Francesco Canavese / Francesco Giomi / Stefano Rapicavoli

Part of ongoing musical investigation of the congruence among the freedom of improvisation, the rhythmic thrust of Rock and the aleatoric textures engendered with electronics is this absorbing performance by the Florence-based Zumtrio. Expanding the work of earlier electro-acoustic ensembles like MEV and AMM are guitarist Francesco Canavese, who is also involved in the Zum project, theatrical and notated music; percussionist Stefano Rapicavoli, who has worked with jazzers like Riccardo Arrighini and Francesco Giomi, electro-acoustic music composition professor and group conductor, who uses analogue radio captures and synthesizers.

Creating a layered pentimento effect the two extended and one shorter track operate as constancy mutating soundscapes rather than in a straight line. All depend on the unpredictable insertion of radio broadcast material, that is mostly male and female voices narrating or news reading, but sometimes pop music A particular highlight is on “California” where pushing aside conversational voices, splashy guitar strums and cymbal scratches are fragments of the Eagles singing “Hotel California”. After song snatches fade in and out of aural focus mixed with drum pop shuffles, guitar-string shakes and wave-form buzzes, the recorded tune is processed into ghostly sound shards that are fed into the subsequent insistent mix.

The extended preceding and subsequent tracks aren’t as transparent. During both dial-twisting, oscillating echoes, backbeat drum rumbles and guitar strategies ranging from whammy bar distortions to guitar neck patterning are challenged or consolidated with different voices and programmed whooshes from the synthesizers. As distended patterns that could come from any of the electric instruments vibrate across and sporadically surmount the sound field, instrumental and vocal motifs are either muffled or more emphatic. Eventually the voltage hisses and chirps, voice snatches, pressurized guitar whorls and wiggles and heavy drum crashes and clanks amalgamate into a solid mass, until menacing wave form washes decompose the sequence for a defining conclusion.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Un tavolino a parte 2. California 3. Giornate colorate

Personnel: Francesco Canavese (guitar); Francesco Giomi (analogue radio and synthesizers) and Stefano Rapicavoli (drums and percussion)