|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BT 023LP
|
Black Truffle present Speak To Me, the sixth full-length release from 3/4HadBeenEliminated, the Italian trio of Stefano Pilia, Claudio Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. Based on source material recorded in Bologna and Berlin over the course of several years, the album is made up of two side-long pieces meticulously constructed in post-production by Tricoli in his singularly dense and unpredictable style. Although their live performances have always been entirely improvised, in their recorded work the group focuses on using improvised recordings as source material for compositions built up through layering, editing and analog manipulation, extending the practices of Teo Macero, Faust and This Heat. Melancholic instrumental ruminations sit alongside cracked electronics, concrete sounds and Tricoli's whispered vocals, drawn together into dense assemblages animated by gradual transformations and sudden jump cuts. Beginning from the abstractions of their self-titled debut release in 2004, the group embarked on a trajectory that saw them move toward near-song structures, Tricoli's voice becoming a dominant element amid an increasingly dense and layered production style. On Speak To Me, however, the listener feels confronted by the ghost of music, sonic memories echoing across a psychedelic expanse. Evacuated of any clear structure, the music becomes a reverb-saturated morass, from which crystalline details momentarily emerge: shimmering echoed guitar, bowed double bass, tactile hand percussion, skittering electronics. Suffused with a darkly pensive atmosphere, Speak To Me is an elegant summation of the distinctive blend of electroacoustic techniques, instrumental improvisation and contemporary psychedelia pioneered by 3/4HadBeenEliminated over the last decade. LP design by Stephen O'Malley with striking artwork by Stefano Pilia. Vinyl cut by Rashad Becker at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
ZEIT 011CD
|
This is the fourth album and long-awaited return of Italian quartet 3/4HadBeenEliminated. The group (guitarist/double bassist Stefano Pilia, turntablist/sound assembler Claudio Rocchetti, tape manipulator/vocalist/guitarist Valerio Tricoli and percussionist Toni Arrabito) has created a work which is at the same time new and refreshing and yet completely consistent with their vision: a deep interaction between human, environment, traditional instruments and live electronics that creates a floating atmosphere filled with a natural energetic flow, which borders on the psychedelic. Thanks to the versatile use of the voice, capable of experimenting with new solutions and suggestive ways of emission, and to the instrumental and electronic atmosphere, they are able to create a three-dimensional space that switches between a concrete, rough world and a dream-like one. Oblivion is a further confirmation of the outstanding talent of these Italian musicians.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
SOL 147LP
|
"The simultaneous release of 3/4HadBeenEliminated's new CD and LP, titled Theology and The Religious Experience, respectively. 3/4HadBeenEliminated was founded in 2002 in Bologna, Italy as a trio, with Stefano Pilia, Claudio Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli. An eponymous album was released in 2003 by Bowindo. In 2004 the group welcomed Tony Arrabito and became a quartet. The next year Hapna put out their second album A Year of the Aural Gauge Operation, and in 2006 the band self-released a 7" single, 'DimethylAtonalCalcine.' The group straddles the line between live improvisation and studio experimentation, blending and shaping raw sounds into living pieces, then gently dissecting the delicately structured songs into disruptive sonic excursions more evocative of moving shadows and swirling leaves than recognizable tunes. Stasis and stability are nowhere to be found here. Instead, an ever-changing dialog between structure and chaos shifts from one performer to the next, never resting long before launching again into shuddering flight. Acoustic instruments and vocals form a familiar reference point, but studio treatments take the music into psychedelic and cinematic realms. The Religious Experience is a riotously colored vinyl LP, presented in a deluxe hand-made sugarcane fiber cover, with a delicately perfumed inner sleeve and silkscreened insert, and is limited to 225 copies."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD BOX
|
|
SOL 148CD
|
"Theology is presented in a wooden box with a hinged cover decorated with layers of hand-painted tracing paper, and is limited to 450 copies on CD. The two albums -- and their music -- should be considered as mirror opposites. Where theology is a completely artificial system of belief, a religious experience is the immediate experience of the thing itself. Likewise, the music on Theology is complex and elaborate, while The Religious Experience is much simpler, going directly to the heart of the material comprising Theology. Thus, the two works are independent, yet relate to each other as mother and daughter."
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
HAPNA 026CD
|
This Italian quartet makes music based on equal parts rock, electroacoustic composition and field recordings. This is their first release for Hapna, following their 2004 Bowindo debut as a trio with the recording 3Quarters HadBeenEliminated. Adding fourth member Antonio Arrabito, Stefano Pilia, Claudio Rocchetti and Valerio Tricoli are already known on the experimental electronic scene for their previous solo releases. Pilia's first solo recording Healing Memories in Present Tension out on Last Visible Dog Records, shows his ability in combining minimalist guitar drones with slow emotional riffs, while Rochetti's debut album The Work Called Kitano (on Barlamuerte) reveals his personal collage style and Wagnerian turntablism. Valerio Tricoli released his first work on Bowindo last year entitled Did I? Did They? unveiling intimate poetic concrete electroacoustic composition. References could be made to groups such as This Heat or Sigur Ros, though this group's filmic sound has a specific identity all its own.
|