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Alio Die - The Hidden Spring CD (album) cover

THE HIDDEN SPRING

Alio Die

Progressive Electronic


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philippe
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars Hidden Spring is the first chapter of a seminal ambient trilogy written by Stefano Musso. The schemas of composition based on vibrant droning chords, concrete sounds and omnious-dreamy like synthesized sections are once again well exposed. However these enchanting ambient pieces have never been so profound, serene and haunted. Hidden Spring certainly figure among the best Alio Die efforts. The two first compositions open with rising epiphanic ambiences including epic-majestic burgeonning drones and discreet percussive scintillations. Track 3 is an enigmatic-nocturnal-sacred piece based on repetition and abstract exotica. Track 4 is a tranquil-meditative subaquatic piece. Track 5 improves the sound with a sort of kosmische aura. The rest of the album is just as mesmerising as the previous pieces: Ultra hypnotic, ritual and transcendant electronic epics. Seriously at the top of emotional-spiritual, semi-acoustic ambient music with what Harold Budd, Steve Roach have the best to offer. Spaced out, peaceful harmonies, an eerie trip without being new agey. A personal favourite.
Report this review (#201136)
Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 | Review Permalink
octopus-4
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
5 stars It's unusual that what's initially intended as a compilation of rarities released in different periods can acquire a cohesion like it has been conceived as a concept album. This early album of Stefano Musso (aka Alio Die, "Other Day") is mainly made of acoustic sounds, filtered and midified by electronics, but there aren't many keyboards or loops.

Stefano Musso is able in using the natural sounds to create a soundscape that sometimes is spacey, sometimes is psychedelic without falling into the newage. Listen to the second track that's made of birds, frogs, water and woods on a single chord. It can bring you wherever you want, it's primordial, wild and in the same time it's not just a drone. The various sounds create a unique environment.

Proceeding with the tracks you can visit a multitude of natural landscapes. The kind of bells which prelude to the noisy progression of the third track , the "dawn of the mankind" that can be perceived in "Amniotic Pot" with the sound of the rain and the water echoes which seem to come from a cave, every track has its characteristics and tells the story of a specific ambience.

I think the best possible explanation of this album's meaning comes from Alio Die's website where a poetry of the Indian Tagore is mentioned: "If I've ever given reality to God, If I've ever been gifted by God's vision, I have received it through this world, through Man, through the trees and the birds and the animals and the dust and the soil."

This album is that vision, made of trees, birds, animals and soil. A strongly recommended progressive meditation to those who like entering new worlds through the listening.

Not just ambient music.

Report this review (#774270)
Posted Tuesday, June 19, 2012 | Review Permalink

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