D'AI PRIMITIVI ALL'ELETTRONICA

In 1980 Walter Maioli and Riccardo Sinigaglia come up with a bit of a thesis, having an earnest set of goals: complex interpretation of concrete-like and programmatic music, a fusion between expression and spirit, imposing the sound together with the meditation, and using a natural and rich index of music layers. And this work is pretty well done. It's, more than anything, something interesting, given that even the notions of "experiment" and "concrete music" themselves rarely reach natural and artistic forms, within the field of rock, electronic programmed music or even "world music". D'ai primitivi all'elettronica is, perhaps, only far from being innovating, considering that the material doesn't change or dramatize the essence of the styles it's using, neither consumes a remarkable originality; on top of this, Futuro Antico stays an obscure study, released precariously.

This project should attract some attention in relation with the band Aktuala (in which Maioli previously played), a band that's more classic and more renown. Futuro Antico, of course, doesn't sing the same music, still Aktuala is, somehow, an ensemble that also study composed music, resuming only to put it inside folk and rock, concept or sonic/color psychedelic.

The title of "D'ai primitivi all'elettronica" is very sugestive, though music doesn't draw into "primitive" characters, neither exceeds its style of technically processed sound. More suggestively is instead the ethnic breadth, since, besides Maioli and Sinigaglia - the first having great studies in acoustics, natural sound and cultural music, the second being the most experienced in complex, post-modern or ambient-reflexive electronic - Gabin Debire, Indian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, shines, plus the African percussion catches a fine taste through two guest musicians. The archetypal styles of Futuro Antico are equally sugestive, without, however, having a stable character. Aromatic and psycho-transitive, this band's music is not raga, nor part of Oriental expressions. The same thing goes with the electronic inclination, despite the effective and eclectic use of drones, synthesizers and experimental programmers. D'ai primitivi all'elettronica doesn't subscribe to the great electronic course, suffering largely because it assimilates in little way the common styles of that period. This music doesn't even confound with the pleasures of ambiance, though there is new-wave. It's a different music, superior to the electronic technique. A third style would finally be that of "world music", expressed very good through the multitude of traditional instruments, as well as through the fact that it sounds artistic and spiritual.

This album's material resumes to five pieces, some complex, others imperfect. In essence though, Future Antico compose a long essay of sound and music, having a kaleidoscope of styles - untreacherous in their art - that vary and undulate from the already mentioned nucleus of electronic/art raga/world sound to small extremes of psychedelic or harmony music - the last being the most limited. The technique usually melts in "senses" and "feelings", a touch that's, as usually, charming but also difficult to like. In the end, it is excellent that this music addresses to the spirit, that it has a concentrated value that's far from stressful, that it approaches the aesthetic out of taste (and not vanity), that the electronic over-dues the "artificial" in favor of "expressiveness" - and so on.

I'll give a positive note to this album, despite that it isn't perfect, nor an emblematic measure within the genre it experiments and interprets - it's worth something! Deep, special, unusual music, accomplished by the taste of music that speaks with the heart and with the Beautiful.