Alio Die

Aglaia

Centurion Cd Dig

Music composed and played by Gino Fioravanti
Recorded in Lissone between May 2011 - October 2011

Aglaia Sounds:
Gino Fioravanti concept & electronics
Gianluigi Toso: editing

Photos by Mire L'Azur
Artwork by Hic Sunt Leones



AGLAIA Centurion (2013)

Centurion, the new work by Aglaia, is a dark album, touching. Each note is vibrant and breathes.
New electronic sounds, among the most interesting created from the universe Aglaia, seem to generate sparks and ashes;
frequencies are unstable and elusive waves that survive only for a few moments. The songs are short chapters of a journey in places where shadows dwell, memories, and flashes at times.
The dramatic element is relevant, the classical and ambient soundscapes of Aglaia seem to give way to a kind of "progressive-ambient" ...
There's a story hidden among the sounds, a path that has a beginning and an end. Everyone will be able to travel in space and time of this enigmatic albums and become what they listen ... Happy journey!





AGLAIA Centurion (2013)
Highly praised duo Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso, known as Aglaia, have released their "Centurion" album back in June 2013 on Hic Sunt Leones. As usual, packaged in elegant 6-panel digipak, but this time featuring stunning photos by Mire L'Azur, with the artwork executed by Stefano Musso's Hic Sunt Leones.

The track list is quite long with 15 shorter pieces, which follows the footsteps of previous Aglaia album entitled "Otherworldliness". The opening "Azimuth" shifts straightly into remote glacier sceneries, where hissy drone undulations are accompanied by organic oscillations and traversing intensifications. Cinematic desolation meets foreboding sternness. "Calaverna" keeps on meandering through fascinating ice formations, melting oddly circling distant hisses with leading layers of dramatic turnovers, cyber-tech fragments and dwellers of unfathomed depths. "Darkling" hovers on utterly mindscaping spirals, continuously emerging from shadowy mist. "I Listen" tranquilly sneaks through warmer vistas counterpointed with piercing squeaks and ghostly winds. "Airglow", although venturing into quite discordant realms, it masterfully captures the magic of nigh sky adventures. "Recapitulare" sounds slightly more relieving, yet enough mysterious to remain on the shadowy path. The shortest piece, "Arsuram", melts murky drones with eddying dissonances. "Permutazione" safely holds its course through darker terrains with otherworldly nuanced texture, blending more massive drone symphony with persistently peaking elusiveness. A truly mind-blowing listening experience!!! But the journey continues with "Penetranza", monstrously intense dronescape cascading through dramatic peaks and fabulous signature cocoons of expansively euphoric harshness that can only be created by these Italian maestros of embracing atmospheric fantasies. And they couldn't have chosen better track title for this one. "Misteriosofia" baths the listener with deeply pensive soundscape, capriciously wandering. But the gates to the transcendental spheres are still unlocked and I can't imagine better invitation than "Recidere". Breathtakingly mysterious and monolithic drones are guarded by graciously expanding choirs, while sharp metallic sounds constantly tickle the ears. Welcome to the drone paradise owned by Aglaia!!! "Epilogo" is lushly organic and eclectic, although later progressing into warmer, wide-screen range. "In The Open Air" initiates quietly, but joyful drones mesmerizingly circle and increase the intensity and deepness. "Albus" submerges immediately with its minimal structure, where reverberating abyssal hums intertwine with enigmatic twinkles, then quietly swell throughout and converge with arising denser yearns. "Dateless", the closing piece, briskly drifts into monumentally spellbinding and euphoric drone heaven, enhanced by magnificently mind-bending resonations. Only a 4-plus minutes long piece, but colossally transporting!!! I am just wondering how I would return after a longer journey...

What to add? If you are still searching for the sonic adventure that will blow you faraway, beyond the ordinary, Aglaia is always here to deliver distinctively flavored and tremendously immersing sonic exploration. Aglaia is a well-hidden gem!!! And keep in your mind, except Aglaia, Gino Fioravanti and Gianluigi Toso have released many other albums under their own names or under Nada Experiences. So the journey continues, but that's another story...

Richard Gürtler (Apr 27, 2014, Bratislava, Slovakia)

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