FELDMANN - Imaginary Bridge

With their second, extremely carefully considered effort (also delayed by bureaucratic and contractual hassles), the Feldmann duo made up of Tazio Iacobacci and Massimo Ferrarotto, both Sicilian, both former drummers, and both already musicians with solid curricula behind them, delivers a more-than-worthy follow-up to "Watering Trees".

A deeply desert-music spirit crowns the whole record without hesitation, bringing false simplicity close to naturalness ("Then She Came", "Share Your Time"), in a vast improvement on the Americana of Franklin Delano's "Come Home". "Then She Came" is a Mark Lanegan-esque duet that announces a few simple, dark mottos, before transfiguring into a slowcore soundscape in the vein of Talk Talk ("The Rainbow") and even into an avant-garde vocal interlude. After this manifesto-track, the crepuscular country (embellished with jolts and tremors) of "In The Water" ferries us into the long, apathetic psalm of "Share Your Time", with an imaginative solo and a verse repeated ad libitum. Even more daring, and a hair's breadth from imbalance, are "Miss I Don't Care" (watery refractions, quiet dance, Nick Drake-style muting and a post-rock spirit) and "Love And Anger" (a piece Waits-like in rhythm and Sonic Youth-like in harmony), a little lesson in how to take apart and rebuild the Southern ballad.

The same goes for the catchy pleasures of "Hour Of Need", a moment of noir "religiosity", "Can't Stay Together", the hypnotic peak of the record (between bubbling electronics and psychedelic vocals), for the meditative apologue of "Pablo", and for the little pop treat that closes the album, "This City".

The fantastical reworkings of "Will You?" — at once the most phantasmagorical and the most haunting piece on the collection — of the transcendental "Nobody Knows The Truth" and of "Handle Me" (whose drone-like slide work, distant arpeggios and array of acoustic manipulations pull just enough away from song-form) are no less valuable than the smaller connective episodes (unjustly left off the tracklist).

A small gem of gripping twists and turns, willing to sacrifice the instinctiveness of the debut in order to catharically rinse away the last residues of sloppiness, produced by Hugo Race and mastered by factotum Tazio Iacobacci (also responsible for discreet percussion touches, and erudite enough to rediscover dusty instruments like the harmonium); backing vocals by Marta Collica, artwork by Laura D'Agate.

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10/03/2010