NIMH

WARNING!... Slow Music Project !!

Line up for real: Andrea Marutti (Amon), Giuseppe Verticchio (Nimh) and Daniela Gheradi.

I have been withholding my review of this 2007, Nimh & Amon´s release which mirror title goes by the name of "SATOR". To be honest it was a draw between 4 or 5 stars, never below that. I knew I was listening to a masterpiece, my only reluctance to emit my vote, had to do mostly with its date of release.

By 2007, a lot had happened to electronic music in general, in all its namings. So the "groundbreaking" adjective, has raised its bars, at the speed of light, in this genre´s enormous possibilities. As a result of that, well, I can´t escape finding some not that groundbreaking close references in this noise/environmental/drone/acoustic/electronic music, way of composing and performing. Which certainly did not started in 2007.

As opposed to that fact, It is impossible not to sense the polished perfection achieved in each of the elements involved in this kind of highly and sadly, underground songwriting expression. SATOR, as a 5 section project, complies with all what the few expect from this kind of exercises.

But far beyond that , their fearless approach to beauty, the same as its alienated spectre, whatever way you want to call it , is in itself quiet UNIQUE, in its very personal and uncompromising way, they do create simultaneously both sides of the coin, like life on earth. The same as dark menacing spaces coexist among the universal brights and the half glasses of water.

Inhumanly human, but hospitable enough to give you space to dwell and testify. Whatever, no unpleasant surprises, (or, this is why this is considered art not life), and opposite to that, impeccable all way through!

*****5 "Masterpiece, let´s leave it at that" PA stars.

It is a strange and wonderful thing to hear a myriad of the instruments of the East played in an ethereal and electronic context. "K.A. 4" is an excellent example of this unique fusion and how well Verticchio pulled it off: an Indian drone that sounds distinctly electronic opens, and a furiously played sitar is the centrepiece. The track ends with a swell of strange sounds and the return of the drone. The whole album takes various Asian sounds and then makes them feel out of this world. Words can't completely convey just how otherworldly and yet so right this comes out as. It is like an industrial ambient band going backpacking through India, Southeast Asia, and then on through China and Japan, along the way cutting tracks with traditional musicians, and then assembling the project into an excellent whole. Or you can think of it as an artifact dropped by extraterrestrials who decided to do a take on some Earth music. And this is all the work of one man! Verticchio is remarkably talented, and the proof is this masterful album.

Unearthly ethnic electronics.

Giuseppe Verticchio's, a.k.a. NIMH, 2011 "Krungthep Archives ", travels through the obscure, white noise, strident electronics, as it is also poignantly focused on playing ethnical kind of tunes with their respective instrumentation, mostly Asian or Indian, alongside, live recordings of nature's sounds and some village's peasant life of what seems to be somewhere around those same places.

In this project's progressive mutation, back and forth between its musical directions and mixtures of musical languages and influences, what is constant is Giuseppe Verticchio's detailed and creative music songwriting. Even the unmusical white, harsh noise or its indistinct voices and chatters , are kept in size, unless the composition requires the opposite, without surrendering the spirit of "pure electronic experimentation", very much in the tenor of his own country (very) early electronic musicians. (Italy circa 1930.)

In fact that is exactly what makes this work "cinematic like" (without any kind of ST cliches, of course), the wide space given to each musical or noise direction. Unobtrussive to each other but linearly focused, as also imprinting each song with its own personality, yet parts of the whole project.

Rich in melodies and moods, yet abundant in its uncompromising sonic electronic textures!

****4.5 PA stars.

Suggest the keywords for their music may be "rain", "sorrow", "darkness", and "brief pleasure".

"Under Mournful Horizons", released in September 2012 via Rage In Eden Records, is a creation compiled mainly with DAY BEFORE US aka Philippe BLACHE's sound view of the world, in collaboration with NIMH aka Giuseppe VERTICCHIO. Philippe and I have discussed soundscape together, while his strong intention for dark, meditative ambient music continent has been blowing me away eventually. Their deep, down-tempo, graceful dark ambience reminds me some texture in Ludvig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor - Moonlight" though I'm not familiar with Classic music scene. And through this work, another gem in the pouring rain can be found ... very surprisingly indeed.

Along with Philippe's soundscape under his vast sky fuzz of dark ambience, their play had gone straightforward to sorrowful, mournful, plaintive tone mass. Look at their album sleeve and song titles and we can easily realize what they meant to do. On the other hand, mind you, something pleasant like a dim light or like a small brilliant gem falling into a dark nebula, can be found, I'm sure. Cannot understand which sounds like such a mysterious phenomenon, this album concept or their soundscape itself, but even vaguely, cannot help feeling glad in future of their story. Without myself I've said that what's happening and what an amazing confusion.

Quite fascinating the atmosphere especially in the last track "Frozen Gleams Of Eternity" should be, dizzy fuzzy rainy noise ensemble will get to be purely crystallized, scape sweetness. The riff, eccentric but simple, constantly knocks our vacant mind, but that repetitive progress with bulky air alteration can inflate our mind with fantasia. Guess their sound stream collective throw "hope" to us despite of appearance.

In conclusion, please get drenched in this terrific creation.

In this last effort, Giuseppe Verticchio (frontman and multi instrumentalist behind Nihm) liberates the musical possibilities of noises taken from various public places and subtly interact this study with densely sonic instrumental textures (made of various ethno-cultural instruments from traditional Asia). The musical signature and general aesthetic direction are in the direct vein of the two previous releases Travel Diary and Missing Tapes: moving, symbiotic and spatial relationships between the acousmatic theater, fragmented acoustic tones and relevant organic interferencies. The opening theme rises from the distance with an exquisite, almost liturgical music procession made of hypno- minimal patterns, long sustained acoustic drones and crowdy noises that progressively come into the mix. Track 02 starts with an intense burgeoning medley of sounds, abrasive noises, timbral and polymorphic textures which combined all together create a kind of vertiginous cyclical mind trip through altered memories. Track 03 probably represents the highlight with its meticulous and well balanced dialogue between static minimalism, luminous melodies lines, sustained sonorities and an avalanche of noisy, crashing sounds. Track 04 is an hypnagogic repetitive mantra for ethno instruments and sonorous, slowly evolving drone frequencies, punctuated by cinematic noises and physical atmospheres. Track 05 closes this energetically mobile and sonic voyage with a vast collection of concrete materials and deliciously introspective acoustic chords. Krungthep Archives reveal tremendous ecological soudscapes and introduces the listener into an original trans-cultural sound monography. These archives spontaneously communicate the pleasure to re-discover in a sensitive way the micro-polyphony of everyday life. Well recommended for curious, sound ethnographers and post-industrial (neuro-electronic) listeners.

Travel Diary is the last CD release from the multifaceted eerie droning project called Nimh. This last offering features pieces reissued from a previous CD-R called Lanna Memories with others sound materials and unreleased tracks. The musical content provides a colorful ethno-phonographic experience including a large corpus of micro-sounds taken from rituals of "everyday life" among Eastern Thai regions and secular communities. Echoes From The Hills opens with a serene-poetical moody prelude using thai mouth organ. The Market Place is a walking odyssey through cinematic concrete sonorities punctuated by cyclical percussive scintillations. Village Feast is an uneasy hypnogenic trip through confused crowdy sounds melted with tellurian processual voices and endlessly repetitive acoustic chords. Children memories combine a vast catalogue of sounds taken from children plays. The sound treatment gives to the ensemble "sonic driving" effects. The Lana Memories parts are entrancing-ultrasensorial dronescapes, featuring OM resonances, dense buzzing lines and an avalanche of mantra-like acoustic wind instruments, anamnesic ghostly religious voices, psalmodies and natural noises. To sum up thing, Travel DIary is an intimate theatre of sounds with great neurophysiological impacts on the listener. This is life experienced as a spiritual concert. Music as an expressive vehicle for a cultural and cultual adventure. a must have for neophytes who want to explore Nimh idiosyncrasic music universe.

— First review of this album —

Whispers From The Ashes is the sound of the Abyss, the catacombs, the moats, the sound of doubts, fear, suffering pain in front nothingness. Made in collaboration with the crepuscular ambient project Nefelheim, Whispers From The Ashes is a vibrant, static music that reveals an intimate experience, crucial instants without words. The goth-esque electronic soundscapes are deeply rooted in physical resonances, playing with duration and with the sacred harmonies of expressive drones. Last Hours Of The Heretic is a supreme elevating, ethereal soundscape. Age Of Stakes / Crying Bard is a creepy electronic ritual for cavernous fragmented piano sounds and demonic synthscapes imitating the sound of the crypt. This composition is excessively sinister, beautifully haunted and plaintive. It ends with an astonishing, spaced out epic melody for guitar arpeggios, featuring a fragile medieval mood. Sounds From The Ossuary is a sumptuous, tonic & pessimistic electronic prelude with doom-like accents (the presence of very low echoing frequencies). A true musical, saint splendour. Malleus Maleficarum is a vigorous dark soundscape with the use of liturgical, spiritual chants and lugubrious electronic scintillations. A majestic, contemplative elegy. Without any doubts one the most sulphurous, melancholic & creepiest experimental electronic album. Absolutely bewitched. A personal favourite.

Giuseppe Verticchio (Nimh), Andrea Marutti (Amon) composed a large variety of intuitive, dark electronic paintings. In this first collaborative project (before the birth of Hall of Mirrors), the two sound creators have returned to the primal / fundamental sources of dronescapes. Consequently, Sator musical aesthetism reveals a certain "decadent malaise", crystallizing a dark obsessive energy in purely physical, monotonous sounds & chords. This music evokes a "perfect tranquillity" with some beautiful, carefully made progressive harmonies. The sound is clean, repetitious and static, revealing a dreamy and ambiguous atmosphere in complete isolation, in an ivory-like kingdom. The transportation from one track to an other is very subtle. No precipitation, just floating, fascinating electronic epics for electric "suspended" trancey guitars, treatments and concrete sounds. The normal time is dissolved and the aspirations of the trio (Verticchio, Marutti, Gherardi) act like a "waking dream" on the listener. In a rather ritual, symbolistical manner, these electronic exhibitions open the gates to new kind of perceptual phenomenons. The idea of duration, the state of dis-possession invoked in the conceptual / transversal perspectives of Sator broke the traditional notions of time & space in musical narration. The fourth track announces the ascension pick of this haunted musical adventure, ominously entering into a magnificent state of enlightenment (ecstatic piece for fuzzing effects, long sustained chords, hypno-guitar treats). You really going to get high with Sator. A more expanded vision of drone art.

— First review of this album —

This collaborative project / artistic meeting between one of the pioneering figures of tribal-ambient (Amir Baghiri) and one of the finest artists of trancey drone music (Giuseppe Verticchio) is an absolute must for fans of Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Harold Budd, David Russel and other "environmental" music makers. Consequently Entities reveals a sensual, tonic and epiphanic world of sounds. The musical pieces are articulated between electronic processual treatments / oscillations / loops and amplified acoustic-ethnic-ritual instruments. The atmosphere is rather religious, nocturnal, and voluntary turned to sacred elements. The first track features dense acoustic vibes from the Didgeridoo (Aboriginal wood instrument). This leading part is accompanied by manipulated concrete sounds taken from the nature & various sources. The other pieces are composed on the same schema admitting variations. After to have explored the entire album I must confess that Amir Baghiri is the omnipresent artistic soul on the album and not necessary for the best: From my viewpoint and despite a certain charm the electronic artillery is too massive & monolithic. Good but not essential. For an other personal combination between primal-ethnic instruments and avant garde experimentalism I prefer by fare the artisan Missing Tapes (Nimh) or the visionary-mystical-alchemical efforts from old legends as Angus Maclise (.)

— First review of this album —

Listen to Nimh and you will be strongly convinced that music allows us to face up the tragedy of human existence. Line of Fire was born as a conceptual album about disaster, war and resistance forces in the margins of humanity outside of the West world. Line of Fire suggests a direct dialogue, parallel with the notion of memory, mnemonic traces and the practice of spiritual meditation on collective tragedy. Line of Fire is a precious exercise of attention and listening, exploring a vast panel of concrete sounds, narratives that are progressively covered by absolutely magic like electronic buzzing effects and extended synthesised chords driving like madness & possession. The first composition works like a ritual purification, transforming our usual schemas of listening. Musically speaking, it reveals a closed relationships with old intuitive, conceptual sound experimentations from the French GRM (group of musical research) and particularly with Parmegiani and the heavenly inspired proportions of his electronic abstract orchestrations. The second composition develops relatively similar ritual droning sequences connected with over stimulating sensations. I can only regret the lack of improvement from one piece to the other, it reduced the experience to one similar theme, developed endlessly. Line of Fire remains an intense musical experience that affects our common ideas and the way to perceive sound objects. An other very distinctive album from this musical project.