Emanuele Errante | This World
Whitelabrecs (CDR/DL)
There is always a danger looming with albums that come up with music that is minimalist, slow-shifting, attempting to give an accent to tonal flavours instead of melodies and rhythms, and that danger can fit into one word – tedium. Usually, that occurs (unfortunately, quite often) when the artist in question doesn’t fully comprehend or simply tries to skip the musical basics, or even more so, does not have the adequate feel for such gradually evolving tonal dynamics.
Luckily, as evidenced on This World, Italian sound artist Emanuele Errante does not have any of those problems. This could partly be because he has started playing music at a very early age and has obviously gotten a full grasp of all its aspects, as he already has a body of solo work with such labels as Karaoke Kalk and Apegnine, or that he has worked with some renowned similar-minded artists like Dakota Suite, Tim Hecker and Marsen Jules.
Yet, there is another key factor at play on This World, and that is a musical shift from live, acoustic instrumentation to electronics and back. But what Errante has done on this album is not abandon either acoustics or electronics, but molded his musical soundscapes using both in almost exact and precise measures, making this album an example of exquisite beauty.
It would make no difference which of the ten compositions you would pick here, each has its own structure, mood and layers, working on both levels – as individual pieces and as a general mood of longing and melancholy.
And what Errante is focusing on, as he stated himself, This World is longing and melancholy for a world without drastic climate changes. This may be so, but what Errante also does in creating these soundscapes is leave enough open space for each listener to let the music he created take him into any direction, whether it is darkness that is encompassing us, or if it is (preferably) rays of hope that things will get better. Whatever that is, Errante’s This World is an enriching musical experience.
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