The Sleep of Seeds (2003)

The title is also the opening track of this macroscopic journey into a  world which spontaneously engages us when we travel through it.  A link between life and earth, a passageway between time and change. A melodius itinerary in which a time hourglass often makes no sense but only the sound of articulated and fragmentary notes...50 minutes between a seed and a grain of soil to wander into an infinite space while listening to a far away earth longing sound. Recorded in Savona Italy august 2002, with  different flutes, tubes, accordion, various objects, rattles, shells, bells... Drones and loops, effects,editing and mastering on Pro-Tools, at Temple Studio Milano, spring 2003. 

(HSL)

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.

Brian Bieniowski

Three wandering tracks of evolving drones and percussive scatterings. The artists suggest a ritualistic approach to music creation making creative use of such diverse sonic sources as flutes, tubes, various objects, rattles, shells and bells along with ambient drones, loops and effects. An accordion is played but not for melody, more as if exploring the instrument as an unfamiliar sound object, producing long droning strands.
This CD feels almost like the soundtrack to a piece of outdoor performance art, as manipulated natural sounds unfurl among flutish breaths, metallic jangles and whirling tubes. At times the impression is one of lonely winds blowing through derelicts, at other times the loose structure produces an almost carefree feeling - all the while the titles draw us downward into nature with all of its urgent serenity. Dissonant layers, water effects and thick rolling textures work to bind everything into a focussed poetry of montaged sound.
In keeping with the theme of the project, the cover artwork features a collage of seeds, seedpods and rich texture all carefully laid out like a gallery presentation. Inside we have the three track titles: The Sleep Of Seeds, Awakening In A New Form and A Dream Of Mother Ground along with appropriate credits.
The package works well to create a unified vision of the life cycle and dream world of plants and soil. Both Alio Die and Saffron Wood pleasantly invite contact by including their email addresses alongside photographic portraits.
Three haunting explorations of unearthly sound built around a very earthly concept. Many of the elements sound improvised to such an extent that they're almost too random to be of human origin - thick breathing and rumbles, water noises and bestial snorting. By contrast the introduction of a gently plucked zither produces a warming melodic tenor. Stefano tells us regarding his approach to recording "sometimes the quality of the sounds, I mean special tunings and kind of vibrations, can help a lot to go into a new layer of sensibility. In the studio process this discovery opens possibilities to enter into the special taste of the specific sound combinations. Then finding the best approach for the occasion, it becomes transparent that the music form starts to shine itself".