CANZONIERI All Creature 2LP

OPAKOWANIE: GATEFOLD

Folk isn't exactly a genre and it isn't always an aesthetic, it's the lore that's curled around the roots of myths, ballads and anecdotes, burying itself just inches beneath the surface of contemporary culture. On their debut album, Canzonieri brush away some of the dust from Western civilization, excavating forgotten sonorities, philosophies and motifs to figure out what impact this knowledge might have on a chaotic, apocryphal modern reality. Processing familiar acoustic instruments and utilizing an arsenal of idiosyncratic self-built devices, acclaimed artist Emiliano Maggi and musical artist Cosimo Damiano - both members of Italian surrealist quartet Salò - survey the uneven, challenging landscape that surrounds them, calling attention to the conflicts and illusions that underpin art in all its forms. They take a widescreen view of centuries of musical evolution, juxtaposing simplicity and complexity, past and present, city life and the pull of nature to distill the essence of folk - emotional histories that are whispered from person to person.

It was while they were working together as Saló that Emiliano and Damiano realized their deep musical affinity and shared interests, so the duo decided to apply that to new music, drawing on different influences and ideas. They presented this work for the first time at an exhibition focused on the life of Arabo-Sicilian poet Al-Ballanūbī; Emiliano had used Al-Ballanūbī's foundational love poems to inform his sculptures, and invited Damiano to collaborate on a soundtrack. The experience drew them further into the history of verse, leading them towards Sayat-Nova's Armenian songbook and Pier Paolo Pasolini's 'Il Canzoniere Italiano', and Canzonieri was born. Improvising and bending their performance to whatever space they have access to, Canzonieri fuse electroacoustic experimentation with classical, neofolk, prog rock and surrealist chamber pop, using these various concepts to guide their lyrical, free-floating ruminations.

'All Creature' opens with 'Golem', and listeners are welcomed to Canzonieri's sonic universe with a snippet of their 2024 performance at Berlin's Atonal Festival. Here, Maggi walks across a wooden platform fitted with contact microphones while Damiano processes the footsteps electronically, turning the percussive knocks into disquieting alien pulses. It's a fittingly theatrical introduction that pulls back the curtains on their methodology, preparing the stage for 'Haunted Blue', where their themes begin to take shape. Written while the duo were isolated in Sabina, a mountainous, rural region north of Rome, it's dedicated to the restless spirits that remain unwilling to pass on to the next world. Damiano and Maggi imagine their soundtrack using the Rhodes Chroma, a rare microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer, singing and whistling to offset the electronic sounds with layers of vulnerability.

And after linking up with Daniele Guerrini (aka Heith) on 'The Hearing Trumpet', and forming a coarse ritual with saz, various hand drums and a toy pig, Canzonieri pack years of research and development into the epic 'Soft By, Soft Slow', drawing their inspiration from classic '70s progressive rock. Ambitious and dramatic, it's music that's indebted to Goblin's giallo soundtracks and Ennio Morricone's visionary compositions, and uses these cues to cultivate a meditation on the Akasha - the aether in Hindu cosmology. Playing distorted guitar riffs and Mellotron themes against dizzying gamelan-style percussive sequences and light-headed synth pops, Canzonieri create a soundscape that renovates a beloved Italian style, muddling its hallmarks with digitally altered textures and glitches. Its complexity makes 'Animal Poetry', a relatively straightforward song for ukulele, Rhodes Chroma and voice, something of a palate cleanser.

A fragile, electronically weathered voice sings over dry, backyard plucks and reminds of the unpretentious beauty of not just people - or folk - but of nature itself. Canzonieri realize that connection with the natural world can unlock expressions that have guided art for centuries, and beg the modern world to rediscover this truth, disturbing their gentle arpeggios with sci-fi-shaded synth drones. And they augment this thought with emotional resonance on 'It'll Shine When It Shines', teaming up with Rome-based electro/punk outsider Maria Violenza to link the animal kingdom to the human world. Playing carnivalesque organs and sinister woodwinds over rattly live percussion, Canzonieri blur the timeline, using a ghost town in the north of Lazio as the subject matter for their seething ballad.

A1. GOLEM
A2. HAUNTED BLUE
A3. CROWN YOURSELF WITH THE STARS AT NIGHT, SORROW COMES EVER WITH DELIGHT.
B1. THE HEARING TRUMPET
B2. SOFT BY, SOFT SLOW
C1. RANA LOCUSTA FEAT. LARA DÂMASO
C2. ANIMAL POETRY
C3. PASTORALE
D1. IT'LL SHINE WHEN IT SHINES FEAT. MARIA VIOLENZA
D2. MY NIGHTLY DREAMS