Vital Weekly (NL)
Does anyone reminder the series Heavenly Voices, compilations by Germany’s Hyperium? Mid to late 90s, this series had a whole bunch of humming and chanting female voices, set in electronic and gothic music. Half way through “Ablation”, the opening piece on Solo Andata’s third album Solo Andata (which means “one way” in Italian), there is all of a sudden such a humming choir of voices. Or perhaps a digital keyboard? I am now sure, but the press text talks about the almost absence use of electronics and the use of acoustic guitar, piano, cello and “natural resonances of organic materials”. I can see the two members of Solo Andata, Paul Fiocco and Kane Ikin, humming in a tunnel, picking up the resonances of the voices and placing this back into the music they create at home. Its absolutely great that 12k notes this thing about all of this being acoustic, because I could have easily believed something else: computers, electronics, field recordings and such like. Its quite nice to hear this all acoustic music that sounds (almost) all electronic. This one shows that it is possible to change the station when it comes to microsound. Perhaps the outcome is close to other music (that thing about Heavenly Voices was merely a side remark to get the review started; it has nothing to do with that kind of music), modern classic music perhaps, chamber music or ambient, and thus builds on a tradition, deepens that tradition further. Rich textured music. Great stuff. (FdW)