ANDIAMO IN GIRO DI NOTTE E CI CONSUMIAMO NEL FUOCO

The album titled "Della stessa sostenza dei sogni" by the Italian - more precisely, by the Sicilian - band Homuncuus Res, released in 2018, turned out to be Album of the Year for me, along with the debut release of the project organized by the bass player of Anglagard (by this project I mean All Traps on Earth) ... On July 23 this year, the fourth full-length studio disc of Italians was released - with an even more intricate title "Andiamo in giro di notte e ci consumiamo nel fuoco". And again we hear songs, Canterbury "in spirit", but sung in Italian. And again, these songs are built mainly on jazz harmonies and are characterized by a complex structure, odd and changing time signatures and frequent changes in musical patterns, but at the same time they sound relaxed and even pop, if the word "pop" is not taken as a "curse". In general, it is believed that the first "Italian response to the Canterbury" was made in the second half of the 1970s by the Picchio Dal Pozzo, but the music of Homunculus Res is prettier, brighter, more pleasant, more accessible, and, I must say, almost does not look like the work just the mentioned ensemble. So if they tell you somewhere that Homunculus Res is almost the same as Picchio Dal Pozzo - don't believe it! At the same time, the music of the heroes of the review is not at all perceived as secondary - in comparison, say, with Hatfield and the North - the quintet from Palermo led by composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dario d'Alessandro has its own face, claiming uniqueness, not without reason! The main point is the following. What Homunculus Res is doing is by no means reduced to "Canterbury". Musicians are open to different influences. Their compositions organically "include" both vocal chants a la Yes ("La Salamandra"), and a direct quote from "Hey Jude" by the Beatles ("La Luccicanza") and elements of music that could easily become a soundtrack for films by Fellini or other Italian directors ("Non Dire No"). Complexity, beauty, jazz, sensual melodies, irony, detachment - everything is combined into a single whole in this work of Homunculus Res. The musicians approach the development of the compositions, perhaps even more carefully even in the 2018 album, as a result of which they turn out to be longer and, possibly, "unified". This is in stark contrast to the first two Homunculus Res albums - 2013 and 2015 - which were full of short pieces, often lasting 1-2 minutes - the music was very interesting, exciting, but often unnecessarily fragmentary. The new disc contains no songs shorter than three and a half minutes. True, the detailed "elaboratedness" of the opuses often turns out to be boring, which the first three albums of the Sicilians were almost deprived of. Some fragments in some compositions are somewhat tiring. Therefore, at the moment I like the new disc a little less than the previous one, but it still "catches", and with each listening it gets stronger. Among the best pieces here, along with the aforementioned "La Luccicanza" and "Non Dire No", I would include the brilliant "Supermercato" with a gorgeous ending played by a whole ensemble of musicians playing wind and strings. These people are mostly guests. And once again I will say about the concluding track "Non Dire No" - you will not find anything like it in releases by Soft Machine, National Health or Hatfield and the North - this is a very beautiful, tender, sad and lyrical song in the form of a waltz, very Italian in spirit. Summary: The album "Andiamo in giro di notte e ci consumiamo nel fuoco" is excellent, one of the candidates for the title of the best in 2020!