ALEXANDER DE LARGE - Nothing Exists

Well, well, look at this: Alexander De Large tries his hand at a solo piano record!

Though, all things considered, knowing the character's usual company, the label he records for (and helped found), and so on, a move like this shouldn't really come as a shock.

Eleven tracks, raw, romantic, autumnal, nostalgic. Eleven tracks that, of course, someone has used to shovel dirt on Giovanni Allevi, as if there weren't already enough of that going around, bless them! And besides, do you really think De Large cares about any of this? With a record that, all in all, is honest but never truly "important"? Come on! I picture him shut away in his room, fingers gliding calmly over the piano, dusk creeping over the walls, thoughts drifting in and out, amid leaden ruptures (the title track, "Morricone Waltz"), the odd liberating skip ("Canard Digérateur", "The Animal Kingdom Would Probably Cease To Exist Without Smegma"), emotional tides ("Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"), pockets of romance ("Wikipedia Don't Know Shit About Love") - you've surely already spotted the irony in the choice of titles! - journeys through time ("Hand Of Glory"), right down to scoring imaginary silent films ("Get Pissed, Destroy").

The homage to Dante Alighieri in "E io etterno duro" and the closing "Putana Volcano", on the other hand, represent the most solemn and stentorian moments (even if, paradoxically, the most creatively banal), built from dry chords charged with an almost metaphysical tension.

Free to download from the Lepers Production website.

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20/03/2011