In an interview with the website Fluid Radio (fluidradio.co.uk) Italian composer described the origins of the title Tarsia, his first release under his own name.

"The term Tarsia (or Intarsia) denotes an ancient technique of wood inlaying. The first examples of this practice date back to the XIV century and come from the Siena region. I have chosen this title because I consider this technique similar to the that of a lot of contemporary electro-acoustic music. To make these wood inlays they used rare and carefully selected natural elements, which were then treated, and sometimes individually coloured, and subsequently placed next to each other in order to create complex patterns, which is what many musicians within this field tend to do."

It seems like the terms 'field recordings', 'modern classical', and 'soundscapes' could be interchangeable, so often are they found in the same sentence. It seems like every time an artist lays a cello or a piano to tape, it is accompanied by handheld tape recordings, the sounds of rippling brooks, and the ringing of churchbells. It is hard to stand out in this saturated field, but Giulio Aldinucci achieves this rare balance, by creating whole compositions, that don't merely sound like 'classical lite' with some voicemail pasted on top.

The composer achieves this effect by carefully mixng and balancing the sounds, creating a delicate interplay that suggests technical mastery and a sensitive ear. Most of the sounds are synthetic in nature, overlaid with pristine soundscapes: crystal running rivers, dogs barking, snippets of conversation. It seems like a memory of wandering the Italian countryside. Aldinucci's music may have originated in a soundcard or a circuit board, but they beautifully complement the acoustic recordings with masterful mixing, making a cohesive whole, like the wooden boxes Tarsia is named after.

Once upon a time, a record like this would be merely considered 'new age' and left at that, mainly due to the soothing synth ambiance that makes up most of this record. However, with synthesizer opuses making a heavy comeback for the last 10 years or so, perhaps we are ready to consider these electronic instruments on their own terms. I would like to amend the newage tag with 'heavenly' or dare i even say it, 'beautiful'.


Giulio Aldinucci, and the Nomadic Kids Republic that released this, are ones to watch out for, seemingly creating reams of gorgeous modern classicism. Physical copies of Tarsia are long gone, but you can stream or download copies from the label's bandcamp site.

Lovely stuff! Recommended.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown", said the legendary American writer H.P.Lovecraft and this fresh and somehow unknown twosome by Guido Van Den Brink aka Atiq, founder of Mindtrick Records and known in Rotterdam for its intense activity as a promoter of many notorious parties such as "Jungle Soundclash" and "Rave!!!", and Pim Arnoldus aka EnK, music producer and guitar player in the Dutch nu-metal band Brainshake, trace the ancestral sense of the above-mentioned definition and above all the strength of its semantic and spiritual payload by means this remarkable debut album, which encapsulate many acts of IDM and electronic hybrids as well as the most interesting declension of heavy dubstep - I could namedrop Hecq, Venetian Snares, Burial or even some oldest acts such as Beefcake, Flint Glass, Elixir (a project by Martin Stovey, Steve Jones and Richard Pushong, which dropped some interesting stuff on Quatermass, sub-label of SubRosa) or Bill Leeb's Synaesthesia - with a deep penchant for psychedelic orchestral inserts. In reality they don't depart from Lovecraft's quote, but these skilled guys cite some words by Dr.Wayne Dyer they sampled in the initial track "Stay With The Familiar" ("Fear of the Unknown...They are afraid of New Ideas...They're loaded with Prejudices, not based upon anything in reality, but based on if something is new, I reject it immediately; because it is Frightening to Me. What they do instead, is just Stay with the Familiar. You know, to me, The Most Beautiful things in all the Universe, are The Most Mysterious"...a very meaningful message for our troubled planet), which perfectly sets listener's mood for the whole album, whose main quality lays in its intimate narrative structure. There are many stylistical peaks all over the release: the cathartic suspense, which have been enhanced by entrancing female vocals, of "Moonlit Tea Party", the heavy lock step, the suffocated melodies and the sinisterly silvery atmosphere of "My Obligation", the somber crystalline music box on "The Glass Kingdom", the cinematic Gregorian chant-driven mesmerizing dubstep of 'Like an Angel's Feather' - absolutely my favorite track! -, the meteor craters of the mercurial dub on "Sim One" (nice track with samples of Orson Welles' narration of "Future Shock", a documentary by visionary American writer Alvin Toffler) and "Three Minutes", the bites of dubstep on a Jarre-like synth-driven melodic sequence on "Shards Of Brilliance", which precedes the final resolution "The Moment Of Truth", which got spelled by Mike Redman's rapping. Fear of the unknown must be beaten and these guys proposed their amazing sonic strategy.

After the acclaimed debut "She Was Coloured In" in 2010, the epicurean stylish Irish duo of Solar Bears comes back on stages with an adorable album, which lacquers listener's earsdrums by means of fluoroscopic and somehow melancholic synth-pop tune as well as a certain dramatic hook and tastes sweet as honey thanks to the topping of ingredients which sound taken from an imaginary recipe book written by proper celebrity chefs of modern and contemporary music such as Boards Of Canada, Air, Stereolab, Vangelis, Death In Vegas, Giorgio Moroder and other knights of cosmic disco courtship, whose best insights seem to palpitate inside the artistic streak of many charming moments of this "Supermigration", a title inspired by Native American mystic culture and the legendary krautrock band Neu!. The lullaby-like piano introduction on "Stasis" resembles the beginning of late night old-fashioned radio-shows and precedes the amazing twist of "Cosmic Runner", where Solar Bears immediately hook listener's hearts and brains by means of an entrancing gyraton on electric guitar and gleaming synths and a tune which is very close to some similar stuff by Boards Of Canada. One of the best moment of the album has been reached on "Alpha People", a lovely synth-pop song sung by Sarah P, which could be described as an imaginary reinterpretation of Air sonorities by Love Spirals Downwards due to the similarities between Sarah P's voice and Suzanne Perry's one as well as the analogy with the style of the notorious French band, while the following "Love Is All", a sweet mixture of alluring synth-pop and electronic bossa nova, could resemble some moments of Stereolab. Its intimate coziness vanishes on the following angst-driven "The Girl that Played with Light", whose drilling guitar and progressive crescendo, which get embellished by absorbing reverbs, smooth melody and sonic preciosities, vaguely resembles above-mentioned Death In Vegas, whose masterpiece "Satan's Circus" crosses my mind on another synth-verdant track, "Komplex", even if under a more "angelical" guise. The opening intro "Statis" seems to be reprised on the deeply intimate jingle-like fathom interlude "You and Me (Subterranean Cycles)", while another substantial peak has been reached on the dazzling song "Our Future Is Underground", a subdued evocation of a shining memory, where present day magically irradiates the unforgotten luminosity by means of the mystical combination of guitar-driven lulling melody, joyful childish drumming and the voice of guest singer (and former Air collaborator) Beth Hirsch. The mindblowing cosmic ride of "A Sky Darkly" precedes the "bucolic" trot "Rising High", which get listeners ready to the engaging synth-disco of "Happiness is a Warm Spacestation", whose title summarize the bursts of sci-fi heat that are going to trigger emotional storms within nostalgic lovers of this kind of sonic juggernauts. The final bedroom rocker "Rainbow Collision" ends in style this psychedelic daydream, a proper musical trip which I cannot but recommend.

After the widely acclaimed release "Method In The Madness" together with DLR, Chris Octane undertakes a personal route by launching his own imprint CO:RE and dropping the first self-signed release, which doesn't sound just like a persuading proof of concept, but a sort of spiritual groundwork as well. The first track "Synthetics" unrolls both amazing beats, crackling drums, an effected buzzing electric guitar, cryptically vanishing melodies, which chorally sounds like cogs of a wheel in perpetual motion and a voice which enunciates a pensive reflection about the mutated perspective of an artificial reality, which invites listeners to think about the role of synthesis in the perception of surrounding and often encapsulated world. Such a reflection on "artificiality" looks like the mirror image of the spinned thoughts by the following "Gaia's Dub", a possible decryption of a raped Mother Nature, whose unpredictable burst, eruptions and sizzles could be likewise considered as cogs of a self-regulating machine, whose response is commensurate with any different attempt of awkward sabotage. Chris' work on mid frequencies and reverbs are really compelling and succeeds in masking the layered structure of both tracks.

This self-named debut release by Lord Tang, the recent brainchild from Dominic Cramp's recording studio, jacks in vintage sonic equipment, which he uses to squeeze some juicy arrangments whose aftertaste recalls old glorious dub stuff as well as some electronic declension, and some elements (pleated and singed sonorities, obscure electronic entities, seemingly aimless vocal interferences of paranoid ramblings and field recordings), which could be clasped to Cramp's other projects (in particular Borful Tang) and similar sonic mounts, which combine a taste for modern compositional strategies and aged hooks (Digital Mystikz, Zomby, Demlike Stare), but Lord Tang hushes samples up and prefers to grate delicious melodic lines from old synths and catchy rhythmic pattern from drum machines. After the initial shining "Fog", he jogs on reversed groove by the caustic "Defections", drags shell-shock atmospheres, which could resemble some stuff by Future Sound of London, towards gluey jellied sludge on "Thang" - one of my favorite track -, fries ping pong balls into boiling soup of dub pieces of meat, sinisterly gnashes claps and bleeps on the dour "Friends" (featuring Gollum on mic?), frothes narcotic suds on "Slumberer", injects entrancing organ-driven tearing melodies in the veins on the beautiful "My Dub Uncle" - another highlight of this release - before suppurating pure dub nostalgia and plangently warm heavyweight bass in order to propel mental spacewalks as a good strategy to dissolve physical and spiritual restrictions of "real" world on the final "Smalls". That's a good release to remove muck-up out of dubster's ears.