{scope} — Nightcap
The curiously titled {scope} is the coming together of three musicians and one producer. It all started in 2020, when Laura Agnusdei (tenor and baritone sax, kazoo, synth, sampler), Matteo Pennesi (synths, granular synthesis, piano) and Luca Sguera (prepared piano, percussions, synths) gathered at the Holydays Festival in Scopoli, Umbria having been selected for the artist residency there. Fast forward four years and the trio are now releasing their sophomore album Nightcap, this time accompanied by producer Francesco Piro.
Credited with providing ‘panic attacks’ alongside vocals, processing, percussions and synths, it was Piro who galvanised the three musicians into returning to the studio for a second time. The trio started playing together at Holydays and enjoyed it so much that they ended up recording the album A Week from Monday, which was released by Via Industriae and Rous Records in 2022. Two years later, they found themselves reunited in the Piro’s Bari studio where they spent a week putting material together. Retaining the trio’s free jazz and nostalgic electronica, the addition of the Italian producer has given {scope}’s music a new layer of complexity – his sublime ambient aesthetic providing the latest album with more light and shade.
And it isn’t called Nightcap for nothing as each of its tracks refers to a rather pleasant tipple. Opening with ‘Pour Free’, a sax fanfare heralds the beginning of proceedings before piano and percussion enter, electronic effects subtly lurking in the background – this is a musical nod to the world of Lynch’s Mulholland Drive with all its enigmatic and intricate components. And on Nightcap no two tracks sound the same as the quartet toy with genres, sounds and sonic experience. ‘Dirty Martino’ is intense and abrasive – a blend of percussion, drums and effects, where the snare collides with the gentle nudging of the cymbal; hints of backward tape play as a dominant rhythm occasionally threatens to break through. But the status quo is shattered with the introduction of discordant sax – the free jazz that always lurks under the surface and is deftly accompanied by hovering piano. ‘Jumping Jiggers’ is a highly apt title for this skittish musique concrète number that encompasses voices, piano notes and borderline comedic sound effects before giving way to a more soundtrack-oriented sax and piano. ‘No Flips in My Gin Fizz’ has the spirit of dystopian dread with its opening drone-crash segue and the sound of a robotic alien – end of the world meets Marvin the Martian.
The next two tracks are wonderfully understated – lush and melodic. ‘Verbena Santa’ is slow and delicate while ‘Coffee Break’ soars with sax and prepared strings building to a transcendent finish. Glorious. ‘Agar Agar’ rounds up more electronic effects and is followed by ‘Snoopo’, which kicks off with subtle afro-rhythms before kazoo takes centre stage. The final track proper is the subtle, yet intriguing, ‘11th Alambicco’ where the sax is free but restrained, controlled by the repetitive interjection of piano notes as the effects slope along in the background – and we have come full circle. Fabulous, experimental, exciting and adventurous. Listen here.