Carlos Giffoni — Pendulum

Recorded between 2024 and 2025 in California, Giffoni's Pendulum swings from The Golden State across the world, picking up six collaborators, mixing in Japan, and back to California before hitting Australia for the album's artwork. Being such a collaborative effort increases Pendulum's ability to evade easy description and classification, with each piece existing on its own but also part of a looser whole. Giffoni's electronics and style run throughout and give the album a bit of a leitmotif to cling to while each track is allowed to reach its arms during the parabolic flight and extend out in their desired direction. Opening with the title track, Giffoni teams up with American trumpeter Greg Kelley for a smooth and shimmering piece whose layers reflect the brighter aspects of the horn and give off an air of unprepared orchestra, the instruments all working together to get in tune but still creating a solid atmosphere. Mabe Fratti brings her avant-garde cello skills to the table in the next piece, "Dermis." Feeling a bit like a Synthesizer in King Arthur's Court, the low cello notes hearken to medieval melodies and fireside ditties while electronics lightly scrape and scream, giving the piece a buzz of unexpected energy. Feeding back to the cello, the liveliness picks up and replaces the initial gravity with levity. "The Past Beyond" is one of two solo tracks on the album, and the chopped, modular intro is soon overtaken by large, sweeping synth swells, heaving like ripples through a starry sky. And although the chaos of the beginning tries to rear its head again at the end, the strength of the synths prevail, and calmness wins the day. Composed with a similar feel, the organ-like synths of "Beam" capture the feel and brightness of the previous track, this time with Zola Jesus' operatic voice acting like the heavenly visage to be admired. Vast echoes make one feel as though they're in a Renaissance cathedral, listening to a mellifluous voice bounce off of bright frescoes, each note bringing the listener closer to their creator. Shifting gears, "Axis" begins the second half of Pendulum, darker and more obscured than the tracks before it. Utilizing the skills of Ben Chasny, the chaotic soup of souls boiling below quickly churns while the beings above swoop in and out, their electronic traces crackling in the air above. However, as the pendulum swings, the listener is again treated to brighter, more airy textures and tones on "Dos," brought forth by Giffoni and Lea Bertucci. Layering many different vocal components, "Dos" plays like an earthly response to the angelic "Beam," sometimes reaching high with hands above heads, ecstatic in adoration. The underlying heaviness adds a darker air, reminding the listener of their status as a denizen of Earth. The second solo piece, "Thorn," brings back the chopped, modular tones, this time placed over an aquatic background, giving an effervescent life to this penultimate track. In its final arc of the trajectory, Pendulum swings into thick and undulating territory. Like the "Whirlwind" it describes, Giffoni and Iggor Cavalera sweep in a circular, hypnotic, and oscillating fashion, with the walls closing in in claustrophobic vigor. Electronic tones reach out in hopes of rescue, but who knows if the SOS was received. 

 

Carlos Giffoni assembled a crew of experienced musicians to help him out with his latest, Pendulum. Eight varied tracks of electronics, voice, and traditional instruments, Giffoni evokes highs, lows, calm, chaos, and many dichotomies as the pendulum swings back and forth. From Venezuela to California, then the world over, Pendulum is truly an international affair. Tying each track together, both with final touches and his two solo tracks, Carlos Giffoni takes the work of each artist and wraps it together for one engaging whole. For more