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",
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(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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