AURA SEMINALIS

One of Stefano Musso's many solo works from the 2000s (there were eight that we know of), the end of the decade finds the maestro experimenting with Gregorian chant-like voices as well as his usual heavily-treated zithers and synthesizers to create his Indian-like drone sounds. The music contained here sounds like mediæval calls to prayer in empty cathedrals or abandoned mosques. 1. "Sine Tempore Part I" (16:47) heavily treated, muted male chant voices are swirling around in slow arpeggi before sustained strings sounds join in. In the fifth minute, higher pitched "angel whisps" join in. Everything quiets down a bit in the seventh minute as lower pitched notes slowly swirl around each other from the voice, violin, and "horn"- synth departments. In the eleventh minute, multi-sex choir dominates--especially in the upper "female" registers. Cool construction and execution. Blade Runner-like horn synth joins in for the final couple of minutes. Very engaging and hypnotic. (31/35)

2. "Sine Tempore Part II (8:47) male chant voices projected into the higher registers with a high degree of echo and response--from cello-like sub-layers of instruments--swirling and circling, rising and falling, droning and echoing for the first three minutes before changing the soundscape to one of more sparsely populated, "violin"-led spaciousness. Voices return to the fore in the sixth and seventh minutes--though more garbled and warbled--until slow decay and diminishment over the final minute or so. (17.25/20)

3. "Sine Tempore Part III" (7:10) a slow moving rondo of arpeggi from a male Gregorian chant-like voice and slowed and reversed and accelerated and reversed sustained zither and violin notes and chords. (13.25/15)

4. "Aura Seminalis Part I" (5:43) Mellotron?! with heavily-treated reverberating zither notes and chords and zither incidentals mixed in for good measure. (8.25/10)

5. "Aura Seminalis Part II (23:03) Soaring "string-horn" notes and drone sounds swirl and rise like a church organ from a long-forgotten land and time. The melody line is constant and repeated for the first three minutes before receding over the distant horizon to be replaced by the slow parade of a Silk Road caravan now carrying a similar but different tune and sound--one that is growing closer, moving toward us, celebrating with their nasally reed instruments--until passing by, receding into the behind us while other swirling organs and horns take their turns in the parade, passing us from right to left, one (group) after the other. The processional is very visual, and very cool! In the thirteenth minute, the passed caravan is now a mirage--sounds floating high above us in a way that loses pitch certainty and seems to warble and wobble in a kind of celestial echo. But then, in the sixteenth minute a more modern, fuller, industrial barrage comes our way. A new procession? A different culture? Nasally reed instruments crossing in the opposite direction at the same time would seem to indicate that two different cultures are crossing paths (apparently, peacefully; perhaps even oblivious to one another). Cool experience! (39.5/45)

Overall a very peaceful, relaxing listening experience--one that could provide for quite a nice REM sleep.

B/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you love meditative electronica.