THE HIDDEN SPRING

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.