LESIMAN - Here And Now 1 & 2

“Library music” is that particular kind of incidental music that took shape starting in the late Sixties, suited to underscoring television documentaries and various "caroselli" (for younger readers, caroselli were advertising spots made in the form of short films, complete with a proper cinematic script). Drawing on cool jazz, bossa nova and muzak, library music was perfect as a soundtrack for countless TV specials.

The pioneers of this genre were Piero Umiliani and Piero Piccioni (though, going back even further, we could also mention Armando Trovajoli), the first to grasp the potential of night-club jazz combined with sophisticated pop melodies. Lesiman, meanwhile, was one of the leading figures of library music, which, it's worth remembering, was a distinctly Italian musical phenomenon (other notable names included saxophonist Giancarlo Barigozzi and pianists Amedeo Tommasi, Sante Palumbo and Raf Cristiano).

Lesiman is the pseudonym adopted by Florentine composer and pianist Paolo Renosto, who boasted serious classical training under the guidance of Luigi Dallapiccola and Bruno Maderna. Renosto, besides composing chamber music and briefly belonging to the Gruppo Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, never renounced his love of jazz and, perhaps out of modesty, chose to sign his library music records under the alias Lesiman — albums now considered cult favorites among genre enthusiasts.

The two volumes of “Here & Now”, released on vinyl by Vedette in 1973 and 1974 respectively, represent the peak of Lesiman's art in this field. Making use of a sophisticated overdubbing technique and other studio tricks, Renosto managed to stamp these two records with a thoroughly distinctive, personal signature.

On the first volume, psychedelic-tinged jazz takes center stage (“Bagliori”, “Moto Centripeto”, “Passaggio”), as does the kind of funk found in Italian crime films (“Impulsi”, “Le Regole del Gioco”, “Rollin'”). Elsewhere, melancholy melodies surface (“Via nell'Autunno”, “Melos Blue”), along with exotic flavors (“Colloquio”), dramatic themes (“Terminale”) and excellent piano touches in the style of Lennie Tristano (“Direzioni”), before the journey closes out with a typical drawing-room lounge piece, “Relazioni”.

The second volume largely retraces the same themes and the same structure, with the welcome exceptions of the classically inclined melody of “Radura”, the Jimmy Smith-style organ jazz-blues of “Telescrivente”, and the experimental “Stabilità” and “Ripresa”. The lineup that played on these two records (both extremely rare and highly prized on the record-collecting market) remains unknown to this day, except for Lesiman himself on acoustic and electric piano and synthesizer.

This Schema edition boasts excellent sound, with well-balanced dynamics across the low and high end. The liner notes written by Stefano Gilardino are thorough and informative as well. In short, a real gem for anyone on the hunt for rare grooves.

Paolo Renosto died rather young in 1988, at just 53 years of age.

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04/08/2015