Rivulets

The only Italian date to present Rivulets' new album was organized in Trieste by Francesco Candura, former member of Jennifer Gentle, who lent his bass playing to the recording of "We're Fucked".

The venue is a small, evocative old warehouse overlooking the sea. The intimate atmosphere is perfect for the occasion: the lights are dimmed to make the little candles placed between the tables stand out.

Hosting duties fall to The Sleeping Tree, the moniker behind which Giulio Frausin hides. The songs of this Trieste-born singer-songwriter, built mostly around intricate guitar arpeggios, embody an evocative acoustic folk that forms an ideal bridge between "Grace", Elliott Smith and Damien Rice. Music that pairs very well with the artist who will soon be taking the stage.

After a short break, the lights are dimmed even further. The crowd, around thirty people, understands that the headliner's moment has arrived and settles in to listen: the best approach belongs to the guy who stretches his back along the full length of the wide stool, ready to be carried off who knows where by Rivulets' arpeggios.

Nathan Amundson made his quiet entrance into the music world with a short demo that ended up in the hands of Alan Sparhawk, who went on to produce his debut album for the Chairkickers Union label. In the same understated fashion, the artist takes the stage weaving through the tables, dressed anonymously with his face hidden under a plain cap, so much so that no one realizes it's him who, in just a few minutes, will hypnotize the room. Despite being thirty-five years old, only his prematurely greying hair betrays his age, since Amundson's face and voice still belong to a teenager.

The evening's setlist is, unsurprisingly, devoted mostly to the songwriter's latest album. The longer compositions stand out the most, such as "The Road", "Gentle Boyfriend" and "Sheep Among Wolves", in which Amundson expertly alternates between his two souls: on one side, the more intimate moments, where the guitar is barely touched, letting the almost whispered lyrics emerge and the falsetto vocalizations linger persistently in the ear; on the other, there are moments when Rivulets seems to want to jolt the audience awake, battering the semi-acoustic guitar with aggressive surges (and the sonic rupture truly hits, since the amplifier completely saturates the venue). The most moving moment is the performance of "Shakes", taken from the masterpiece "Debridement": a long, simple chant alternating five notes, hypnotic like a long mantra or a shamanic prayer.

Because ultimately, what matters in Rivulets' music is atmosphere. His songs are built on few notes and few words, which make the silences, the soundscapes, and the ambient noise stand out all the more; attending a Rivulets concert is a bit like being drawn into an intense initiation rite. And in the end, it's hard to get up from your stool as if nothing had happened.

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