LIVE '75

Occupying one of the more original spaces within the prog electronic sphere, Telaio Magnetico give to you an abstract, intangible and wonderfully esoterically charged album. This live document plays with atmospheres like you'd imagine the old Olympian gods did with humans - mixing them up in all kinds of events, troubles and emotionally engaging meetings, where sounds and images coalesce in a way that clearly surpass even the most brilliant and devious of creators - as well as their initial sparks of inspiration.

Telaio Magnetico are what some around here would call a super-group. An all-star Italian cast featuring Franco Battiato's musical cornucopia and Juri Camisasca's haunting vocals - a duo that saw eye to eye back in the day, but also managed to challenge each other sonically without ever compromising any natural traits of their personas. Then we've got the mad genius of Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale's Giacomo "Mino" Di Martino joining in on a fabulously eerie Farfisa organ: He is one powerful force to be reckoned with, and on here he simply spirals out of proportion together with Battiato's creepy and caterpillar-like organs and synthesizers - amounting to a stagnant floating musical universe that occasionally reminds me of thick porridge running upwards. Also from AIS - vocalist Terra di Benedetto sprinkles throughout this record an uncanny feminine scat singing that sounds unlike anything I've come across neither before or since. Finishing the band off - adding the effervescent ornamentations and the rambling rhythmic underlinings - are Roberto Mazza on oboe and sax soprano as well as Lino "Capra" Vaccina on vibraphone, tabla, gong and cymbals. Capra would go on to produce the somewhat cult album Antico Adagio, but first and foremost is he famous for his participation in the futuristic folk act Aktuala, that previously to this outing widened the scope of endemic Italian music with a big bang and then some. The heritage, so to speak, that Capra brings with him into this esoteric live experiment is quite wonderful, and if you are sitting out there with a big hard on for anything marked Aktuala, then you will probably swallow up this recording like a glass of hot remoulade. He is truly a magician with robust and earthy musical means. Roberto Mazza on the other hand is like a sea of tranquillity, acting like a counterpoint to the convoluted nature of the other guys involved. He adds lightness and swift docile touches to an already heavy labyrinthian sonorous delusion. The menacing and woeful character of the man's reeds are a thing of beauty, but even more so do they compliment the ascending feel of the Farfisa organ - sounding like a pair of star crossed lovers holding hands whilst setting the controls for the heart of the sun.

The one single thing speaking against Telaio Magnetico is the relatively poor sound quality. The concert has its rough edges and judging by today's standards, there is certainly a lot that could have been remedied. I myself actually like it this way, and if I'm completely honest - I have always been under the impression, that the noises and screeches were half the music anyways - and nowhere on this album do these pitfalls of 1970s rural recording technique strike me as being deafening or drowning out any specifics of the music. No, it rather adds to the proceedings a natural feel that otherwise would have been completely lost within the surreal ambiances of the band.

If I were to guess, I'd say that this venture is damn near all improvised. Sure, the peeps here who had played together previously to this concert, like Battiato and Camisasca , obviously had some loose bearings on each other, but ultimately this live event is a thing of complete and utter waving around the dark with but a few nautical miles of space between the light sources. It's challenging, snuffling, untethered, hypnotising, strangely absorbing in nature and slowly oozing - climbing upwards like the most death defying musical pesto you'll ever come across.

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