Two crucial phrases excerpted from an interview with Italian composer Giuliano d'Angiolini delineate the gist of his work. The first, "indeterminacy or chance put a brake on our will"; the second, "humans should be more discreet".
As a matter of fact, Cantilena's program includes pieces whose spaciousness and measured pace — enhanced by the perceptiveness of the performers — provide a listener with a heartening serenity. In that regard the initial pair of tracks — "Aria Del Flauto Eolico" for superimposed flutes and "Finale" for solo piano — top the whole. However, no risk exists for this music to be confused with wallpaper ambient. In spite of a penchant for a considerable degree of indefiniteness in his writing, d'Angiolini is unquestionably weighing every note, from the attack to the infinitesimal reverberating molecule of the last upper partial.
If anything, these scores seem to willingly repudiate even the faintest hint to vehemence, including the episodes defined by an increased harmonic incertitude ("Allegretto 94.6" and "Motivetto" come to mind). The pitches are, so to speak, reciprocally collaborative in most instances. Silence is not a secondary component, which was somewhat expectable. The melodic materials — generated from varying types of procedure, such as the use of time brackets — consistently express an awareness of concurring improvement.
Each environment offers a clear view of what's happening; the musicians — Manuel Zurria, Melaine Dalibert, Quatuor Parisii and Ensemble Chrysalide — prove to have fully assimilated d'Angiolini's instructions in terms of abatement of ego percentage and physical disappearance "inside" the acoustic currents that inhabit a resounding vastness. Though not an epochal milestone, there is something in this record that calls us back for further enjoyment of its plain truths and, possibly, mysteries. More to the point, its creative values appear to be born from a genuine necessity of finding answers rather than strained "stylistic dignity".
Needless to say, Giacinto Scelsi and John Cage will be winking from their current location.
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