Andrea Marutti | Fausto Balbo | Detrimental Dialogue | fratto 9

Detrimental Dialogue

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Andrea Marutti & Fausto Balbo

All music played and recorded between june 2007 and march 2009 by Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo at Lips Vago Digital Studio, Milan and at Fausto Balbo Studio, Garessio (CN), Italy. Mixed by Fausto Balbo and Andrea Marutti in april 2009 at Fausto Balbo Studio, Garessio (CN), Italy. Mastered by Fausto Balbo in november 2009. Artwork by Stefano “Sicksoul” Rossetti. Thanks to Onga, Gianmaria and Stefano.

Tracklist: 1. Winter [18:41] 2. Indulge Me [12:49] 3. Set-Back [6:17] 4. Troubled Elephant [10:24]

listen to Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo | Set-Back (excerpt)

Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo

have met in 2005 at Lab12 in Vigevano; both active in music making since more than fifteen years, their friendship has grown over the years on the fertile ground of the interest that they share about electronic experimentation and their wide and open-minded listening habits. “Detrimental Dialogue”, their very first collaboration, deeply explores various types of analogue and digital synthesis (additive, subtractive, Physical Modeling, FM, Phase Distortion, Granular, etc.) and live electronics elements. Recorded together in the authors’ studios and then worked out in seclusion between 2007 and 2009, the tracks on “Detrimental Dialogue” were subsequently redefined during a one-week long collective mixing session rigorously made with analogue equipment and precious outboard effects at Fausto Balbo’s studio.

The album presents four experimental electronic pieces whose exact classification eludes us since their musical contents are rich of the most disparate suggestions. In a formula full of its own natural-born personality, we find elements that recall prominent experimental forms – sometimes pseudo-abstract – rich of fragments, loops and “clusters” of sounds that bear a pronounced and exhibited synthetic matrix. “Atmospheric”, dilated and generally quiet sequences are alternated with more structured, dramatic and progressive moments that shake the listeners and emotionally involve them with a more orthodox path, without giving way to conventional or stereotyped solutions.

The artwork created by Stefano “Sicksoul” Rossetti enrich this nice work offering an “alien” rendition of the music, and once again “Space Is the Place”!

DETICD510

By now

Andrea Marutti is a well-established name in the Italian world of experimental and electronic music. He runs the Afe Records label, and is best known for his ambient electronic music, although he dabbles also in many other styles. If that isn’t enough, he also works together with many others, like Madame P, Aidan Baker, Hue, Sparkle in Grey, Dronaement and many others. Here he teams up with Fausto Balbo, who started in 1988 Jesus Went To Jerusalem, later Der Tod, but went to experimental with electronic music later on. The album they crafted together shows a deep love for analogue and digital synthesizers, and was recorded in various sessions, but mixed together in a long session, using an analogue mixer. The overall musical approach is best described as “cosmic” music. Four lengthy pieces of spacious electronics, with a nice rough edges. Not as gently floating about as say everything Tangerine Dream did after the mid seventies, but with that nice experimental touch. Ultimately it all sounds pretty retro, but that notwithstanding, it also sounds like a great trip.– Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, October 2010

This collaborative

effort puts together ambient, dark ambient, electronic hero and Afe Records head-chief Andrea Marutti and Fausto Balbo that maybe some of you remember for having played in a hardcore band called Jesus Went To Jerusalem and later in the electronic-metal duo Der Tod. During the last years Balbo has produced and played some electronic music made out of synths, samples, incredible self made kalimbas and a full load of great taste, so no surprise he musically tied the know with Marutti. Even if the length of the tracks may suggest an heavy influence of the ambient musician, I think many of the sounds crossing the scene will show how this collaboration is the result of a mutual work. The first synth driven suite start as an ambient piece to leave room to some unexpressive white noises and sounds and to resurface a simple fragmented keyboard melody, as the rest of the music the track is hyper arranged and not so immediate. The second episode offers the same kind of cocktail you will sip for the whole length of the CD, but beside the ambient frameworks coming in and going and together with these sharp and/or fragmented electronic noises the used some bass lines, sometimes the impression is they put together some old IDM, Pan Sonic and cold experimental electronics, also thanks to its structure this track is my personal favorite. With the closing tracks the atmosphere of the release becomes more rarefied and abstract, bringing in the “space is the place” element to the music, so if you’re into that “we’re floating in the universe” feel you love these closing chapters, above all the last one where this dynamic duo hypnotizes and scares the shit out of the listener, avoiding dark or gothic influences which it’s a result itself. An electronic post-ambient, post-kraut, cold but yet analog-sounding release… Can you imagine that?! A listen may help above all if you consider this is definitely interesting and not a conventional output.– Andrea Ferraris, Chain D.L.K., October 2010

Andrea Marutti

was born in 1970 and currently lives in Milan, Italy. He began his experiments with music in the early ’90s using tapes and concrete elements. A few years later he also started to use synthesizers, samplers and other electronic devices, and founded the Lips Vago Digital Studio. His most well-known projects are Amon and Never Known. Several releases of Ambient / Dark Ambient music were published by labels such as Eibon Records, Nextera, Amplexus, Silentes, Drone Records, Taâlem, etc. on CD and other medias. He is also responsible of many other projects dealing with different styles of electronic music ranging from Lo-Fi / Weird / Cheap Electronica to IDM (Wolkspurz & Ramirez, Lips Vago), Dada / Noise / Non-sense (Spiral).

Recently he also started recording and releasing experimental/ambient tracks under his own name, in duo with Nimh / Giuseppe Verticchio as “Hall of Mirrors”, with Davide Del Col (Ornament, Echran) as Molnija Aura, and again in duo with Andrea “Ics” Ferraris as “Sil Muir”. During the years he had the chance to collaborate and play with many friends/musicians/artists: Nefelheim, Madame P, Fausto Balbo, Aidan Baker, Dronaement, Bugo, Hue, Krell, Femina Faber, a034, Florian Filsinger, Roberto Bellatalla, Elephant Zyclus, Kabal, Moan, OvO, Ventolin Orchestra, Sparkle in Grey, Mark Hamn, V/VM, Manuele Cecconello, Amalia Del Ponte, Subterranean Source, Raffaele Serra, Biped…

He runs a small label called Afe whose 10th birthday was celebrated in 2005. Among the musicians who had their music released on Afe we would like to mention Maurizio Bianchi, Bad Sector, Maeror Tri, Telepherique, De Fabriek, Ultra Milkmaids, Aidan Baker, Ovum, Steve Brand, Logoplasm, Raffaele Serra, Ellende, Bestia Centauri, True Colour of Blood, Gerstein, Dronaement, Frog Pocket, Moan, Nimh, Brian Lavelle… His CD entitled “The Subliminal Relation Between Planets (Live in Archiaro)” was released by Nextera in January 2008.

Fausto Balbo

started just like so many other musicians by spending countless hours on the very corner stone of rock music: the electric guitar . In 1988 he founded Jesus Went To Jerusalem with three friends living nearby in the Garessio area. The band plays a powerful and heavy mixture of hardcore, funk and hard rock leaving behind them, in three years of life, some important sonic tracks like the four songs in Giù le mani (a complitation remembering the activity of c.s.o.a. Sobbalzo), a self produced and released tape and a very long series of live gigs in Italy. In 1991 it’s time for JWTJ to split and from their ashes was born a new duo: Der Tod (Fausto Balbo and ecletic vocalist Simone Basso) give away a sound that falls between metal and new wave and Balbo starts to work and experiment around electronic music.

In about four years Der Tod release two 7” (one split with Paul Chain) and a cd under the Last Scream Record label. There is also a collection of songs ready to be printed in a second cd that will never see the light. All considered Der Tod have died without exploring their full potential. Der Tod R.I.P. 1991-1997. It is now time for Fausto to think and mature: his interest in electronic is growing alongside the discovery of many important movies and books. Speaking of novels, it is J.G.Ballard and his Concrete Island that gives Balbo the kickstart to compose Zero (2000, Snowdonia label): this is the first solo album for the artist and it’s also a virtual soundtrack for that novel by Ballard. His growing interest for non conventional musical ways reaches the top during the presentation show of Sara Melis book Acustica: there Fausto does an improvisation using common objects like glasses, pots and vases and re-cycling their sounds trough electronic devices. He also has a strong interest in many instruments, ethnic ones or completely invented by him. Falbo, his second work (also on Snowdonia) is a truthful proof of this intriguing mix of electro-sound and craftsmanship, a strange collection of household psycho-dramas between irony and tragedy.

Alongside his solo projects, Fausto has a parallel activity with drummer/percussionist Mark Iacona (ex Ulcera) and they already made a cd, Gente Comune, under the name of Marfaus (where we can also find John Pearce of Family Fodder at the piano). During his live performances Fausto often has Vito Morano (a butoh dancer) doing some coreographic works for him, always striving to describe a journey trough the modern Ego crumbling. Between 2006 and 2007 he collaborated to the recordings of some tracks by Madame P. He also collaborated to compose three tracks for the album “Tumultuor” (by Femina Faber – Paola Bianchi solo project), published by Creative Fields Rec. He finally started to put together some sounds for a future cd with Andrea Marutti. In 2008 Enomisossab used the song “Sogni”, from the album “ZERO”, and recorded in the CD “L’Ombra di mezzogiorno” (ANTS Records) executed to Architorti ’ string quartet with the title “El Mantra”.

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