Federico Mosconi: Il Tempo Della Nostra Estate
Slowcraft
Mathieu Karsenti: Downstream Blue
Slowcraft
Inaugurating Slowcraft's digital-only series Lifelines is Il Tempo Della Nostra Estate by Italian guitarist Federico Mosconi, whose seven compositions satisfy the sub-label's criteria that its material should be “vital and consoling.” Bringing unity to the series is a visual approach whereby each release is presented with artwork by printmaker June Murray. The material on the forty-six-minute outing by Mosconi, a graduate of the Music Conservatory in Verona who creates music for theatre and film when not performing solo and with ensembles of varying sizes, distances itself from standard ambient-drone recordings for its integration of acoustic sounds. It's not uncommon for a classical guitar, harp, or other instrument to lend a piece distinguishing character. After field recordings-styled textures introduce the opening track, “Un Istante Sospeso,” for instance, mere seconds pass before the elegant strums of a classical guitar emerge to accent its carefully measured ambient-electronic flow. Unfurling slowly, the music induces relaxation, the effect reinforced by the lulling rhythm generated by the guitar.
The title track individuates itself most of all by threading celestial vocalizing by Elisa De Rossi into a shimmering electric guitar-and-organ conflux; while a close second to it is “In Silenzio Leggero” for coupling lulling harp and bowed strings with granular noise, another setting suggests the presence of dulcimer amidst acoustic guitar and electronics. Conspicuously more than on the other tracks, ambient and fingerpicking elements switch between foreground and background during “La Giostra Nel Vento,” the guitar at one moment almost alone at the forefront and the next rendered inaudible when engulfed by electronic haze. Mosconi's album is distinguished not only by presenting unusual instrument combinations but for subjecting its focal points to a constant state of flux.
A natural partner to it is Mathieu Karsenti's Downstream Blue, even if its twenty-two-minute length makes it the more modest addition to the series. Similar to Mosconi, Karsenti composes music for film, TV, and stage when not issuing his own music, and for his Slowcraft debut, he created four lush soundscapes that, compared to Mosconi's, align themselves more closely to established ambient practice yet are no less striking for doing so. Instating a meditative ambiance, “Pales” rolls in gently on waves of neon-lit drift, willowy tones alternating graceful with rustic strings as the elements blossom into a majestic mass. What Karsenti accomplishes here in just six minutes is quite remarkable, and the elegance of the sound design and control of its carefully administered development speaks strongly for his abilities as a sound sculptor. Reminiscent of Mosconi's recording, “Loosen” combines acoustic sonorities with electronics, in this case strings and the banjo-like pluck of acoustic guitar, its tone brooding in comparison to the serene opener. “Further” will no doubt be the prog lover's favourite, given the integration of mellotron into its arrangement. As the EP plays, one is struck by how expertly Karsenti shapes his elements into elegant wholes, as well as his sensitivity to timbre. While no would label the settings classical (though it is part of the genre mix), Downstream Blue does often achieve a kind of symphonic splendour.June 2020