GUISEPPE IEALASI - same

(CD, Häpna)

I love the sound of a record needle stuck in the groove at the and of a vinyl album and I guess there are a lot of electronic or experimental artists that feel the same way. It always reminds me of something good. Makes me feel warm all over. A lot of electronic and experimental artists also use this little noise as a structuring guide for their tracks and to hear it on a CD always gives me the same tingles. I don’t know or I can’t judge if it is meant as some kind of political statement and me, personally I like to say that I am neutral to the format music comes on, as long as it sounds good and finds its way to me. Still, that little ssshh-click gives my heart a little prick of joy.

Guiseppe Ielasi played himself into my heart with his wonderful album “gesine” also Häpna last year, where he conjured up a tranquil, dreamlike vision of a sound that fits summer with his unique use of guitar sounds and sound manipulations. He did something completely different with his guitar and utilities on his collaboration with Howard Stelzer called “nightlife” on Brombron but also to great effect and with interesting results. On this album, which compiles 5 untitled tracks, he takes he is somewhere back to “gesine” but ina different size and a different effect. Maybe ir could be summed up as a big band that has been douzed in relaxing drugs and time stretchers and now tries to be a fusion jazz band playing experimental soundscapes. The compositions are lush with tones and layers, complex in the interweaving and everchanging structures but also steadily flowing like a little river on a quiet day.

For instance track one works on a simple stretch of two notes being repeated over and over again but coveres in multiple layers of sounds and harmonies. Guitar notes whirr up here and there, subtle noises and disrupting elements are softly embedded in the flow of the track. A lot is strange and irritating, but nothing of that is really attracting interest or disrupting the gentle listening experience. Track two starts with some noise that could be regarded as glitches, but then builds itself into a definte groove, via some loose tribal drums, a jazzy bass sound and other bitparts being added in time. When the hihats set in in the back and some more drums and keyboard sounds you feel yourself as if listening to Miles Davis early Seventies band warming up. Later on during the record the groove gets so condensed and lose at the same time in that multiple sound layer structure that you will once again be reminded of this legendary band, but this time right in the middle of “Bitches Brew”, without the trumpet this time. The trumpet has been lost in the haze and maze of time and space.Especially track four has that timeless jazzy feeling, but as usual with Ielasi these feelings are akin to topple over themselves and result in something completely different. Here it is a solemnly pumping track that reeks of the blues, gospel and modern machinery