LUCA SIGURTA' - Grunge

Right in the middle of the Christmas whirlwind, straddling the turn of 2017 into 2018, "Grunge" was officially released: the new album by Luca Sigurtà, put out in a limited run of 300 CDs by Belgian label Silken Tofu. Hearing it for the first time in the warmth of a still-too-early dusk, that of December 29th, wrapped in a blanket of idleness, stuffed on food, alcohol, pleasantries and endless evenings, is an extraordinarily disorienting experience. Listening to it again and again in the days that follow only confirms that first impression.

Riding the trip-hop and downtempo wave of "Warm Glow", an unmistakable turning point in the fifteen-plus-year career of the musician from Biella, and with an eye on notable milestones like the refined ambient-drone isolationism of "Bliss", the new chapter "Grunge" — whose cover art tells of long journeys, nights lived through and unmade beds — spreads across its eight tracks a range of different musical atmospheres and features some exceptional guests. Lending fluid guitar distortions and hypnotic vocalizations à-la Elizabeth Fraser on "Badlands" are none other than Freddie and Chiara Lee, aka Father Murphy, around whom our man tailors layers of dusty beats and sinuous synthetic textures, further enriched by Tibetan singing bowls courtesy of Daniele Delogu. A fellow traveler in the Luminance Ratio project, Luca Mauri (already known for "Two Dead Bodies" and active with I/O and Kokoro Mayikibo) contributes his six-string to the suffocating nocturnal crossing of "June", paced by metronomic cymbals and shadowy electronic developments.

Francesca Amati's voice (Amycanbe, Comaneci) amplifies the industrial dreaminess of "Glimpse", while the beguiling dark-chill-wave of "Popskill" draws on the precious synthesizers of Paul Beauchamp (Almagest!, Blind Cave Salamander). "Koi" and its noir-noise sounds open the second half of "Grunge", tearing a gash into the ambiguous, bewildered universe of Boyd Rice, helped along by the husky spoken word of Black Sifichi, who intones: "The world weeps, weeps and creaks and wonders why… and the fridge is full of all these corpses… Sono venuto da te. Sono venuto per te”. Without pause, the unease reaches its peak in "Sewed-Up" and in the grim sermon delivered by G.W. Sok, former frontman of The Ex, backed by mesmerizing drones: "Oh God, you should know that what you reap is what you've sown".

Amid ferocious bass lines, synthetic raids bordering on harsh-noise and, by contrast, ambient frescoes heightened by the evocative cello of Matteo Bennici (already a member of Squarcicatrici alongside, among others, Andrea Belfi), the closing diptych brings to mind a reinvigorated Trent Reznor ("Threshold") and an imaginary collaboration between Mirt and Julia Kent ("Topanga"). Borrowing from pop, dark and electronic music, on "Grunge" Sigurtà weaves eight colorful canvases, threaded with a common strain of noise alternating with veins of melancholy, ambient-driven abstraction. The trip-hop attitude — musical and otherwise — does the rest, giving us an album rich in remarkable guest appearances, just as in the best Bristol tradition.

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18/01/2018