Alio Die
(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
Sit Tibi Terra Levis (1991), 7/10
Under an Holy Ritual (1992), 6/10
The Flight of Real Image (1993),
The Door of Possibilities (1994),
Password for Entheogenic Experience (1997), 7.5/10
Suspended Feathers (1995), 7/10
.....
Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia (2002), 6.5/10
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Alio Die (Italian composer Stefano Musso) assembled electronic pieces inspired by Harold Budd's angelic music on Sit Tibi Terra Levis (Hic Sunt Leones, 1991). The 16 vignettes display manic attention to timbral detail and a psychological vision akin to Brian Eno's Before and After Science. The restless dynamics of Metempsychosis imbued Klaus Schulze's cosmic music with urban neurosis. This exploration of alien soundscapes yields the ghostly noises of Sempiterna Mutatio, the gentle fairy-tale panorama of Frammenti Da Un Sogno, the ephemeral and imponderable underworld of Mazes And Labirints, the waves and moonlight reflections of Introspective, the threatening organic masses in movement of The Inner Escape. Musso exceled not only at picking elegant timbres but also at choreography: The Laws Of Manu juxtaposes liquid bubbling sounds, strident drones and a repetitive pattern; Rising Circles blends languid psychedelic wails and factory clangor; Equilibrio D'Ali creates a metaphor of human flight via the collision of droning celestial vocals and a grotesquely cranking noise. The way industrial chatter is mixed and staged in The Evocation Of The Invisible constitutes a little miracle of harmony. The last piece, Thoughts By The Side Of The Path, is the only extended one, a 12-minute futuristic allegory that transitions smoothly from menacing machine rhythms to an evocation of primordial jungle sounds.

The vignettes of Under an Holy Ritual (Projekt, 1992) exhibited an edgier personality. Global Construction is a collage for natural sounds and industrial noise. Axis Mundi is a menacing crescendo of circular patterns. The timbres of Invocation of the Source of Life (possibly the standout) evoke both Indian ragas and shamanic rituals. Under A Holy Ritual instead toys with the timbres of a multitude of percussion instruments. Waking Up From A Wistful Day is a brief sonata for wooden percussion and thunderstorm. At his best Alio Die meticulously programs a disorienting evolution of his intuitions. The notable exception is Reflections of A Dawn, that, de facto, is new-age music. The drawback of these "demonstrations" is that they often sound like self-indulgent, unfinished (and sometimes too predictable) manipulations of the sources.

The Flight of Real Image (Hic Sunt Leones, 1993) and The Door of Possibilities (Hic Sunt Leones, 1994) expanded the experiment in different directions.

Password for Entheogenic Experience (Hic Sunt Leones, 1997), perhaps the culmination of the early phase, is a stately 64-minute drone-based composition. Initially the drone projects a pastoral mood (enhanced by the sound of cowbells). As the initial sounds get stretched and dilated, though, the tone of the poem turns dreamy and mournful. The music seems to agonize, about to die, fragile and faint. The geometry of the undulations evokes a baroque fugue, but the atmosphere is hopelessly dejected and anemic. As the music gets louder, the mood turns ever more tragic, approaching the austere macabre grandeur of a requiem sung in a monastery by a choir of monks.

The Hidden Spring (Crowded, 1997) collects rarities from 1993 to 1997.

The way of Fire (1994)

Suspended Feathers (Amplexus, 1995), another peak of Alio Die's art, included the 21-minute Descending Past in which tiny instances of natural sounds appear in the calm soft soundscape, the exotic, lavish, ocarina-driven Ruins Garden Drones, the cryptic, cosmically fluctuating Time In Absence, the disorienting shifting "images" of Wings Of The Firefall (a collaboration with Vidna Obmana), from lulling accordion-like patterns to loudly hissing rain sounds to a quasi-symphonic density of shapeless drones.

Collaborations of this period included: Fissures (december 1996 - Fathom, 1997) with Robert Rich, the mini-album Descendre Cinq Lacs au Travers d'une Voile (recorded in 1997) with Yannick Dauby, Healing Herb's Spirit (Crowd Control, 1998) with Antonio Testa, A Tapestry for Sourcerers (Sempiterna Mutatio, 1995) and Mesmeric Revelation (Crowd Control, 1998) with Raffaele Serra (under the moniker 5000 Spirits), Echo Passage (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 1999) with Vidna Obmana, Ad Infinitum (HSL, 2001) and Mother Sunrise (Hypnos, 2001) with Matteo "Opium" Zini (both credited to Sola Translatio), Aquam Metallicam (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 2001) with Nick Parkin, Apsaras (Projekt, 2001) with Amelia Cuni, a mediocre incursion in Indian music, Mei-jyu with Japanese vocalist and keyboardist Jack or Jive, etc.

Le Stanze della Trascendenza (HSL, 1999), the second part of the ambient trilogy started with The Hidden Spring. Leaves Net (HSL, 2001) is the third part of the trilogy.

Incantamento (HSL, 2001), composed in 1999, is inspired by natural sounds.

Son-Dha is the duo of Alio Die and Red Sector A (Andrea Bellucci). Red Spector A Speeds Up Alio Die (Release, 2002) is a drum'n'bass remix of Alio Die's ambient works.

Expanding Horizon (Relapse - 2003) is a double-disc collaboration between Alio Die and Mathias Grassow (Musso composed the source in 1999, Grassow edited it in studio in 2001). The result is wildly uneven and too predictable.

Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia (spring 2002) contains some of his most elegant works: the twelve-minute A Gift with its thick shimmering stream of drones; the ten-minute Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia that travels the inverse route of his masterpiece Password for Entheogenic Experience from lugubrious to pastoral; the delicate, feathery Lo Scrigno del Cuore; Acqua che Brucia with its floating cello lines and sounds of water. Circular Development of Time uses minimalist repetition to flirt with both chamber and exotic music.

The prolific Italian artist also released: Prayer for the Forest (2002) with Antonio Testa, Khen Introduce Silence (Hic Sunt Leones, 2003), recorded in 2001, built around the processed sounds of Khen (a kind of Asian mouth-organ), Sunja (2003), a collaboration with Tommaso "Zeit" Cimo in two lenghty tracks (dominated by zither and the khen mouth-organ), the biological concept Sleep of Seeds (spring 2003), a collaboration with Saffron Wood, Sol Niger (Hic Sunt Leones, 2004), originally recorded in 2001. Most of them contain interesting bits of music, but (as usual with prolific artists) mainly attest to the low cost of manufacturing compact discs.

Angel's Fly Souvenir (2005) documents a collaboration from 2002 with multimedia artist Francesco Paladino and one of Alio Die's most sophisticated productions.

Il Sogno di un Piano Veneziano a Parigi (2006) documents a live performance of january 2003 with Festina Lente on prepared piano.

Aqua Planing (2006), composed between 1998 and 2005, is a collaboration with German sound sculptor Werner Durand on self-made wind instruments.

Five Thousand Spirits was originally a moniker used by Raffaele Serra for his albums A Tapestry for Sourcerers (1995) and Mesmeric Revelation (1999). Serra and Alio Die used the same moniker for the albums Quantum Consciousness (2006) and Schwarzild Radius (2006), that sound like tributes to the cosmic music and the new age music of the 1970s.

The EP Aurea Hora contains a composition for zither, radio and electronics.

Enigma (2006), credited to Sola Translatio, is a collaboration with Matteo Zini. Corteggiando le Messi is a collaboration with Saffron Wood who plays psaltery and zither. Raag Drone Theory is a collaboration with Zeit (Tommaso Cim•). Sospensione d'estate is a collaboration with electronic musician James Johnson. End of an Era is a collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Luciano Daini (recorded between between 2003 and 2007) Synapse-Shaihulud is credited to the Five Thousand Spirits. Eleusian Lullaby is a collaboration with vocalist Martina Galvagni, the continuation of Apsaras.

Aura Seminalis (2008) is the first chapter of the "Castles Sonorisation Series",

(Translation by/ Tradotto da Ascanio Borga)

Alio Die (il compositore italiano Stefano Musso) assembla pezzi elettronici ispirati alle lente e rilassanti melodie del Brian Eno di Music for Airports e del primo Harold Budd: Sit Tibi Terra Levis (Hic Sunt Leones, 1991), l'angelico Under an Holy Ritual (Projekt, 1992), con Reflections of A Dawn, The Door of Possibilities (Hic Sunt Leones, 1994), The Flight of Real Image (Hic Sunt Leones, 1993), e Password for Entheogenic Experience (Hic Sunt Leones, 1997), forse il culmine della sua prima fase, una maestosa composizione di 64 minuti a base di droni.

The Hidden Spring (Crowded, 1993) contiene rarita'.

Tra le collaborazioni vanno annoverati Suspended Feathers (Amplexus, 1995), con Vidna Obmana, Fissures (Fathom, 1997) con Robert Rich, il mini-album Descendre Cinq Lacs au Travers d'une Voile con Yannick Dauby, Healing Herb's Spirit (Crowd Control, 1998) con Antonio Testa, A Tapestry for Sourcerers (Sempiterna Mutatio, 1995) e Mesmeric Revelation (Crowd Control, 1998) con Raffaele Serra (con il moniker 5000 Spirits), Echo Passage (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 1999) con Vidna Obmana, Ad Infinitum (HSL, 2001) e Mother Sunrise (Hypnos, 2001) con Opium (entrambi accreditati a Sola Translatio), Aquam Metallicam (Musica Maxima Magnetica, 2001) con Nick Parkin, Apsaras (Projekt, 2001) con Amelia Cuni, una mediocre incursione nella musica indiana, ecc...

Le Stanze della Trascendenza (HSL, 1999) Incantamento (HSL, 2001) Leaves Net (HSL, 2001).

Son-Dha e' un duo composto da Alio Die e Red Sector A (Andrea Bellucci). Red Spector A Speeds Up Alio Die (Release, 2002) e' un remix drum'n'bass remix dei lavori ambient di Alio Die.

Expanding Horizon (Relapse - 2003) e' un doppio in collaborazione con Mathias Grassow (Musso ha composto la sorgente, Grassow l'ha successivamente editata in studio). Il risultato e' molto irregolare e troppo prevedibile.

Il prolifico artista italiano ha anche pubblicato: l'elegante Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia (2002), Khen Introduce Silence (Hic Sunt Leones, 2003), costruito su suoni processati di khen (uno speciale tipo di organo a bocca asiatico), Sunja (2003), una collaborazione con Tommaso "Zeit" Cimo in due lunghe tracce (dominate dallo zither e dall'organo khen), il concept biologico Sleep of Seeds (2003), una collaburazione con Saffron Wood, Sol Niger (Hic Sunt Leones, 2004), originariamente registrato nel 2001. La maggior parte di essi contiene interessanti pezzetti di musica, ma (come al solito con gli artisti prolifici) principalmente dimostra il basso costo di produzione dei compact disc.

Angel's Fly Souvenir (2005) e' una collaborazione con l'artista multimediale Francesco Paladino ed una delle produzioni piu' sofisticate di Alio . Il Sogno di un Piano Veneziano a Parigi (2006) e' una collaborazione con Festina Lente al piano preparato. Aqua Planing (2006) e' una collaborazione con lo scultore sonoro Werner Durand registrata con strumenti a fiato autocostruiti.

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Cronosessionografia di Alio Die.