Francis Gri

Ambient music cannot be improvised. The many cases of musicians who, moving from one genre to another, attempt to venture into such a peculiar form (one might think of the latest album by Ulver) demonstrate this, yet fail to develop a stylistic identity capable of making them truly recognizable.

This is not the case with Francis Gri, an artist active for roughly fifteen years, who over time has found a sound and a style that make his music immediately distinguishable—within the vast catalogue of the genre—after just a few seconds of listening. After various attempts and years of evolution, Gri has forged a personal synthesis between the emotional ambient of Brian Eno, the minimalist piano language of Nils Frahm, the dilated temporal sense of Stars of the Lid and, more sporadically, the oneiric pulses of Lino Capra Vaccina.

“Lontano” is an ambitious work that follows a clearly defined narrative arc, taking the form of a long ambient suite. Two tracks serve as opening and closing frames (“Respiro” and “Quiete”), while at its core lie the six movements of “Due onde,” which tell the story of two kindred souls destined never to meet throughout their lives. Like sea waves, they are condemned to chase one another without ever touching—except perhaps at the very end of their journey, when their life cycle is close to dissolution.

The melancholic, enveloping textures, the expansive synths and the piano scattering suspended notes in “Respiro” introduce the thirty-six minutes of the six movements of “Due onde”: a long journey that is sorrowful yet never despairing, harmonically poised and emotionally restrained, evoking the endless pursuit of the two waves, destined never to find each other, not even for a fleeting instant.

25/02/2026