Antonio Belmonte on Rock It
Se la Aut Records ha oltremodo investito su questo disco fino al punto di accoglierlo, per quanto massicciamente elettronico, nel proprio ovile di sole creature elettro-acustiche e tanto da supportarlo con una patinata uscita su vinile significa che evidentemente aveva qualcosa di buono da dire. E di buono c’è che il debutto dei Raccoglimento Parziale pullula di pigmentazioni sperimentali dalle marcate contraddizioni cromatiche, per quella sua morbosa commistione di toni caldi e freddi, di voglie acustiche su 6 corde e glitch-rumorismo di krautiana consistenza. Fraseggi pizzicati dal vago sapore mediterraneo si dissolvono all’interno di un ambient placidamente irrequieto come un bambino rapito dal primo sonno.
Stefano Meucci and Andrea Giachetti giocano con l’interazione cuore/transistor – sulla carta neanche poi tanto pioneristica – per codificare un linguaggio organico/digitale ostico ma per nulla ostile, asettico ma vivo, assemblato come un meccano di micro-suoni e lucidamente folle negli azzardi sintetici (pregevole l’uso dei samples), dove persino il didascalismo sonoro (“Screw and atoms between the toes”) il parossismo frequenziale (“The AndroidÔs Birth”) e la schizofrenia associativa (“We had wonderful clouds”) riescono a suonare concilianti.
Come una curiosa coppia di androidi dal caldo cuore di legno i due musicisti fiorentini fanno incetta di sensazioni, muovendosi tra Fennesz, Alva Noto e John Cage con un discreto tocco di personalità.
Jim on Normanrecords
Raccoglimento Parziale consists of Berlin-based Florentine duo Stefano Meucci and Andrea Giachetti, whose work will be known to some of you as part of minimal house trio The Clover. This disk is a much more experimental affair, blending acoustic guitar with radical digital editing techniques and some imaginative arrangements. It’s a pretty unique sounding record but obvious points of reference for me would be Alva Noto’s collaboration with Opiate released under the moniker Opto, which also combined the organic warmth of gently plucked guitars with alternately subtle and stark layers of electronica.
Raccoglimento Parziale’s approach is a lot more open ended than Opto though, with the tracks accruing layers of unusual and sometimes fractured sounds and then taking off on an unexpected tangent that makes it feel as if it could have been somehow improvised. The second track here ‘Screws And Atoms Between The Toes’, is a good example of this. It starts of with an off-kilter abstract beat over which some moody, flamenco-like chords ring out and are then chopped up and genetically modified by weird flanging and spatial effects before being swallowed up into a slick micro-house rhythm that gets eventually caught in the spokes of some spidery free improv-style scrabblings.
Platitudipus on Normanrecords
Not sure what to think of this. I do know the cover is extremely good so that’s a start. Apart from that… I do know I have played it a good few times since it arrived so I must like it but at same time still not entirely sure.
It’s the ol’ guitar, electronics, and glitch game here. I suppose Fennesz is an easy point of reference – although it sounds kind of like an even more burnt out Zelionople on first track. Second track is part guitarist on next morning huge come down broken homesick flamenco (even though they are from italy) colliding with a malfunctioning fridge and headache as blurred tiny muffled house beat. Third track starts off as some mediterrean style folk dance music before pierre henry moves in with some outrageous electronics and then things go on huge tangent with some ashra tempel guitar and we got ourselves some really psyched out italo-kraut rock thing on our hands.
On second thoughts being able to play a record multiple times and still not really be sure what it is – that’s a triumph – very hard trick to pull off. The cover art is pretty kick ass. F’ it – i deem thee a fine strange trip that you will pull from the shelves more frequently than you expect without ever fully understanding. History will judge this a minor classic (as history as more common sense than the now).
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