Masche — Oxia Chaos

Released in the year 1950 and written by respected US Sci-fi novelist Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles, is seen as a classic example of post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. Oxia Chaos  is this sonic collectives attempt to soundtrack said book, and it’s their second album

Hailing from Ivrea, Italy, Masche started in 2013 in Canavese, as an open collective focusing on merging rock, electronics and improvisation. Eventually, a steady line-up was settled, currently consisting of four musicians: Valerio Zucca Paul: electronics, Andrea Chiuni: bass and voice, Diego Rosso: drums, Alessandro Cartolari: baritone sax. 

In The Martian Chronicles, we find strife and destruction due to the exploration and settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving Earth that has been devastated by nuclear war. And this can be felt within the music!. First of all, the sound “transliteration” of the book via Oxia Chaos seems as if it was recorded in a leftover cinematic set, combining that theatrical essence with a free jazz improv sensibility. The aesthetic of the production is organic and crystal clear, with a generally earthly sound. A mixture of instrument dynamics with electronic saturation, either in the continuance or contradiction manner; creating both topology and topography within the sound. 

This is free form jazz, and it is definitely freaky. It’s a blend of loud and serene, capturing the book’s troubled outrush. Oxia Chaos progressively moves via the chains of reactions between the musicians. Sound phrases instantly create images, freely. Dramatic reciting of passages from the book, with an agonizing and emerging voice, accompanied by manic jazzy outbursts or low-profile soundscapes, where the sax is cataclysmic, the bass is crunchy, drums are pumping, and the electronics are shadowlike, sometimes scorching, like drops of water straight from hell. The whole
soundscape is claustrophobic yet vast in conception, this is an album with various speeds, various sentiments, various sound ecologies, various moods, bright and dark contemporary and vintage.  
 
With Oxia Chaos, Masche approach scoring The Martian Chronicle with the utmost respect to its atmosphere giving a great audio counterpart, which generates further stories. But also, Oxia Chaos stands as a heavy and heavily improvised jazz creation with rock elements, complete, with both volume and atmosphere- making it a fully psychedelic experience in every possible way. To find out more drop by here