TEXTURA REVIEW
Solo Andata's (Australian duo Paul Fiocco and Kane Ikin) eponymous follow-up to its 2006 debut album Fyris Swan
(Hefty) hews to a somewhat oblique narrative path suggested by its
eight track titles. In keeping with the group's name (which, translated
from the Italian, means “one way”), the album traces a uni-directional
movement from water to land and exploits binaries such as cold-hot and
motion-stasis. The quasi-narrative grounds the album, then, but in a
fairly open-ended manner that allows the listener to disregard the
story if he/she chooses and attend to the slow-motion drift of the
settings all by themselves (exquisitely designed, the release is
complemented by a mini-booklet containing eight photographs by Taylor
Deupree that visually reference the album tracks).
The
opener “Ablation” supposedly situates itself on a boat in a cold arctic
night, and as proof one can hear the distant sounds of seagull cries
and the omnipresent churn of the boat's engine. The piece turns into
something truly remarkable, however, once the mournful tones of Louise
McKay's cello appear to augment the choral singing and the occasional
piano accent. “Ablation” ultimately registers as a veritable master
class in sound design and arrangement, with Solo Andata weaving its
carefully-selected sounds into an eleven-minute mood piece of
strikingly evocative character. With its humanizing presence and
emotive warmth, McKay's cello playing also elevates “Loom,” which tends
towards a conventional musical form in its melancholy unfolding and
emphasis on acoustic instrumentation (cello, acoustic guitar). The
elegiac “Canal Rocks” presents what sounds like muffled French horn
motifs caught in a cascading loop amidst amplified river flow. “Beyond
This Window” finds light breaking on the horizon, drenching the sky in
a golden hue, while waves beat against the tower's walls. Piercing the
watery flow, pinging bell tones give “Look For Me Here” a gamelan
quality while the pluck and strum of an acoustic guitar adds a natural
character to the setting. With the sounds of insects buzzing
(presumably about a fresh carcass), birds chirping, and ground
crackling underfoot front and center, “Woods Flesh Bone” makes
imagining oneself traipsing through the woods on a sweltering hot
summer afternoon the easiest thing in the world.
No
information is given regarding sound sources or instrumentation used in
producing the material—Solo Andata presumably wanting the music to
speak for itself—but we're told that the duo largely eschews electronic
instruments for the sound-generating potential of acoustic instruments
(guitar, piano, and cello, obviously); it should be said, however, that
while nothing so anomalous as a synthesizer squeal is present, Solo
Andata radically processes its source materials until they turn into
sumptuously-textured set-pieces. Regardless of production methods or
sound sources deployed, the album offers a remarkable exemplar of the
soundscaping genre. October 2009