MAURIZIO ABATE - Sacre stanze

On the occasion of the release of “Loneliness, Desire And Revenge”, Antonio Ciarletta wrote: “Talking about Maurizio Abate is difficult because his music is self-sufficient, it simply doesn’t need to be described in words”. Eleven years have passed and things still stand that way. Engaging with the sound shaped by the Milanese composer is an experiential matter, one that can hardly be translated exhaustively into words.
“Sacre stanze” proves this once again: a work with a long gestation, conceived as a set of pieces meant to be polished by the skilled arranging hand of Marco Giudici. A process that began in 2019 and has finally come to fruition today. A record that has become fully choral thanks to the writing and/or performing contributions of a wide array of quality musicians, including Francesca Stella Riva (Satan Is My Brother), Valeria Sturba and Alberto Boccardi.

The more than ten minutes of “La via del poeta” – the opening track – elegantly and unhesitatingly condense the entire sonic universe contained in the album. There are carefully plucked strings welcoming a far-from-ordinary electroacoustic substrate, the timbral research at the core of Abate’s practice, the intersection with the vocal abstractions of Agnese Banti and Francesca Saracino, the dialogue with the trombone. All of it generating a graceful flow between primitivism and ambient exploration, a texture that rises, halts and starts again elsewhere without ever creating a break. Immersive, powerful in its emotional weight.
An elegiac journey made of wonder and slight unease, rendered enigmatic by the modulations of Valeria Sturba’s theremin (“Interludio”), potentially endless in the repeated arpeggios of Adriano Sangineto’s Celtic harp (“Locus Numine”). A progression that veers toward pure experimentation sparked by the encounter with Boccardi (“Occhi chiusi per vedere”) and turns solitary only in the atmospheric suspension of “Nuvolario”.

Betraying the premise, more than enough words have been spent here already. What remains to be said is that “Sacre stanze” is a listening space that demands silence, full concentration. Every drop, pause, resonance has an exact space that deserves to be fully grasped. All that’s left is to close your eyes and surrender to the magic of sound.

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21/07/2026