This is the third installment in a group of concept albums by Matteo Uggeri of Sparkle in Grey (and several other projects) and Maurizio Bianchi. Evidently, the concept (kapnos is the Greek word for “smoke”) was formed by these two, but much of the musical heavy lifting was done by a collaboration by the “Meerkat Ensemble.” According to the website “the Meerkat ensemble is formed by a group of musicians working in the field of experimental music, drones, microsounds and field recordings: Adriano Zanni / Punck, Matteo Uggeri / Hue, Luca Sigurtà, Luca Bergero / Fhievel, Davide Valecchi / Aal, Andrea Ferraris / Ics, Fabio Selvafiorita, Paolo Ippoliti (Logoplasm), Laura Lovreglio (Logoplasm) and Andrea Marutti / Amon / Never Known.” Thus, we have an Italian supergroup of experimental musicians all under one banner. Of the ten, I was only previously familiar with Matteo Uggeri, Andrea Marutti, and Fabio Selvafiorita of Ur. With all of these artists working on the same thing, you would think that the result would be quite disjointed, especially since there are different artists working on each track. However, it is actually surprisingly coherent. Part of this likely comes from the sound of crackling fire that weaves its way through most of the tracks, keeping a sense of continuity. The tracks blend into each other, making it difficult to tell when one ends and the next begins. As for the music itself, it is subdued dark ambient that has just a touch of noisy elements that keep it engaging. Voices fade in and out, while synth drones lull you into a peaceful state. This gives way to a bit of dissonance, yet never really becomes troubling. This is really accessible experimental music – something that just about anyone could enjoy. It doesn’t demand a lot from the listener, but it is a very enjoyable listen. This album weighs in at 40.47.

If you thought this label from Portugal was exclusively oriented in the direction of electro-acoustic music, here comes an interesting surprise after the minimalist electronic cd by Punck. This recording features a single suite twenty-four minutes long, but believe me after the listening there's nothing more you'd like to add to the track. This long suite is really well calculated and progresses in a way the "freak" inside of you can't but love, above all if you're into radical psychedelia, or narcoleptic jams. It starts as an electro-acoustic improvisation, but it after some slow dynamics ups and downs it turns into a desolated ghostly feedback that reminded me so much about Thela, and if you don't remember the band I've their record on Ecstatic Peace, it was a trio that featured Dean Roberts, Paul Douglas and Dion Workman. I'm sure mighty Thurston Moore would sit back and enjoy the trip if only he had the chance to give a listen. In the second half of this long track, the aura of the electric guitar becomes central and Nate Wooley keeps doing the same thing for a while and later leaves some imperceptible changes distributed slowly on the whole length, a smart choice for helps to reach the climax of your trance-experience. As you can imagine the metamorphoses brings an electro-acoustic beginning to turn into a quasi dronical piece. The ambivalent essence of the track emerges during the different movements in which Forsyth and Wooley have distributed the crescendos and diminuendos. Be it I'm I love this kind of works or the fact the "murderous" cover concept kicks ass, but if you ask me one release I recommend to the ex "deadheads" in search for something new but with that hallucinating side effect: this would be my personal suggestion.

I truly feel awful for reviewing Punck's last year full length only now, also because it's been in constant rotation (...) in my stereo for all these months. Life problems and taking one's time eventually lead to these disasters... "A Constant Migration" is surely the best and most mature release of Adriano Zanni's as of yet - following the wake of his previous "Nowhere Campfire Tapes", but taking his soundscapes to a higher level (and that was a good album, mind it). I suppose that playing live sets has contributed to refine his tecniques and give a smoother, more organic feel to his compositions. As usual, Zanni uses "laptop, field recordings, found sound and sampling", and the result can be compared to the works of Seth Nehil, jgrznich, Dave Lloyd and mnortham. Highly refined concrete music where natural and electronic sounds are stretched and layered into drones, or scattered around as in an improvised session (which could explain why this has been released on Creative Sources). Zanni's audio-trip stands out from similar ones for the warmer, more emotional (existentialist, I wrote about his previous cd) approach to soundmaking, here leading to the breathtaking closure of "Hagakure [II, 105]", a powerful high-end drone streaked by bowed strings. This cd was mastered by Hue (Sparkle in Grey), which totally makes sense: take it as a comrade to "Un'estate senza pioggia", at least in terms of attitude.

Right when you start pondering on the fact “the thrill has gone” something or somebody moves the ground and you find yourself with your ass kissing the floor…well, sometimes it’s a positive experience like in this case. As I think I’ve already said, the risk for a good and above all interesting label like Creative Sources is to pass from producing interesting acoustic/electro-acoustic/impros to get trapped in a sound or in a kind of release that sometimes can become stagnant. I’m glad it’s not happening and if you take the last releases of Punck and this Sei Miguel you can sense something is “moving the ground”. Please don’t kill me if I dare to sentence this release embodies one of the many possible interesting evolution of jazz as it would have been in the enlightened minds and in the hearts of people like Davis or Braxton. At the same time this’ an interesting fusion of avant-jazz, electronic and contemporary music that accomplishes the rare result to leave dogmatism and pompousness back home. The pocket trumpet of Sei Miguel though being varied betrays what I think could be a jazzy background and is the first voice of this “chorus” but the final result disappears in the depth of abstraction, that’s why I think contemporary music can be one of the most reliable comparisons for this music. Be it intentional or not, some passages of the first track gave me the idea I was listening to a really expressive trumpeter jamming along with some Morton Feldman “crippled symmetries” and to remain in this contemporary field, let’s mention another hero who used to compose on the edge of both genres like Andrea Centazzo. In “second garden” the general idea of the sound is basically the same, but this time the track begins with an intense dialogue between Miguel and Mariam, the atmosphere is not as cold as in the first episode and “dialogue” keeps on being the keyword (despite some silent passages) for every player involved in this track. “Third garden” ends the cd in a strange way but following along the same thread, during its second half you have the bare impression a rhythm is taking place but it’s just an impression and it’s probably closer to the gentle art of soft, non-intrusive, rumorism. This release is the intense collection of three inspired live set and for those who look for other names, consider Rafael Toral and Cèsar Burago have been in this recordings.

Sound-wise, Adriano Zanni/Punck has departed quite a bit from his initial cdr releases, which were mostly based on sinewaves and digital electronics, but even that is true only to a certain extent. His first printed cd (initially to be released by the defunct S'Agita recordings, and now co-produced with AFE) follows, in a more mature way, the style of the 3" ep "A movie without images", mixing environmental recordings, piercing or droning electronics and, here and there, vocal samples. For his non-bucolic, non-documentary and brutally existentialist approach to field recordings-based music, Punck is very close to his fellows Logoplasm, so there is no surprise in listening to Paolo Ippoliti's frantic cut-up in "Tsunami notes". Zanni shows how the ever-present recordings of dripping or flowing water, the scraping of contact mics, and cold, primitive electronics, can convey the feeling of a diary written during a turbulent period, rather than dissolve in academic vagueness.