ALIO DIE

— First review of this album —

This album closes an ambient trilogy started with "The Hidden Spring" and continued with "Le Stanze Della Trascendenza" (Apsaras is a collaboration and even if released in the middle it's not part of the trilogy.

As in the previous two albums, this "dronescape" project is a mixture of natural sounds electronically manipulated. "Still Rapture" is based on a loop. I think the original sound it's a cello. some "natural sounds" (wood, water, steps) behind. "Breathing Again" is very similar (same structure) but different. We can also hear monkeys, birds and other jungle animals. It's like walking in a tropical rain forest. The mood is similar with "First Perception" but this track is more structured and contains more different sounds. The water which comes after about two minutes gives the idea of something primordial, sensation enhanced by wooden flute and wood xylophone. A great drone, this one, with the xylophone taking the part that in a Tangerine Dream or Vangelis track would have been performed by a keyboard effect. Dreamy with the voice in the final which adds a touch of hypnosis.

The title track is darker in terms of sounds with loops, tapes and small percussion in evidence. A nice drone less "natural" than the others. "A Chaos of Desire" starts as a follow-up to the previous track, but after few seconds it's clear that the ambient is different. Less dark, with sequenced vocals and again natural sounds. What seems to be a keyboard could be any instrument electronically manipulated. In some moments the whispered vocals can give the idea of a Sabbath or better, of a primeval ritual. "A Fragment of Fire" is a very evocative title. The music is initially too "cool" to remind to fire, but behind the main chord (wooden flutes?) some little sounds advance in crescendo. Being it just a "fragment" we can't expect a burning building. The distant thunders behind the flutes give me the idea of an incoming storm instead. However this is part of a "Fire Trilogy" as the next track is entitled "The Way Of Fire".

No thunders now, and a more dark environment to which some bells, likely a triangle are added. Respect to the dutch Phrozenlight, Alio Die's drones are more rich of sounds and even in tracks made of a single chord, the variations are suggestive and never boring. After about 3 minutes the thunder reappears for a couple of times, probably a connection to the previous track. The mood is similar to TD Zeit, or to the pink period in general.

"Concerning Simple Fire" closes the trilogy. Now the rumor of a little fire is clearly listenable. The percussive sound seems to be a stone that a primitive man is using to light the fire. All those sounds go to the background while something similar to edited cello and a sitar take the main scene. Crickets and cicadas say that it's night. Try to imagine somebody lighting a small fire in a wood to warm his night.

"Regeneration" is opened by percussion and various noises. There's some melody in the background, but the track has the typical aspect of an ambient drone. It's a dreamy soundscape. It's like the primitive man is now sleeping. The atmosphere seems more spacey but the echoed bell sets up the environment to a dream full of things . Not properly a nightmare, but some of the sounds don't give the idea of a relaxing good dream. I love this track for the sensations that it can give birth to.

The closer ,"Desire", represents maybe the wake-up. A nice one. Female vocals and gamelan like percussion (not too invasive), then bells. It's a great track and an excellent closer for an album which doesn't deserve less than 4 stars.

— First review of this album —

New raga age immersed into primordial waters...

Alio Die is an amazing project from a genius of the ambient music very often open to collaborations like this one with Amelia Cuni who is one of the few western vocalist to have studied the dhrupal singing. She's also a composer and a percussionist as well as a dancer. All things that she has studied during a 10 year period spent in India.

The Apsaras are nymphs of the water and all the album's theme is centered on that. What appear to be lyrics in Indian are only repeated syllables which compose the "alap", a sort of long improvised introduction which is one of the element of the dhrupal singing.

However this is not an album of classical Indian music. The Dhropal singing is immersed into an ambient monotonal and modal soundscape, totally empty of percussion of any kind. The only rhythms come from water and other natural sounds as often happens in Alio Die music. This artist, even if considered "progressive electronic" is uset to record acoustic and natural sounds later re-elaborated through the electronics.

Two of the track titles are in Sanskrita and require a translation: "AMBHAS" means "celestial waters" but is also a metric consisting of 82 syllables. I haven't counted, but it's possible that the opening track has both the meanings. "AAPAHA" is water intended as one of the primeval elements which are the same of the western culture: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Ether.

This album is a sort of nature inspired mantra. The Indian element is strong but the music is as spacey as the early TANGERINE DREAM with the addition of a sitar on "Water Memories" and some other instruments and devices which can't be distinguished easily.

It's an unique album that seems made to capture your mind and send it back in time to contemplate the creation of the world from the waters. The Dhrupal singing is mystic and Amelia Cuni sounds like a Nymph, an "APSARA".

The mentioned "Water Memories" and "Churning Of The Oceans" are the album's highlights, but the whole is excellent if you like the genre.

4 stars

The main characteristic of the early works of Alio Die consist in applying the electronics to acoustic and natural sounds. This album should be the second part of a trilogy including started with the excellent "The Hidden Spring" as he writes on his website, nut he has missed to tell us if a third part has ever been released.

"Le Stanze Della Trascendenza" can be tranlsated as "The Rooms Of Transcendence", but with the word "stanze" that can be translated both as "rooms" and with the poetical meaning of "stanzas". Probably the second meaning is the correct one. The tracks which compose this album has been composed and recorder between 1994 and 1999.

"Alternate Realities" is a familiar terminology for who has read the books of Carlos Castaneda. I don't know if Stefano Musso was thinking to that when he composed this dark ambient track. Probably it's only self-suggestion, but I hear echoes of world elements in the bells and the untuned flute in the background later followed by congas. It's a very meditative track. I don't know how much influenced by the Yaquis sorcerers, but it has surely something magic inside. I think to the ritual in the cave in Ken Russel's "Altered States".

Whoever has spent a summer night near to the Mediterranean Sea, in Italy or in Greece, knows that sleeping can be quite difficult, not only because of the heat and the mosquitos, but also for the chaos produced by the legs of cicadas, but when this noise is not too loud their sound can be incredibly relaxing. "Cicada's loop" is a 4 minutes track based on that sound accompanied by major chords of God knows which instruments. Cicadas "singing" is a sort of natural mantra. Try to believe.

"Il Fondo Del Pozzo" (The Bottom of The Well) starts as a drone. The reverberation effect adds a sensation of water, but there's more in this well. The increasing noise makes me think to the forge of Sauron, or at least to a frenetic hidden activity in the deep, as in Lovecraft's prose "something laying in the dark behind the ground".

"Melancholic Roots" is full of water which is the one of the four alchemical elements most used in progressive electronic, I think. The mood doesn't change with what seems to be an acoustic guitar with a loop of itself overlying. After 3 minutes and a bit of silence it restarts with vocals (oohs and somebody human, hopefully) on a single minor note The chord remains the same while natural noises of animals fill in a pool of water. I have the impression that this sound is produces by a wet finger over a crystal glass but I can't be sure. Something changes with the water coming back at minute 10:30 of this longest allbum's track. Some birds or similar appear at minute 13 and they add a bit of variation to this very static track. The jungle noises increases and after some monkeys and birds in the water I can expect a crocodile. There are vocals too. I don't know if it's somebody singing and sequenced. The bells at minute 16 add a dark mood to what is now clearly a sequence of I think C- and G#..It proceeds in this way until the end.

"Desire" is a strange track. A sequence of two chords with a sinusoidal progress in the volume. Another meditative ambient moment.

"Molecular Dance" is the closer. The original source of the sound might have been a guitar or another strings instrument, maybe an oriental one. This song is based on pauses and chords of short duration probably to symbolize the dance of the title. Also in this track the volume has some variations but less regular than on the previous track. Only in the final another instrument is added, then it slowly fades out.

What this album misses is a bit of continuity between the tracks so to appear more like a collection of songs than like a part of a trilogy concept. For the rest it's a good one for who likes this kind of ambient electronic music.

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.

It doesn't start very well. The more than 20 minutes long first track has very little variations. I wouldn't be able to distinguish it from any of the Phrozenlight's drones. I like the genre but this or any other track of this kind doesn't make a big difference.

But this "Suspended Feathers" is not only this. A characteristic of Alio Die (Other Day in Latin) is the use of acoustic and natural sounds filtered and manipulated by electronic devices. "Ruins Garden Drones" is a fantastic track featuring water, wood, winds and a fantastic flute all accompanied by what I think is the "chinese cymbals" which sounds between a harp and an acoustic guitar. On this track the word "Progressive" stays well together with "Electronic". It's the soundtrack of a dream. It's the primordial fusion with Nature. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the Geinoh Yamashirogumi choirs appears suddenly. In one word: it's a trip.

"Time In Absence" is more spacey, like the first track but also in this case the flute, or the keyboard or whatever it is sends us in a dreamy world. No longer a wood or an Eastern jungle, in this track I see the deep space's darkness. The only awaken astronaut walking in a generational starship. Minor chords slightly changing. Imagine the intro of Shine On You Crazy Diamond slowed down a lot with the flute leading the simulacrum of a melody and no blues at all.

The title of the title track has made me think to Forrest Gump before listening to it, but there's absolutely no relationship. This feather is suspended, it's not carried away by the wind. It's a suspension in Time, a crystallized quantum of space-time at the beginning of the world. What would be another drone in Phrozenlight's style is later transformed by the sounds of rain, howling animals, and non rhythmic percussion.

"Wings Of The Firefall" proceeds on this line, but with a litlle more energy. There's the impression of a cello, then the heavy rain coming in the middle of the song brings with its some noises more or less natural. This track is like a moment of mystic ecstasy, one of those moments when you can feel a sensation of unity with the cosmos...I'm probably flying too high, but this is what this music does to me: it makes me fly.

Of course you need to let your mind go, you have to be conscious that it's progressive electronic, and must want to experience something like this. Or you are just tired after a long day and want to relax yourself. In this case it's one of the best things that you can put on.

I think 4 stars are well deserved. If you are not keen with ambient music stay away, otherwise this is an excellent addition to your collection.

Often, when you see a prolific artist in the progressive electronic subgenre you are going to find a number of long drones with very few differences so that one album is hardly distinguishable from another.

This is not the case with Stefano Musso, aka Alio Die (latin: "Another Day"). His music fits very well in its genre, with long compositions made mainly of keyboard soundscapes very ambient oriented, but it's not just a guy which plays at home with synhts and sequencers. This is an artist which puts some effort in each composition and even though his work is pure ambient electronic his music reminds not only to the Tangerine Dream of the pink period as one may expect, but also to Vangelis, Oldfield and likes in their most peaceful and dreamy sides.

I have discovered this artist on PA, from a review that made me curious and this is the first Alio Die's album that I try.

It's not a surprise because this is progressive electronic, exactly what is written on his PA page. The surprise is the quality of this work. The album should be part of a series called "Castles Sonorisations" which is inteded as a musical description of medieval castles, and the medieval ambient is expressed by the "ooh" voices which suggest the idea of monks in a monastery.

The first three tracks are part of a suite entitled "Sine Tempore" (Timeless) and the remaining two are "Aura Seminalis" (latin: "Seminal Radiance", but Aura has a lot of meanings, including "Breath"). Listening better I'm not 100% sure that the voices are not human. No singers are credited on the album but they may come from sampling. This kind of sound sends my mind to Vangelis ("Mayflower" from The Friends of Mr. Cairo to say a title).

An advise: there is no kind of drums or percussion in this album, no guitars or bass. This is a totally electronic experience and one of the best that I have hear on this genre recently.

I am between three and four stars, honestly, as I realy like this album, but I don't know if I can consider it "essential". It's surely better than most of the TD 80s output that I'm in the process of reviewing during this period. Anyway, I'm going for 4 stars as "eyecatcher" as this artist deserves, in my opinion, a bit of attentions from us proggers.

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.

Suspended Feathers belongs to Alio Die (Stefano Musso) earliest explorations into heavenly inspired trancey dronescapes. Stefano Musso is a very prolific artist who (along his careerà has delivered constant quality inside experimental dreamy electronic music. His creative ambiental soundscapes are reminiscence to Robert Rich, Arold Budd, Steve Roach and others electronic pionniers. However the static ambient sculptures include much more substantial intuitive-improvised parts with regular uses of droning sequences and darker-lugubrious atmospheres. The moving, spacious and sonic musical background is often punctuated by manipulated sounds taken from the nature, giving to the piece a sort of sacred flavour evocating metempsychosis. All compositions are quite evocative, including fragile melodies and harmonious-ethereal-melodic phrases. It finishes with the rainy-pastoral Wings of Firefall and its natural sounds and its eerie-textured droning moves. Vital experimental work that introduces harmonious correspondances between our own subjectivity and the sacred theatre of the universe. A good introduction to Stefano Musso's original world of sounds before to be involved into his sublime "environmental" electronic trilogy (Hidden Spring, Stanze of Transcendance, Leaves Net).