Gri + Mosconi: Between Ocean and Sky
Slowcraft Records

James Murray capped his enviable run of 2018 releases in the Slowcraft Presents series with this fine collaboration between Francis M. Gri and Federico Mosconi, a six-part work that could be seen as a poster child of sorts for contemporary ambient practice. Though many of the familiar hallmarks of the genre are here, including neoclassical and drone, Between Ocean and Sky never feels like a retread covering ground others have exhaustively explored. Instead, the material feels fresh, vibrant, and alive, as if borne from the excitement shared by creators working in territory previously uncharted.

Instrumentation details aren't included (at least not in the press copy), but the material suggests the usual plethora of sources has been deployed, field recordings, electronic gear, and acoustic instruments, piano, harp, guitar, and the like. That such clarification hasn't been included could be interpreted to mean that, as far as the creators are concerned, the listener is best advised to simply broach the material as pure sound rather than obsess over fine details like some overly fastidious trainspotter. Processing is certainly present yet not applied to the degree that the originating instruments lose their identifying character.

Composed and recorded by the duo between Milan and Verona during 2016-17, the collection finds them methodically building on their individual strengths to fashion an expertly conceived joint creation. Certainly there's drama aplenty, as the opener “Conversations” shows when it escalates to a blistering, industrial-strength roar halfway through its nine-minute ride and again in its closing minutes. Between Ocean and Sky is anything but a noise exercise, however, the producers preferring instead to engage the listener with soothing waves of harp picking, piano musings, and enveloping synth washes.

The album reaches a fever pitch of sorts with the advent of the fourth track, “Landscape Rosso,” which thrums and sparkles resplendently from its first moment. For five minutes, the music dazzles with a dizzying swirl of harps, electronic glistenings, processed guitar shadings, and seeming woodwind textures. The subsequent “Landscape Bianco,” by comparison, begins by bringing the intensity level down but then slowly heats up when layers of molten (presumably guitar-generated) sludge add weight to the presentation. Here and elsewhere, elements swim through the mix, bobbing to the surface at one moment before retreating from view the next.

January 2019