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Five Thousand Spirits
Quantum Consciousness SM 008
Tracks: 01 Re-Entry
After seven years of silence they are heard again. Raffaele Serra and Alio Die's Quantum Consciousness is an mysterious electronic journey (5 tracks without interruption) that, though still ambient music, comes close to '70s-era electronic cosmic music. An unbroken journey of great intensity characterized with an electronic refined touch and a flood- like vitality, always at the threshold of mystery's whirlpool.
Powerful electronic mantras that in these lands have already given some kind of earthly utterance. Great artwork in gold print on dark green.
Labelpress / Projekt
MUSIC Opening with dramatic gongs, murmuring voices and cinematic sweeps - Quantum Consciousness establishes an expansive warm soundscape where intermittent electronic bleeps and flickering static play across the smooth surface. Various effects fluctuate in levels of dominance - surges, mechanical clickings,burbling electronica. The warm tones give way in a number of places to less comfortable patterns of notes, darker atmospheres, ambiguous zones where puzzling noises come and go. There are low, garbled voices and fluttering pitch-shifted breaths along with rhythmic heavy breathing - sometimes dropping to little more than a faint movement of air. Simple musical motifs recur in places, becoming mesmerising in repetition - there is even a soft beat at one point. Frequently the mood drops almost to a sombre introspective level - butalways there is a sense of wonder and mystery, chimes and percussive objects reverberating, unidentified environmental recordings stirring up dirt and murk..
ARTWORK Designed by Hic Sunt Leones - the whole package is suffused in a flat,deep green with gold imagery. Serpents twine in a deathly struggle on the front cover - simple and stark against the sea of green. The jewel case reverse carries an archaic image of a world surrounded by clouds, blown into movement by cherubs. The legend 'Prepare to have your reality shattered' proclaims the intent of the music. Inside we have another serpent design - this time black against green - framing the track list, gear description and recording information.
OVERALL After seven years of silence from the release of their last collaborative work Raffaele Serra and Alio Die here create together an absorbing series of moods. This music was composed between 2004 and 2005 with Raffaele Serra working with analog and digital synthesizers, tapes and electronics and Stefano Musso providing drones and loops, editing, zither, field recordings, valvular radio.Saffron Wood is also mentioned in the sleeve notes, having provided a flute sample on the track 'Green Desire'. The album consists of five lengthy tracks of organic ambience and electronic atmosphere. For those familiar with the work ofAlio Die - the earthy nature of this release will be familiar - mystical and thought provoking.
Quantum Consciousness is a project by Raffaele Serra and Stefano Musso. The latter is probably best known for his for under the moniker Alio Die. This release is released on a sub-label of Hic Sunt Leones, which is the label run by, what do you know,Stefano Musso!
The artwork is simple yet very nice. The front of the booklet shows a drake (dragon without arms) and a snake fighting, while the back shows some sort of mandala, except for the fact that mandala's are usually very colorful. The booklet however has a dark green as background color, and the images and words are in gold. Very simple, yet very nice indeed. The back of the release shows a more complex piece of art, yet still in gold on dark green background. I can't really figure out what it is,but it looks like some kind of world surrounded by clouds. Kind of hard to describe really.
This CD consists of five pretty long (8-16 minutes) pieces of music. I certainly enjoyed the five pieces of music. Right from the start I couldn't shake the thought of wandering through a post nuclear landscape. Imagine a city after it has been in war. All buildings razed. Then, there's only silence. You wake up,barely alive, and start wandering around. During this, it is very likely that you hear what 'Quantum Consciousness' brings to your ears. Paranoid and frightening at times, as if you expect a mutant killer zombie around every corner.
I can't help but describing what I envision while listening this. I can imagine this isn't what you want to read. Just stick with me. I'm not used reviewing this sort of dark ambient. I certainly enjoy some, and I can surely enjoy this release as well. Preferably when lying in bed and not being able to sleep yet.This is perfect music to let your mind wander off. Contrary to many dark ambient I listened, this is not boring at all, even though it doesn't have that much SPM(sounds per minute, joke introduced previous issue). It's simply dragging you right into the music, and not letting you go. This is the post apocalyptic soundtrack for your mind.
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