Tommaso’s ideas into a solo live performance that was released by Nextera the following year as ‘The Subliminal Relation Between Planets’.

Billed as a “natural extension” to Andrea’s live album, ‘Turra’ is named after an old stone building found in Archiaro. Here, Tommaso, taking advantage of the Turra’s natural reverb, recorded an unrehearsed vocal take on a melody from a local carillon (a huge instrument consisting of over 20 cast bronze bells triggered serially through an oversized keyboard by fists and feet). So it is with some surprise that the resulting 18 minute recording housed on this 3” CD-R sounds neither vocal nor melodious. It does, however, major on reverb and displays the sonorous properties of a bell.

Deep, rumbling, fragile tones are cast one after another, slowly and often unexpectedly, into the space, their long reverberating trails of harmonic overtones meet, collide and coalesce as their echoing decay is eventually eclipsed by another. The overall effect is evocative of a dark and damp labyrinth of dungeons whose tunnels and cells are defined by the combined emotional residue of previous solitary occupants. By starting out with a recording of a voice imbued with natural reverb, Andrea’s and Tommaso’s subsequent, presumably heavy, treatment expertly retains some of the drama inherent in organic source material, yet remains obtuse, making the short, monophonic intonations neither affecting nor disturbing, but, like its birthplace, intriguing.

Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5Rating: 3 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
Latest Reviews

Andrea Marutti / Tommaso Cosco -...
The mysterious Archiaro is to be found in Catanzaro of Southern Italy – Tommaso Cosco describes it as “a countryplace where memory and becoming merge in a pr...
270324   Jerzy Skolimowski Collection ...
260324   Latex Choker - Sealed
260324   Occlusion - 59: No Input Wall
260324   Nihil Impvlse - Anabasis
260324   Marta Forsberg - Sjunger För...
260324   The New Boy - The New Boy( Th...
250324   The Stargazer’s Assistant - ...
250324   Liza Lim - Annunciation Trip...
220324   Patrick - Patrick( UHD/ Blu Ray)
220324   Dadawah - Peace And Love
Latest Articles

Sutcliffe No More - Normal Everyd...
Sutcliffe No More are a British two-piece bringing together Kevin Tomkins & Paul Taylor. Formed in 2021, it’s the spin-off project/ next sonic step...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
050523   Bill Morroni - The Trials & ...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom