IL GIOCO DEL SILENZIO

Nichelodeon's album Il gioco del silenzio is quite unlike any other RIO/Avant album I've listened to up until this point. The album still has the experimentation and bizarre sound that I've come to love the genre so much for, but presented in a different way. Where as other albums can be blatant and straightforward with their experimentation, a lot of the time on this album it manages to subtly sneak its way into your mind. In a way, this album reminds me of a theater production or a movie. That isn't overly surprising, as I've read that Claudio has written for theatre productions. The music here draws on many influences, and each track tells a story of its own. From what I understand, this album includes a mostly different lineup from that on the band's debut. Still present here is the band's mastermind/leading voice, Claudio Milano. Apart from him, everyone is new since the last album, and we're presented with a greatly expanded lineup on this album. From the sound of the album though, these musicians are all comfortable playing together. Everything sounds wonderful on this album.

To my ears, one of the main focal points of the album is Claudio's vocals. He has a very emotive voice, and as John said, his vocals even draw to mind the great Demetrio Stratos at times (coincidentally, the track "Apnea" was the winner of the fourteenth Review "Omaggio a Demetrio Stratos", an award presented to new, innovative Italian groups). In addition to the vocals, piano, clarinet and sax play pretty large roles on this recording. The band pulls off wonderful, textured music made to please fans of adventurous music, and I must say it worked well in my case.

Reviewing song by song isn't exactly my style, and the other reviewers have already done a great job of giving you an idea what each will sound like. As far as the music on a whole...this is one which I've found hard to describe exactly why I like it in words beyond "I really like what I've heard on this album and want to hear more!". The way they manage to make tracks shift between sounds and styles here is really great. Several tracks really stand out for me on the album; "Fiaba", "Malamore e la Luna", "Ombre Cinesi", "Il giardino degli altri" and "Ciò che rimane" in particular. There are no weak tracks on this album in my opinion, though. My only concern is with the album's length - some listens do seem to drag a bit, but it's nothing bad. As a courtesy to those of us who can't understand Italian but would like to know what they're saying, the group was nice enough to provide a translation of the lyrics in the booklet. I consider this to be a wonderful addition to my collection, and I'm looking forward to hearing more material from Claudio and his fellow band members in the future. This album has something for nearly everyone, I think; a great mixture of melodic tracks and dissonance, and a unique atmosphere.