Gabriele Mitelli | The World Behind the Skin
WeInsist! Records (CD/DL)
The release contains two poetic prose premises (written by Nicola Di Croce and Rob Mazurek) however, the four track album The World Behind the Skin by Gabriele Mitelli remains shrouded in suspense, harsh-romanticism, even with hints of passive-aggression. The self-aware sonic abstractions take on a theoretical challenge towards cognition. Listeners are charged to make concrete assessments of the noises produced herein. Or at least, the reductive process is described in the text. The thesis seems to point to a humanizing (root: humbling) process which one may undergo when confronting intense audio.
So, the physics of sound – or expressly, ‘the architecture of sound pertaining to invisible membranes’ – take effect. From the onset, the windy noteless sustains of a horn being blown through. Trip into the Abysses evolves into an electro-wind instrumental full of dissonant dualism. The rapid boiling electronic component which arrives midway has a cooling effect on the maturing horn presence. Through the trip, a loose linear structure emerges. The expressionism created is almost acrobatic.
Soft chanting and a rattling percussive charm define Just Take Another. The whip lash isn’t altogether unpleasant. One settles into the drone charge. The brass solo two-thirds into this track grafts a boisterous melodic interpretation of the repeated titular quote. The dissonance between determinate allowance of taking and begrudging generosity slips into a clanging gong’s end tag. The Fisherman’s Prayer continues the emphasis on percussion. It is a wholly clamorous affair, this prayer. The rolling metallic drop cloth is seasoned with sordid bass thuds. This mood fades at around halfway into a minimalist tapping and again Mitelli strikes up on brass.
To close the album, The Red Sunrise and the Octopus return to the albums commencing texture. In the title, the aquatic reference is also depicted well in the cover art. There is a vague dissection of relationship dynamics here. Marine life in it’s element being visited by a predacious presence. The roles at play with musician and listener are similarly muddied. The subcutaneous drama ensues. Elemental compositional structure again parallels as the electronic wave dominates the latter half of this thirteen minute masterpiece. Mitelli ultimately succeeds in conjuring an abaft experience as the distorted vibratos climax in the albums closing minutes.
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