THEY GROW LAYERS OF LIFE WITHIN

Alio Die is one of the true spirits of contemporary electro/acoustic music composition/performance, which now he has refined to incomparable heights as far as his UNIQUE musical language´s evolution has also set him apart from most of the "stuck in time" average progressive electronic musicians. Small feat!

"They Grow Layers Of Life Within" (2017) is auditive proof of this evolution and therefore of the healthy distance he has taken from most of his Berlin/Bay Area electronic music schools´classmates.

Flawless, emotional, intimate, imaginative and creatively incidental, its hypnotic flow grows on each listening. Its beauty and darkness are both detached and personal yet universal as perfectly crafted. His true to himself composer´s skills have kept him from comforming to his audiences, opposite to that his audience has to keep up, without any kind of effort but the pursuit of sonic enjoyment, an open mind (and ears) to fully be immersed in such an amazing musical voyage. And believe me it is worth your while once and again and again and still it will keep on growing on you as layers of your life within.

To keep it short a 5 Progressive Electronic PA´s stars MASTERPIECE.

It's almost unfair to be rating this beautiful music against the complicated, demanding efforts of rock band formatted sweathogs but when all is said and done, what you choose to listen at the end of the day, whether it be 'nglag'rd, Gentle Giant, "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" or Brian Eno's ambient music, it shouldn't matter, should it? Stefano Musso and his zithers, computers, and collaborators have made another beautiful, engaging album. So let's celebrate!

1. The Atom of Existence" (26:20) droning synth wash with chimes/bells over the first five minutes. The bells disappear leaving only the multi-layered drone--a kind of chord within which certain notes strengthen and cresecendo and decay in turn with the others. Quite beautiful and mathematical. At 7:25 another "nighttime bug" sound enters and remains while the lowest notes of the "chord" enter and play a slow moving melody. At 8:20 horn-like riffs join in and a new broad-spectrum chord is constructed over, with, and supplanting the original. What started as intriguing and exciting became a little over drawn-out (despite the bird sounds in the last minutes.) (9/10)

2. "They Grow Layers of Life Within" (32:02) opens with Middle Eastern (Peter Gabriel's Last Temptation of Christ soundtrack) sounding ambient street sounds. Quite beautiful, dreamy, and reminiscent of walking the serpentine streets of a pre-industrial revolution North African or Middle Eastern town. New sounds and layers in the fourth minute make it sound as if the town (or organism) is coming to life, awakening. The marketplace setup and opening. At the ten minute mark one gets the sense that the ambulator is leaving the busy thrum of the market area and regressing into the spidery quiet alleys and occasional busy streets. He's in a daze, in a fog, walking as if searching for something without knowing what, only knowing that he needs to keep walking. At 14:30 begins another shift. The man is approaching a mosque. He enters the mosque. It is nearly empty as it is between prayer times. The bells at the 18 minute mark might designate an active pocket of prayer or group activity. The dreamer stops to observe, watching the men in discussion or the women sewing together. The dreamer's eyes are drawn upwards, into the shafts of light streaming in from the clerestory windows or gable supports. Beautiful. In the 23rd minute, the somnambulant is drawn back outside by the noise of sales carts selling handmade jewelry and scarves, cutlery and silverware, fabric and rugs. The beautiful small courtyard outside the mosque is teeming with light, heat, and tired vendors. The ambulator is suddenly fatigued, the heaviness of the summer heat bearing down. Time to sit down, lie down, die? And the market square business continues, business, life, as usual, as consciousness fades. Beautiful. (9.5/10)

3. "Real-Life Mystery" (6:09) gorgeous and frolicky with the nymph-like water play of bells and fairies, crickets and heavenly choir. (9/10)

A five star masterpiece of progressive electronic, ambient folk, or whatever kind of music this is. Wonderful stuff!