Coming in a deluxe matte cardboard sleeve with black on black artwork, "Substation" features Australian musicians Clayton Thomas, at double bass and objects, and Robin Fox, at live MAX/MSP processing, so you can guess what to expect: free-form improvisation filtered and re-structured via digital means, which is becoming a common approach to improvised music (as for double bass, think of Italy's Domenico Sciajno). "Substation" is a particularly successful work due to the care for variation and detail in every piece: "Shuffle", for example, is based on the accumulation of bowed chords loops, with a swarm-like effect, while a cascade of microscopic fragments makes "Dust on the Diodes" a particularly dizzying listen. Less surprising, but equally pleasant to the ear, are the high-end drone of "Bird Song" and the more subdued "Between Downpours", with a quieter but not less intense dialogue between the instruments.

Formed by soprano singer and founding Gothica member Alessandra Santovito and Francesco Forgione (double bass and keyboard), Hexperos bring to the attention of the goth/classical music lovers THE GARDEN OF HESPERIDES. The album is their debut one, but they are already trained musicians with many background experiences in the classical music field as well into the modern one. The Hexperos project took its name from the Venus' favorite stars called Hesperides and Hesperos. They took this image because their music is romantic and mysterious at the same time. The fourteen tracks of the album present two different sides of the band's sound, because if the first half of the album has a richer kind of arrangements with cellos, percussions and keyboards (see "Hesperos" and the following main title) the other half shows a more intimate and minimal approach with slow songs where the vocal capabilities of Alessandra are well sustained by Francesco and by the guest musicians Francesca Romana Di Nicola (harps), Domenico Mancini (violin) and Alessandro Pensa (violin). Celtic atmospheres meet classical melodies with smooth arrangements and taste. There's also space for darker atmospheres with "Ritual", where synth pads duet with female choirs and percussions creating an intriguing and mysterious atmosphere.

Hautville are an Italian band formed in 2006 in Ferrandina. Their name comes from the Hautville Normans' family. Some members of that family conquered and politically unified South Italy in the years 1100s. They picked up this particular name to underline their interest into the preservation of their land's history. NUMEN LUMEN contains three unreleased songs ("Apparizione", "In Lode all'Asino" and "Memoria di Felicità ") and a selection of songs coming from the album "No milk for the babies" released on a small Italian label called Invisible Eye records. Musically their music is deeply influenced by Italian progressive rock of the 70s (see the organ parts plus the way they use dissonances or the choruses) but the main instruments they use are acoustic guitars: they sound like a neo folk band deeply rooted into the 70s. On the ten tracks of NUMEN LUMEN, you won't find loud drums or guitar solos but nice melodies and cured arrangements. Most of the tracks tend to create medidative atmospheres that fit really well their lyrics. About the lyrics, they are written in Italian language and talk about tradition and about the eternal voyage the human being started thousand years ago just to understand himself. The album is dedicated to Giordano Bruno, Giuliano Kremmerz ("Otranto" has excerpts from his "I dialoghi sull'ermetismo") and the poet Domenico Bellocchio and it's out now on HR!SPQR.

Even if this is formally a solo release of Gianluca Livi which takes a step from the from the hard rock of Anno Mundi, for whom he plays drums, to this mostly prog oriented relase, the front cover credits the other musician of this release in clear jazz style: Stefano Pontani, a jazz / fusion guitarist, Domenico Dente, a bassist, and Massimo Sergi, whose piano and synth are a major part in this album. The overall style of this release is a sort of crossover between krautrock, prog and ambient in a crystal clear '70s style so a more modern use of laptop is used with remarkable parsimony.
The album starts with a track in two parts "Birth Of A Flower (In A Post-Atomic Landscape)" which starts with the guitar of Stefano Pontani showing the influence of certain '70s prog rock and creating a dreamy atmosphere with the almost imperceptible, at first sight, aid of his mates which punctuate rather than accompany. The second part is centered instead on the piano of Stefano Sergi that borders jazz territories which could be misinterpreted as modern classical. The first part of "Fujiko Mine" starts to expose the interaction of a real band as the interaction of synth, percussions and percussion revolves around a basic melody for an hypnotic effect while "Irrational Thoughts" revolves around the sustained noted of the guitar and the melodies of the piano. While, until "Zero Gravity In My Lair", the role of Gianluca Livi was more on the background, with this track his laptop begins to take a structural role on the track so the track stays in an unstable equilibrium between rock and experimental. While the first part of "Lost In Space" is suspended the entrance of the drum introduce a twist towards a free form. The longest track of this release, "Talkin’ To An Alien About Eternity", is a sort of pendulum where all instruments has a primary role until it's time to give space to another so it sounds quiet but there's a lot of movement involved and is followed by the shortest track, the second part of "Fujiko Mine", closing this release bordering noisy territories.
It's evident that this is not a release for those who search for the next big thing or the trend, this is music tailored for nostalgic connoisseurs of an age where the first skill of a musician was to be able to play and compose not to be a PR of his art. Like a lost gem from the past.

I had never listened to Kluster Cold before, and it's been a nice surprise. Released by Andrea Marutti (Amon, Never Known, Lips Vago) on his personal label AFE, and mastered by one Maurizio Pustianaz (wonder who he is, eheh), "The Third Secret" is a little jewel (7 tracks + intro for 28') of retro electronica/EBM, with Kraftwerk being the most obvious reference. Carlo Ponte seems to have interiorized the best and most peculiar characteristics of the German ensemble: catchy synth melodies coupled with aseptic and danceable drum machine beats, but most of all a romantic and nostalgic atmosphere which now seems to be frozen in paradoxically distant times. Retro-futurism? The real folk music of 20 years ago? Most songs are instrumental, and work perfectly without a voice. "The romance of tar" is present with a nice vocoder version and an instro "flare-up version", and the fact that both stand perfectly well on their own can only mean the track is really good! "The soldier" has an upbeat rhythm and quasi-spoken female vocals, while "The soldier's theme" features the melodies in an ethereal, beatless version. But the instrumentals are cinematic enough to suggest a story of their own, from the more serene, bittersweet atmospheres of "Remember" to the darker and slightly obsessive "As fear comes back". The layout is remarkable as well, with elegant vintage-looking graphics, evocative black and white pictures and a fold-out poster too. This is one of the few cds I wished they lasted longer...