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Alio Die

Aura seminalis HSL 045

An inviting, even healing, spirit pervades the music. All in all, a positive, life-affirming quality pervades this album ...
..°.. ..° ..

Tracks:

01  Sine Tempore Part I (16:47) 
02  Sine Tempore Part II (8:47)
03  Sine Tempore Part III (7:10)
04  Aura Seminalis Part I (5:43)
05  Aura Seminalis Part II (23:03) 
 
Total Time 61.30
 
Aura Seminalis' is the first chapter of 'Castles Sonorisation Series'

  

This latest release in a recent outpouring of creativity from Italy ’s master of organic drones is possibly the most unique in this artist’s long career as a sound sculptor. While most of his recent releases on his own Hic Sunt Leones label have been collaborations, this is his first solo effort since the release of the 10 inch vinyl Aurea Hora. As the elaborate Renaissance style artwork on the cover suggests, this music points in the direction of a more “classical”sound in so far as the utilization of Gregorian style chants. These are successfully incorporated into Musso’s customary drones comprised of field recordings, acoustic instruments, and electronic processing, giving this disc a particularly reverent ambience. Don’t think Enigma or Delerium, because as one listens to this they may be inclined to bow their head and meditate or pray rather than nod or chill. I imagine that if today’s sound recording abilities were available during those times evoked by the artwork or chants, they too would have then added the organic elements that Alio Die does, creating a balance of both the heavenly and the earthbound. Fans of his music may or may not find this approach a departure from what they are accustomed to, but it is certain that this artist is going beyond his previous huge body of work to encompass a broader sonic palette.

This being a recent effort by Alio Die, Aura Seminalis represents something of a break with the conventions one might be used to with his work. Gone is the cold, eerie, exposed, shadowy atmosphere. Gone are the almost villainous samples and chill outdoor/outer space/deep sea sound paintings.

Instead we find ourselves in a warm, internal universe: reflective,whole, comforting. There is plenty of light here, ruddy like that of solar rays at dawn or dusk. An inviting, even healing, spirit pervades the music. All in all, a positive, life-affirming quality pervades this album.

The armature of the music, as always with Alio Die, is drones, buton this release they’re arranged in quite lush formations, folding over one another like luxurious liquids, the raw organic sounds lathered in phase and flange to create timbres that conjure images both ancient and modern. There is an almost melodic sensibility here, a sense of storytelling as well as horizon-setting, a freshly dipped brush raised to the canvas.

The album utilises a number of very natural sounds processed in various ways to create this past/future aesthetic. Early on we have the gathered sounds of choral voices, layered in the echo of some vast,warm room, filtered through treatments so that the many voices blur into one.

Elsewhere I’ve read reviews that have compared this to some kind of neo-Gregorian music. I’m not sure the comparison is entirely apt,however certainly there is an atmosphere of reverence and vast – yet enclosed – space, and with that a rather spiritual evocation.

The music becomes gradually more abstract, less locatable in history, as the album progresses, until towards the end (the last track is some 24 minutes long) we find what sounds like sonically tampered Middle East horn parts pouring out long threads of melodious (though languid) song.

It is as though the album is bridging the most idealistic spirits of medieval Christianity and medieval Islam, and doing so through reference to these two religions’ shared (if also divergent) heritage of devotional music.

The album gets a little more eerie and subtle in the last third of it’s unfolding as the chordal drones tighten and deepen and that marvellously voice-like horn wavers and dances across the harmonic threads of the music. This creates the feeling that an individual voiceis emerging from the all-containing fields of sound that dominate the bulk of the album’s journey; the gradual evolution of the arrangements creates a strong feeling that we’ve been carried across time, space, or both.

I had to listen to this release again and again in order to figure out how to review it properly and, given my short attention span and impatience, the fact that I still think it’s a marvellous recording says a lot. I like the direction this is moving in. I hope Alio Die makes this more than just a tangent.

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