Alio Die - Deconsecrated and Pure [Projekt - 2012]“Deconsecrated and Pure” offers up a heady & spiritual fix of bright, religious, renaissance & medieval tinged atmospheric ambient music. This is the first solo release from Italian ambient- acoustic sculptor Stefano Musso in some twenty years, through he has been active in-between this & his last solo release putting out all manner of collaborations. The albums digipak artwork features pictures of a semi derelict looking monastery or temple. And really these images are deeply apt as all the five tracks on offer here feel deeply of centuries of religious devotion, the feeling of ancient pilgrimages & a genreal feeling of timeless religious peace, tranquillity and wonder. Musso utilizes a mixture choral samples, Middle East horns, acoustic instrumentation- such as flutes, wind chimes & vibes, plus a subtle use of field recording. These elements he blends into scared, rising & warming ambient sound scapes & electro-organic drone-scapes, which seem to slowly dart, melt & glow around one ears.
Through there are quite a few elements here that could suggest new age type ambient fluffiness & twee sonic boredom, thankfully Musso manages to side step all of those pitfalls to create an album that feels out of time, yet alive with warming & harmonic spiritual richiness.
So if you’re after bright, yet hazy & heady ambient music with a distinctive religious grounding- you’ll find a lot to saviour here. But if your after darker more chilling ambience it’s best to look some place else    Roger Batty
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