OSSATURA - Maps and Mazes

“Maps and Mazes”, the third official album by Ossatura (not counting their contribution to the splendid box set “Musica Improvvisa“), arrives to mark the exact twentieth anniversary of the founding of this now-historic experimental ensemble (a genuine point of pride for “Made in Italy” avant-garde music), whose original core remains fully intact: Elio Martusciello on electronics, Fabrizio Spera on percussion (much of it amplified), and Luca Venitucci on accordion and assorted objects.

Fourteen years had passed since Ossatura last recorded an album under their own name, and “Maps And Mazes” fully rewards the long wait. Many will be surprised on hearing this new record, which immediately reveals itself as their most accessible and communicative work to date (in truth, a first hint of this change of direction had already emerged on “Chamber Rites”, the album by Elio Martusciello himself with Fabrizio Casti). If their debut album, “Dentro” (ReR, 1998), was a genuine breakthrough in the rebirth of the Italian avant-garde scene (back in the days of Starfuckers' “In Frantumi”), the follow-up “Verso” (ReR, 2002) was instead a bold exercise in pure electroacoustic abstraction.

“Maps And Mazes” largely departs from those sonic extremes, yet retains all their formal codes in embryonic form. Seen in this light, this is the album where a perfect synthesis between pure experimentation and full communicative power is achieved. It's no coincidence that only “The Great Lens” and “Rain Clouds” openly recall their musical past, while elsewhere the music veers towards the sophisticated chamber rock of David Sylvian on “Acqua” (which is, incidentally, their very first song ever) and the aestheticized, Ecm-style jazz of “Lunation” and “Diluvio” (albeit always with some unsettling undercurrent).

“No Blind Spots Left” even adopts massive doses of “frippertronics” over a carpet of African percussion. “Low Tide Walk” and the title track are marked by a minimal electronic sound that interweaves with popular music.

Particularly striking is “The South”, which combines ambient noise with colloquial spoken word (here courtesy of Mike Cooper) alongside sonic rarefaction. Also worth noting is the “thrilling” free-jazz of “De natura maris” and the fitting tribute to their free-rock roots — disciples of the glorious Henry Cow — found in “Binoculars”.

As the album's title rightly suggests, our life is a constant search for one's own place in the present, aided along the way by “maps and labyrinths”. It's a winding road, then, but one that's ever-changing and ever-fascinating.

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09/09/2016