Elso, a solo project that with his debut album, “Oltre”, overlooks the Italian music scene with a proposal that intertwines electronic authority and emotional narrative, takes shape from the digital underground. A record that, despite some typical fragility of a debut, shows an already clear and promising direction. The above sound universe is made of beat still in the embryonic phase, loop Synthetics that are screwing on themselves in search of a complete form, but also and above all of words: many, intimate, at times elusive.
“Beyond” moves along a trajectory that combines electronic minimalism, songwriting intimacy and a aesthetic lo-fi which seems more a poetic choice than a simple production need. Elso builds most of its bases on rarefied synthetic rugs, beat broken, dilated samples and a calibrated use of environmental effects. It is a production that does not seek the impact, but the depth: every sound seems to want to speak slowly, like those who have something to say but do not want to shout.
The album opens with “Dear”, a song that stands out for the fickle and sensitive text, suspended between confession and dream. The electronic base, albeit still in the dawn, denotes a careful research that bodes hope for continuation of the career of the Italian artist. It is a trace that, in its emotional modesty, manages to create a suspended, almost tactile space. In this song, the work on sound, although simple, is attentive, almost calligraphic. The beat Minimal does not serve to make their heads move, but to create an emotional backdrop on which words can rest in balance. The electronics here is used as a means to intensify the lyrical speech, not to distract it.
Listening continues with “Milan”, which imposes itself as the other emotional summit of the disc: a song with an intimate text, projected on the buildings of the metropolis, in a crasis between image and sound that reaches straight to the chest. Here Elso shows that he can translate the urban landscape into feeling, with a sensitivity that certainly recalls north-European electronic songwriting, but with well-planted roots in the Italian province.
The album ends with “Sorry”, a song addressed to itself and, in a wider form, even to each of us. A sort of confession in the form of a leave, which closes the disc in a coherent and mature way. Here Elso seems to pause every artifice, leaving room for a naked sincerity that affects and completes the emotional path of the album.
“Beyond” is a debut that is not afraid of showing itself vulnerable, still in the definition phase but already capable of speaking a personal language. The structures of the songs are deliberately unconventional: open stanzas and sections alternate, in which the voice gives space to the sound weaving, letting reverbeit, glitches and suspended harmonies emerge. Elso plays with silence as much as with the notes, with a taste that recalls certain works of the scene Bedroom Pop Anglofona. If Elso will be able to refine his sound intuitions without losing the delicacy of his gaze, there will certainly be much to talk about in the coming years.
07/06/2025
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
