There are two distinct types of Alio Die albums: the album length drone works and the albums comprised of short tracks, often culled from compilations and various other appearances. Alio Die has a strong back catalog of highly original work; these ambient records have served as touchstones for newer artists like Oöphoi and Amon to continue in a rich environmental ambient vein.

An Alio Die CD is always a pagan ritual with the odor of dirt and moisture in the air. The newest offering to arcane gods, Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia is not easy to put in the album length drone or collection of short tracks categories. The CD has ten distinctive tracks, but with a definite flow of purpose and design that past track collections like Leaves Net have not quite successfully achieved.

We begin with "A Gift" which is a composition of whistles and highly processed accordion--immediately the recycling projects of Vidna Obmana, for example Landscape in Obscurity, come to mind. Gradually the accordion tones build up to form a harmonic mass of sound, rapturous in tone. Pretty good for an accordion! The next two tracks launch right into traditional Alio Die territory--repeated "melodies" featuring processed traditional instruments alongside rich organic drones. This is what we've come to expect and love in an Alio Die CD. If I had a main criticism of this particular disc, it would be that the most tracks rely on too much Alio Die by numbers; similarly building trance tracks that we've heard since Under an Holy Ritual debuted. Alio Die has mastered this type of composition--not to mention the fact that the types of tracks he does are unmistakeably Alio Die--so this can hardly be a strong criticism. There are not nearly enough Alio Die discs to be tired of the style yet. The attention to mystic tone is so deep that it is hard to not be entranced even with minor stylistic tweaks to the Alio Die-style proper.

A standout track is "Fragile-struggente," which is a very simple mixture of melancholy synth loop accompanied by the sound of a lemon peel burning on a stove (according to the liner notes). It's a gorgeous little piece, with incidental noises and creaks that remind me of Ora. It's tracks like this that have beguiled me with Alio Die from the start. A simple setup leads to pure ambient ritualism. A still later track, "Still Here!" reminds us that past drone albums are not far off--I would not be surprised if this were an outtake from Incantamento.

I have always imagined Stefano Musso as some crazy Italian guy making ambient records out in the middle of nowhere. Sure, he's got an email address, but who's to say this isn't some strange sham? Whenever I pop in the Alio Die album of choice, it's not idle soundscaping with strange noises, it's not a journey into deep, dark space like so many other ambient releases fine and not so fine. This is the sound of a man with wild hair performing a magickal-with-a-'k' ritual on the top of a mountain amidst blowing crosswinds. As we all well know, black magic is not performed without consequences--Musso has tapped into some leyline of arcane energy, and it's seeped into the music.

Is this an essential Alio Die album? For the diehard fan, yes. For the casual listener, I would say to start with Under an Holy Ritual or Password for Entheogenic Experience. This should probably be filed with Alio Die's previous collections of odds and sods tracks, however it deserves to be written that this particular collection contains a stronger album length flow than other releases of this nature. But then, perhaps even now Musso is weaving a spell, guiding my hands over the keyboard, slowly rotating the earth beneath, summoning a gradual, inexorable pall in the sky.... Quiet; can you hear him shift the earth?

From Hic Sunt Leones.

since July 15, 2003