Roberto Musci, Giovanni Venosta and Massimo Mariani: Losing The Orthodox Path. [1997] {Italy} @256 (Extraordinary Ethno Trip) (dedicated to Benito X)

This post is the result of an interaction between this blog and decoderblog.blogspot.com (visit it!) administrated by our friend, Benito X, a guy with great musical taste.

I was wandering one day around the peripehrals the musical blogosphere and found an album I have heard of but never had the chance to listen to. “Doublings and Silences Vol 1” by Doubling Riders. As soon as I saw it there I downloaded it, and immediately after that I got Vol 2 from the same source, which resulted even better. (Actually Vol 2 is so good that I played a song from it in TVOM 012). The thing is that I got into the comments and read that I was not the only one amazed and marveled by this Italian masterpieces. There were several enthusiastic comments about Doubling Riders and other related Italian projects. Notably the ones that Roberto Musci and Giovanni Venosta had done in the 90’s which were later reedited by Recommended Records for the public outside Italy.

The one we post today is the last of a triad of great albums, and definitely the most experimental and academic of the group.

Let’s focus on the fact that these albums by Giovanni Venosta and Roberto Musci are experiments in ethnomusicology, using the samplers to create sound collages made of layers and layers of tiny music pieces from all around the world, mixed brilliantly, with a sense of musicality and delicacy not very often found in experimental music.

I believe that the works done by these Italians represent what electronic music should be.

The Trio of albums are:
- “Water Messages-Urban Portraits” which is a combination of two lp’s done by Venosta and Musci in the 80’s.

- “A Noise , A Sound” in the same vein but combining ethnic samplers with somed sonic objects taken from classical European music from the XX century among many other sources.

- The one we are posting: Losing the Orthodox Path, done by Venosta and Musci with a little help from the electronic composer Massimo Mariani . This album is like a big cauldron where they melt all that they learned with the previous works adding some medieval and religious music to the mix.

There are other projects done by Musici solo, and also there are some films scores by Venosta. (Notably the one he did for the beautiful film Pane e Tulipane (Bread and Tulipans, Dir. Silvio Soldini, 2000)

The work of Venosta, Musici and their collaborators is a fresh approach to electroethnic blend. They took the torch where Brian Eno and David Byrne and left it and carried it way further, creating a new sonic planet.

This album is absolutely recommended for those who like Laszlo Hortobagyi or Vladiswar Nadishana, but even if you don’t know who those two are I must say that these album is recommended to anyone with brave ears, to anyone willing to expend his/her musical horizons.


Welcome to the adventure.

And…

Keep listening…!!!

Musci, Venosta & Mariani - Broken Oxygene...