EX-P

Carpaccio Esistenziale

fratto9 under the sky rec (fratto 006)

Alessandro Allera – electric bass | Andrea Chiuni – electric bass, clarinet | Diego Rosso – drums, percussions | Alessandro Cartolari – saxophone

listen to EX-P | L’Ultimo Funk (part III)

Entity formed by musicians strongly professing their psychedelic faith

sons of post-modern breaking-up, incapable of choosing between jazz noise and Italian tunes of Japanese manga, ill at ease in paying our respects both to Pink Floyd and to the most tremendous metal. After ten years, conflagration leaves room to the need of building up a more constant and meditative way, creating EX-P.

Improvisation and an estranged kind of sound are still the main features, searched inside the huge territories of rock. We’re aware of being a little late, we often look to a musical world and way of making music that’s run beside the times. The two electric basses can explore deeply the heaviness and versatility of the only true contemporary musical instrument, so technologic on the surface and neo-tribal at the core. Drums can distract from rhythms, sometimes becoming an acoustic colour and environmental noise generator.

A few weeks ago I reviewed cds from the italian Fratto9 label.

Two cds from the Can-inspired bands Tanake and I/O. This time two cds from EX-P. This trio has Alessandro Allera on bass and voice, Andrea Chiuni also on bass, clarinet and voice, plus Diego Rosso on drums. Their first one ‘Ancora Siagon’ was recorded in 2004, ‘Carpaccio Esistenziale’ in december 2006. On both albums they have little assistance from other players in some of the tracks.

Their is a typical italian touch on their music, that reminded me of other experimental italian bands from the 70s and 80s: early Franco Battiato, Stormy Six, La1919, etc. Also it would not surprise me, if they are fans of Hugh Hopper and Canterbury music. Influences of folk music can also be traced in the melodic lines they chose. Altogether an interesting band that makes use of many different sources for their musical ideas. Evidently their music has its roots in rock, but they leave many of the rock-conventions behind for their version of avant rock-like music. They are interested in creating structure and style.

Chaotic outbursts of noise and pure energy are not there thing. They are more into subtlety. Controlled and disciplined they form their pieces. The bassplayers extract nice, multicolored sounds from their instruments, without using much extended techniques. It is surprising how they create such a diverse and rich spectrum of sounds with this small line up. Happily their records are not overproduced, so the recordings breath a low-fi atmosphere. Also they know when to stop. So there is no endless repetition of the same ideas. On the other hand, because of this some of the tracks on “Carpaccio Esistenziale’ deserved to be more worked out. I found both albums equally satisfying and very tasty. — (DM) VITAL WEEKLY

CD version (incl. shipment cost world-wide)