This album is composed of 14 track by Tiziano Milani and 14 images/text by Luca Ruta. One concept is the foundation of this record: the description of the contemporary city. Simulation is a term to be intended in the Baudrillad sense: the invisible, and real, part of the city is what lies behind the flashy skyline that is the standard for all the (post)modern cities. As Rota says in the linear notes "the word must cheat the attempt of simulation and of expressive "normalization" that comes from it somehow, or it should still retain inside itself the ability of representing life". Their aim is to describe a path beneath all the elements of the way of life in this simulation, so, this is an ambitious work and not a mere collection of text and tunes.
The journey starts with "La città della simulazione" where drones, field recordings and vinyl crackles are paired with the lyrical description of a city where everything has become false and a picture of buildings at night. "Skyline" continues this journey with the same elements showing an enormous cure for sonic details while the words typesetted as a skyline deals with the concept of a (false) elevation. "Divieto di scarico immondizie" take his point with letter falling like bread crumbs and sparse sound of various nature. "Denaro" is based on carillon sounds, eroded by noise, paired with a powerful text about the relationship with money in the boroughs of the city. "In c-ostruzione" is a beat driven track ending with the sound of a spin-drier where the text deals with the work driven economical climbing. "incroci confluenze analogie" features words and sounds everyone knows. "Muro di periferia" is urban poetry nourished by field recordings and abandoned buildings. "Salutiamo con applausi e simpatia" is a bitter, tongue-in-cheek, reflection on politics. With "Nebbia" comes the same idea behind writing: cover the ugliness of urban landscape. "Passi" is, in the author's intentions, the closing track and there's some form of hope: city exists from, and built by, citizen ... this means it can be changed; the music underline this idea with the sense of movement generated by beats and voices.
There's a constant dialogue between music and words, in this way this work has a sense of unity that set the text not as "linear notes" or the images as "packaging", but, as a guide to comprehension. However, the track has no numbers (the mp3s are titled only and the track number tag is empty) so, implicitly, everyone can take his own path to this work. This is not an easy listening record, this is just like a city you have to explore using the time it needs.
This is a work of great design and depth, and one of my album of the year. Highly Recommended.

This time Pietro Riparbelli as k11 made his transcommunication action in Assisi, more specifically in the Cathedral. He record and document signals and sounds coming through short-wave radio receivers in the oldest area of the building.
The numbers used in the songtitles are chosen with purpose, all related to the Gematria, the ancient system that assigns numbers to words and how they relate to each other. "300=Tau" opens this record with a meditative atmosphere crated by resonances dotted with metallic sinewaves. "888" start with drones that juxtapose until the noise enter as menace to silence, as holiness challenge sin, and drown in the end of the track. "18=lh" is the most solar track of the album and sounds like an hymn. "318" is a synthesis of drone and noise that close almost in peace.
This music has the power to evocate images of solitary exploration of obscure and abandoned fields, because is structured with a clear design in mind and don't try to use simple tactic to frighten the listener.
A note: in the video of this album there's a still when it appear the word silenzio (silence) wrote in a placard... well, this require careful listening to appreciate it. A really good record.

Bfffth is a collaborative of artists who choose to remain unknown. Their website is strange, probably voluntary confusing, between the focus on the music, not on words, and prank. The idea behind this work is the four phase of light emanating using a lens, .
This album is a piece for solo amplifier, lead, samples which means, in reality, a long work constructed in movements where, starting with ambient mood goes into noise territories near Merzbow.
In detail, part 1 (the output) is an almost dark ambient introduction, while part 2 (the return) is almost static metallic noise. Part 3 (the feedback) sounds like the spectral juxtaposition of the properties of the previous parts and this work end with the part 4 (the new output) that is a real Merzbow-like noise assault. The album ends with a small coda made out of drone.
This work is followed by an obscure text in their website that suggest a parallel between this schema and the viewpoint: "Time stops. [...] because there are no disturbances [...] everything exists inside one space, all are together" and some videos on you tube (the video is a still with one of the four phase). Nice for followers of the genre.

Christopher Willits is one of the artist whose work is focused on the fusion of electronic sounds with acoustic one, specifically his method is the processing and filtering of samples or session of acoustic instruments. So his music lost the typical seriousness, or coldness, of most of the recors that lies under the "experimental sounds" file.
This new album from this american composer is a pure summer one. "Sun Body" is the paradigm of this work, after some processed guitar, the beat start and then the voices (is always stunning to consider how large is the influence of Beach Boys vocal harmonies even outside pop music). Tracks like "Green Faces", "Intend Evolve", "Brunches into Flowers" are lovely examples of an equilibrium between experimental and pop. There's a complex structures behind "Uplinfting the Streets" where layers of electric guitar and, so it seems to me, oriental strings are carefully layered. "You are always surrounded by stars" features a remarkable change of rhythm that reveal the will to go beyond the standards of this type of sounds.
In other tunes like "Sunlight is You" or "Branches into Flowers" is clear the influence of the last Fennesz, just line tracks like "The hands connect to the Heart" and the "The hands connect to the Head" recall that there some reason between his collaboration with Sakamoto. But this hints are just to say: if you like this artist, this is a record not to miss.

Reactive Black is a duo from Hamburg with the intention to describe musically the self-destroying tendencies of mankind and the darkness of exsistence. The members are Sassy Skeleton (it's not a joke) and Rotten (Ok...) and they play a melodic rock gothiced by the jarboesque voice of Sassy. She sings... or maybe talk the lyrics under some riffs and synths. It's hard rock, well played and produced and, when the voice is filtered, it work well. By the way, they have few ideas to escape the high wall of a too used musical form and stereotyped attitude.
This album has, at least, a wonderful track "Fading away" where the spoken word under a downtempo beat and athmospheric synth create an atmosphere of real decadence but the rest of the album is boring.