Laraaji

The second — and, sadly, it seems, final — Biennale Musica under the exquisite artistic direction of Bolognese composer Caterina Barbieri, this edition titled “A child of sound,” opened in the late afternoon of Saturday, October 10th with a world premiere by Laraaji, mystic of American ambient music. In the evocative setting of the Isolotto dell'Arsenale in Venice, under the watchful eye of enormous gulls soaring overhead, a large and varied crowd gathered at the foot of a small stage, awaiting the Master's arrival.

Right on time, Laraaji takes the stage in an orange suit and, without a single introductory word from either the organizers or the artist himself, the set “Alignment” begins.

Digital and analog electronics wrap around a handful of simple acoustic instruments: a large gong, wind chimes, an mbira and, quite possibly, a hammered dulcimer. The man first builds a background drone out of calm synth waves and sampled crickets; then begins the exploration of a biophilic flow closer to the best new age music than to ambient proper, a lightness that spreads across the faces of those present, inviting them to close their eyes. In just under an hour of performance, Laraaji dispenses a spiritually stateless instrumental blessing, leaning on reverb play and daring small jazzy synth phrases with a hint of Monk.

The final ingredient is the voice, a baritone offering ethereal falsettos spread, with no need for verbal language, over shifting drone echoes. Here and there, he lets slip a small laugh he knows well (through his Laughter Meditation workshops), and then the slow sonic magma comes together in the driving rhythm of the dulcimer.

Everything happens gently, every crescendo is foreshadowed by caressing notes or small chords. It is the triumph of a joy well grounded in the difficulty of the real, an example of how the Mystery of the best research electronica can lead us out of a tunnel rather than merely chase us further into it. By choosing the great Laraaji, Barbieri has granted anyone harboring doubts about it the chance to spend an hour in communion with the Good News. And the Good News, stripped of its purely Christian connotation, has always had, in every age and every place, one single starting and ending point: love.

Pictured: Laraaji at the Arsenale (photo by Andrea Avezzù, Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia)

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