CD - Die Schachtel
Analog synthesizers, a Farfisa organ, turntables, a tape recorder, a CRT TV: all devices that have no reason to exist without electricity. The relationship between the instruments and the electric continuum is precisely the research ground upon which are unraveled the seven distinct tracks that make up "220 Tones", the new album by Nicola Ratti, a Milanese musician best known for his work as a guitarist but also active in more experimental projects (e.g. with Attila Faravelli or Giuseppe Ielasi). Melodic rhythms and often restrained tensions permeate the scores of the electro-acoustic "soundscapes", giving rise to smoothly calibrated chords, in a stylistically eclectic and gentle formal balance, refined and musical in passages of sinuous harmonic interactions and suggestive inserts. Intense but melancholic atmospheres come alive between the grooves with sensitive starts, always revealing a very personal sound poetic not without improvisational components that direct the flow of energy.
Aurelio Cianciotta