Paolo Spaccamonti's extensive production spectrum, in addition to solo pieces and excellent collaborations (Jochen Arbeit, Stefano Pilia), includes multiple soundtracks resulting from the intersection with different artistic fields, including cinema, television and theatre. It is therefore not surprising that his music has often been described as cinematic, even if the term certainly does not appear to be exhaustive of a practice in constant search for a broader and more fringed horizon. This attitude, fundamental in the creation of the recent and excellent “Nel torbido”, is clearly manifested in “Iphigenia/Orestes”.
Created as an aural support for the show of the same name at the Teatro Stabile in Turin directed by Valerio Binasco in 2022, the proposed itinerary is made up of ten tracks of often short duration, developed in the name of functional essentiality to convey the bare emotional content and direct of the representation. This formal direction is precisely condensed by Spaccamonti's scores. The guitar continues to be the fulcrum, but what flows from it is measured as never before and in close dialogue with pauses and silences.
In particular, the first part of the album moves in rarefied territories of ambient origin, characterized by dilated resonances without rhythmic scans (“Ermione”) and by tails of absolute emptiness (“Elena”). Following the narration, the sound appears shadowy, full of a latent tension manifested by the electricity of the instrument (“Menelao”, “Tindaro”). But just when the unraveling of a compact path, with a uniform vocabulary, seems obvious, grainy frequencies come into play (“Nuovo sposo”), at times obsessive (“Amata luce addio”), which lead towards the tragic ending open towards a melodic component more obvious (“Daggers”).
The absence of stage action does not limit but rather enhances the potential of minimal aural structures dotted with clear features, capable of effectively building engaging images, fully justifying the choice to present itself in an autonomous form as the seventh chapter of the Decay Music series curated by the prestigious Die Schachtel. An intense musical journey based on the evocative power of sound.
28/10/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM