Aix is the latest work from Italian artist Giuseppe Ielasi and the follow-up to 2007’s August (12k, 12k1044). WIth Aix we see Ielasi building his layered, atmospheric music around rhythmic grids. Most of the time these are quite irregular and the pulses are not neccessarily stable or clear. Where his previous work approached sound in a linear fashion Aix imposes a strong vertical development with the aforementioned grid and a production consisting of ons and offs, employing as much improvisation as Ielasi’s previous work, but in a different way.

Despite the self-imposed grid structure, Aix relies heavily on randomization. Not in the traditional sense of sound placement but instead of the spatialization of sounds, echoes, reverbs and the stereo image. As a result, Aix has an amazing sense and clarity of space as the small fragments of sound breathe and find their own place in the mix, thanks to Ielasi’s sublime skills as a mixer and engineer.

Ielasi relied heavily on numerous short samples and combining them in ways that fell into his groove; some found from others’ recordings and many more recorded during the past year. We hear fragments of percussive (acoustic) objects, drums, piano, trumpet, guitar, and, of course, synthetic textures. Although there is a distinct rhythmic pulse to Aix, Ielasi manages to mold it into something wonderfully languid and warm… and strangely inviting.

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Artist

Giuseppe Ielasi

Born in 1974, lives near Milan since 1990. 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, Thomas Ankersmit, Michel Doneda, Ingar Zach, Dean Roberts). Between 1997 and 2006 he has performed live with Taku Sugimoto, Jerome Noetinger, Mark Wastell, Martin Siewert, Nmperign, Brandon Labelle, Nikos Veliotis, Alessandro Bosetti, Gert-Jan Prins, Phill Niblock, Oren Ambarchi, and many others.…

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