12k
presents the latest solo work from Italian composer Giuseppe Ielasi.
August is the 4th full-length cd from Ielasi following his critically
acclaimed debut Plans (Sedimental, 2003) and the stunning
Gesine and s/t (Häpna, 2005, 2006).
August takes a more linear approach to Ielasi’s
composing with sounds stretched like like layers of gauze forming
a thick, soft blanket. Utilizing piano, hammond organ, guitars,
dobro, synthesizers and shortwave radio, Ielasi creates deep,
warm drones and suspended, scratchy melodies with a hint of despair
and melancholy that make this a very introspective album. His
trademark guitar and live approach to instrumentation are in the
forefront yet set behind an expertly processed veil of subtle
electronics. The textures are unabashedly acoustic but buried
and moody enough as to question their origin.
August is a haunting, but beautiful album that falls
neatly between the starkness of Gesine and the scattering rhythmic
complexity of s/t. LIke music for a farewell, an ending of ends,
August is moody, static, slow and emotional.
Ielasi,
Born in 1974, lives near Milan, Italy. He started playing guitar
in 1988, and worked for many years in the area of ‘improvised
music’ (long term collaborations with Renato Rinaldi in
the duo Oreledigneur, Alessandro Bosetti, Michel Doneda, Ingar
Zach, Dean Roberts). He has performed live with Taku Sugimoto,
Jerome Noetinger, Mark Wastell, Martin Siewert, Nmperign, Brandon
Labelle, Nikos Veliotis, Gert-Jan Prins, Phill Niblock, Oren Ambarchi,
Thomas Ankersmit and many others. In recent years his main interest
has been in site-specific solo performances, still using guitars
as primary sound sources but integrating microphones and multi-channel
speaker systems in order to create complex networks for sound
diffusion in relationship to space. In 1998 he founded the Fringes
Recordings label.
