DECONSECRATED AND PURE

Ambient music is a tough ground when it comes to original composition (and of course its abstract tagging in the music industry does not help at all). A lot also has to do with the instant name that comes to mind: Brian Eno (as Eno´s "ambients" remind of Satie´s & Debussy´s 19th century environmental music concept ) . A tough act to follow considering also his vast number of works under this tagging.

So it is fascinating to see what others do, with this kind of invisible, unperceptible musical language by rule. To my great luck there are many artist that have bended the genre to fabulous places. Tim Hecker, Julia Kent, Laraaji, the always surprising Lyndsie Alguire, Alva Noto, Aidan Baker, Marconi Union, Robert Fripp and of course Alio Die, (among others).

Alio Die, who already has added some "jewels" to the ambient/drone/electro-acoustics crown (Honneysuckle, The Hidden Spring), seldom repeats himself , which adds bonuses to his work in my humble opinion. He plays what he feels and this record shows the unlimited range in his own musical language. Or to put it simply: Alio Die sounds like Alio Die wherever he appears.

Deconsecrated & Pure: Beautiful without intention. Alio Die follows his musical intuition wherever it leads. In this work, the grandeur is accomplished by a simple change of chords and it feels like the whole world turns into another realm, a new one, a mysterious wide sonic space of nothingness and everything. .. The environment is inviting and detached at the same time, no compromises for him nor you. Like a guide who shows you this amazing structures and makes no claim over them (although you know he is the anonymous creator). In a vast and somehow ungrateful genre, this work stands out as as Masterpiece! *****5 PA stars.

Stefano Musso, the genius behind the "Alio Die" albums, is perhaps the only Progressive Electronic artist who is sounding new, different from those that have gone before. Most everyone else sounds like they came out of the 1970s, imitating or carrying forward certain sounds and styles, only using the advantages of advances in technology for sound engineering to their advantage. Though Stefano's frequent foundational employment of zither does produce reminders of Brian Eno's third "Ambient" album--Eno's production of the recording of New York City street musician Larry Gordon or "Laraaji" and his electrified zither playing--Stefano's use of layers of synthesizers with re-engineered sounds of other instruments makes for a 'new' or expanded version of the Laraaji/Eno sound. Plus, Stefano's music seems often to be strongly steeped in overtones of the musics of various religious traditions--especially Christian and Arabic. There are many times while listening to Alio Die music that I've thought I was listening to the music inside some vast Christian cathedral (as in the first two songs here) or an Arabian mosque. Also, Stefano's openness to collaboration with other musicians has fostered an ongoing shift and variation in the sounds and styles of his musical outputs; Stefano is not afraid to grow, to take risks, to learn from others, to collaborate, to try new things, and yet Stefano's music is clearly his own--of a style that I can almost recognize immediately upon hearing it.

Five star songs: the ethereal music of the reverence of religious traditions, 1. "Layers of Faith" (15:47) (10/10); 2. "Obliterated Alcove" (12:10) sounding like a modern day Gregorian chant (10/10); the Celtic-sounding parade of joy and celebration, 3. "Peel Away This Mortal Coil" (9:22) (9/10); the wind-chime infused, Eno-esque ("Lantern Marsh"), 4. "Cerulean Façade" (10:21) (8/10), and; like "Peel Away...," a mélange of world sounds of celebration, 5. "De-Altered" (18:09) (8/10).

The first two songs of this album alone are worth the price of admission as they are two of my all-time favorite electronica songs.