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The time between Alio Die's last work, Il Tempo Magico di Saturnia Pavonia, and now was clearly the calm before the storm. Three new titles of Stefano Musso's work, both solo and in collaboration,
are now available to the ritual-ambient listening public.
First up is Khen Introduce Silence, comprised of all new solo Alio Die tracks, all derived from the sound of the khen--a
mouth organ from Southeast Asia. "Organ" is an adequate description of this instrument in the context of this album--when
processed by Alio Die, it begins to sound reminiscent of a sonorous and otherworldly church organ. Its sound is dissonant
and tonal, close in spirit to the Forrest Fang track "Some Unfinished Business" on Gongland. This dissonance is jarring
at first, but once the listener relaxes into the sounds, it begins to make a strange sort of tuneful sense. The opening track,
"Puntar orecchio alle sfere" immerses us immediately into this strange tonal world, with environmental noises accompanied
by the strange hooning of the processed khen, which, after a time, begins to twinkle in an otherworldly way. The sounds are
unabashedly organic, as with the rest of Alio Die's work, managing to create a strange natural stillness from what is essentially
a man-made element. Things get really ambient on track three, "Accarezzando soma come si fa con una pituma," when the khen
is processed down into a slow stillness as the different drones wax and wane--the khen is still recognizable here, but it
is used in a soft, almost phased, manner, creating an ululating zone of tones. "Introduce Silence" manages to transcend the
khen origins, making the sounds drone even more softly--taking this ethnic instrument and bending it to the will of Musso,
in order to create a zen-trance state of quiet ambience. The final track "In Vulvica Risonanza" is perhaps one of the most
exciting and experimental pieces Musso has done to date. It begins with a swirling drone and heartbeat vibrations that gradually
give way to a frog croak--which quickly transitions to khen harmonics--which blend back into the swirling drone--which transition
back (with the frog croak) into the khen harmonics. These two loops continue thus for five minutes, basically the same two
strips of sound, making what is essentially an eternal Mobius strip of music--activated by your CD player's repeat button.
The transition is jarring at first between loops, but eventually, after a few cycles, it lulls you into a trance of repeated
sonic elements. I've never heard anything like this on an environmental ambient recording and the effect is truly awe-inspiring.
Khen Introduce Silence, while maintaining a certain sameness between the seven tracks, integrates an unusual instrument
into a shockingly beautiful ambient setting. Alio Die continues to make work that progresses into newer terrains, while still
maintaining the sonic touchstones that made the music so exciting in the first place. This disc is like a magic window into
an ancient time where the sound of a human instrument and nature around meld into otherworldly harmonies.
Next is The Sleep of Seeds, a collaboration with Saffron Wood (who listeners might remember from way back on 1993's
The Promises of Silence compilation). This is a fifty minute long meditation on the growth of plantlife from seed
to above-ground entity. This is an appropriate area of musical exploration because the work of Alio Die has always been about
the microworlds of sound usually ignored by casual listeners. Why not focus on an area of life normally unseen, transmuted
into musical impressions? Different from most recent Alio Die albums, this collaboration contains three sprawling tracks
of ambience, rather than short sonic impressions. The first, "The Sleep of Seeds," is remarkably abstract--harking to the
early days of Alio Die's work, when it resembled Ora and Art of Primitive Sound. This track is a twenty minute revolving
of experimental elements, strange percussives, unknown electronic noises, dissonant textures. The sleep of seeds is clearly
an alien slumber, with quiet dreams. The track dithers on improvisationally, ending with haunting bass drones and strange,
muted cries. "Awakening in a New Form" is not remarkably different from the first track, though toward the end a transition
is made to deeper levels of drone. The underworld life of the seed has expanded into more broad and beautiful terrain, as
it stretches its nascent tendrils towards the sun. Finally, "A Dream of Mother Ground" expands even further into strange
whistling, tribal flutes, and marvelous water ambience--the plant is reaching high into the air, splashed with nature's water,
photosynthesizing in a wild, natural life-orgy. This is a highlight of the album--there are no humans to interrupt the cycle;
this is pure pre-history at work; when plants covered the landmasses of Earth, not choking the land, but an endless soft green
caress.
This is a singularly understated album, very much harkening back to the early Alio Die days of unusual environmental ambient.
This will appeal most to fans of Alio Die's earliest material, though I personally find it to be somewhat of a throwback to
music Musso has already expanded and improved upon. Perhaps not the most essential part of this trio, but an interesting
trip nonetheless.
Finally, we approach the collaboration with new artist Zeit (perhaps named after the Tangerine Dream album?), Sunja.
"Approach" is an adequate word, because the overall impression of this album is of a marvelously long and dreamlike journey.
Sunja is only two mammoth tracks; two legs of the journey towards spiritual transcendence. "The Gates Are Open" is
a wonderfully tranced out dronescape of harmonic khen and accordion (processed, of course) with zither ruminations by Musso
that resemble the triumphant El-Hadra album by Klaus Wiese, Mathias Grassow, and Ted De Jong. This is a half-hour
of first rate ambient music; the type of stuff that ushers you into a dreamstate of bright sun and the odors of nature and
forestland. Strange birdcalls pierce the veil of ambience every once in a while, gently bringing you out of reverie, only
to lapse back in just as gently. The different flavors of this track are intense; it's beautifully paced, never seeming too
long, allowing you to bask in its glow until the next track. It's hard to believe, but "At the Threshold of Sunja" is even
longer and more intense. The sound elements are the same, but are used less sparingly to create a sensual dream-reality.
The otherworldly swirl of Sunja is potent, making this one of the best ritual-ambient discs I've heard in the last
few years. Such simple elements create a work of staggering power--I'm duly impressed with this material and give it my highest
recommendation. I'm satisfied truncating my description to give you time to pick up the disc, which is limited to 1000 copies.
Don't miss this one, it's clearly going to be on my top ten for 2004.
In total, Alio Die and his collaborators have given us a worthy triptych of albums as a gift for 2004. While none of the
releases push Musso's sound into new terrain, this makes them no less exciting and essential. Casual Alio Die fans will probably
do best with Sunja or Khen Introduce Silence, but I heartily recommend them all to fans of Alio Die's original
and inimitable style of soundscaping.
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