Fauna Marina

Here's a track from a quirky little Italian library record by Egisto Macchi which features several musical compositions inspired by all things watery and sub aquatic. I'm rather fond of the eerie strange pulses of the plankton track but decided that the track about crustaceans needed to be heard mainly because my four year old daughter did a funny little crab jig to it when I played it. Maybe you could try your own movement and dance lesson at home? The record also features a rather outstanding watercolour drawing on the front cover which takes 'peaked outsider' graphic design to a whole new level - but you've probably noticed that already. Jump in and enjoy the swim but watch out for those pincers.

I Futuribili

Another impossible to find Italian library recording sees the light of day once more. Originally released in 1972, in a minute pressing of 500 copies by the Italian Gemelli label, Egisto Macchi's "I Futuribili" is perhaps one of the finest examples of Italian library music ever recorded. Despite working extensively in the field of film, television and soundtrack music for over forty years, Egisto Macchi is known little outside a few soundtrack collectors and music library music aficionados. This is a shame, as much of his work and especially this recording is remarkably unparalleled in both vision and execution. The oppressive incertitude of "Camere Anecoiche"is a masterful study in compositional suspense. Vapourous and eerie electronic tones pulse and fluctuate like the flapping wings of stunted and misshapen insects. Sound becomes slowly asphyxiated as tense, blunted string motifs twist, loosen and tighten around the main electronic theme, the effect is like being suspended in a hallucinatory, motionless hall of fevered dreams. With each successive listen, new details are born out of the darkness, hidden resonances wait in the shadows, eager to snare the unsuspecting listener. "Nouvi Planeti" demonstrates Egisto Macchi's consummate prowess in cinematic composition, this arrangement weirdly pollinates twilight zone stuttering pizzicato, rattling percussive palpitations and deep resonant drum tremors which oddly sound reminiscent of a funereal procession in space. "Richiami Spacziali" is darker still, a vertigo inducing contradiction of ascending and descending scales, rising and falling in foul perfection. Sonorous strings decay in bleak noctambulation, the forest is alive with owl-like woodwind, archaic electronics cackle, rattle and hiss creating a veritable cinema for the ears. Thematically, "I Futuribili"is a strange beast, with sound images consistently converging in unexpected and radical ways. It seems strange that music such as this, which was originally intended as mere background music for the flickering screen and cathode ray tube sounds so emotively powerful to modern ears. Far from a collection of miscellaneous cues, each composition builds and develops into a singular vision of a dark, sinister, mysterious sound world. Is this sacred music? Is it music of the profane? Is this music of inner or music of outer space? Is this music of past, present or future? "Forme Planetaire" is a perfect example of these contradictions, as dank moog droplets languorously fall from the heavens, forming taught harmonic stalactites gilded by an elegant and restrained string arrangement. Sounds dissolve then momentarily reappear, flickering, wraithlike. In this dark,untenanted landscape everything which is solid melts into the black miasmatic smog.  "I Futuribili", which translates as "The Futuristic" is a fascinating, category defying recording, investigate it at the earliest opportunity. Another wonderful cinematic communique from the immeasurable darkness by Roundtable. Now, if someone will only be so kind as to reissue Città Notte.

"I Futuribili" by Egisto Macchi is out now on Roundtable/Omni Recording Corporation in a limited run of 500.

Niente

This long-lost Italian library session from 1971 may prove arguably to be the finest release of the year. Rescued by vinyl archaeologists James Pianta, Jeff Wybrow, Callum Flack and David Thrussell, this wonderfully dark and complex recording is an unrepentant collision of free jazz, avant garde sensibility and rhythmic drum patterns which will appeal to beat diggers and free improv heads alike. Recorded by the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza as a companion piece to the mythical "The Feed-Back" by The Group (a record which has recently changed hands for over $1000), the result is a profoundly disorienting music that thrives on the tension between aggressive rhythmic interplay, unsettling free form improvisation and dark mood music.

Founded in Rome in 1964 by composer Franco Evangelsiti, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza was formed as experimental music laboratory dedicated to the exploration of new music techniques such as improvisation, noise and anti-musical systems. Comprising of soundtrack musicians working in the burgeoning Italian film and television scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the collective featured such musical luminaries as Ennio Morricone (trumpet) and Egisto Macchi (percussions) in its ranks. This release very much documents the definitive moments of this 'peaked' improvisational collective.

"Niente" opens with a deep propulsive drum groove somewhere between Clyde Stubblefield and Jaki Liebezeit. The beat is motorik, relentless and unforgiving. Dark fissures of analog synth bubble up, a twisted fuzz bass prowls around the yard, the elasticated metal of prepared piano shards incise and unhinge the groove. The beat goes on. The drummer drums, staring unblinking into the abyss. Sounds organically crack, cut, rattle and tremor but never quite unsettle the drummer's endless metronomic pulse. There is a dark hypnotic undertow to much of this music evoking a phantasmagorical landscape of insecurity, trauma and fear. Listening becomes a profoundly disquieting experience. "Bambu #2" is a nightmare factory of hazed tape music, combining abrasive fuzz, muted trumpet and giallio vocal murmurings.  "Renitenza" is beautifully hypnotic and dizzying at the same time. Constructed around complex drum phasing and daydream zoner improv, the track travels from vigorous, almost deranged percussive forays into a decayed, ghostly cave of sound. Likewise, "Padrone Delle Ferrierre" weirdly shimmers in flickering polyrhythms, scrying in the smoke until it slowly dissolves in tenebrous, blurred narcotic instantiability. Side two opens with the heavy drum skonk of "Mattatoio". The sound is wilder, freer, more animalistic, a dense and tightly woven mesh of fierce drums, hot-wired guitar skree, jazz marimba and howling horns. "Sieben" is a particular favourite, a short tight Schifrinesque drum loop, combining strummed aeolian harp, blunted harmonics and eerie chimes to chilling effect. "Natale E Detroit" is peculiarly odd, like a weird meeting point between Ligeti's "Lux Aeterna" and calypso music, just hearing this unique oddity was worth the price of admission alone. "Niente" is a truly masterful and essential release and worth your immediate attention. Do not sleep.

"Niente" by Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza is out now on Roundtable/Omni Recording Corporation in a limited run of 500.