3JUNO

Electronic mind travels turned into music ? this is what the Italian ensemble Liir Bu Fer is all about. Since all three members of this unit are experienced individuals in the area of avant- garde, it is no surprise that the result of their assembly should lead to a proficient mixture of electronic krautrock, minimalist ambient, atmospheric post-rock (a-la Tortoise) and the direct heritage of the German school of Elektronische Musik. 'Ginza' opens up the album with a comic atmosphere of radio announcements and voca lperucssiev effects, which stages the overall mood for '1994', a piece full of electronic ornaments fluidly combined with kalimba cadences. 'Hiver' subsequently delivers an intriguing sense of mysticism that displays some creepy lyricism, enhanced by industrial nuances. 'Red Submarine' includes the participation of a special guest, Claudio Milano from Nichelodeon, who as usual steals the show with his varying vocal resources all over the place. This track bears an oppressive, disjointed ambience, not unlike the most surrealistic moments of Henry Cow's latest albums. 'Maestrale' is submerged in eerie waters for the first 3 minutes, then the overall mood is interrupted by conversational noises, ultimately leading to a trip section that lightens things up for a while, until the last 75 seconds bring a soft reprise of the first motif. 'Esperanto' is a brief cybernetic interlude segued into the contemplative set of industrial tones and layers that is 'Es', which in some ways resembles the soundtrack to Lynch's "Eraserhead". Antonella Bertini's vocal interventions provide flashes of inscrutable unease, a counterpart of human pulsations against the electromagnetic paraphernalia provided by the trio. 'Mikumi' stages a confluence of the ethereal lyricism we had met in the first motif of 'Maestrale' and the spacey abstractionism of 'Es', while 'Lay-p' goes headlong for the industrial side of LBF in a very grayish manner, somewhat oppressive and very creepy. 'Room /10' preserves this electronic vigor for two minutes in order to lay down a threshold to 'Obliquizione', a very ceremonious piece wrapped in the most evocative environment in the entire album: this track really establishes moments of luminosity among the abundant electronic shades of mystery. The title track closes down the album by massively recapitulating the band's industrial facet in a sonic framework related to post-rock (to a certain degree). Liir Bu fer is a very solid reference in the ways of electronic experimental music that are being accomplished nowadays all over the world: it's a good time to keep track of this band with (hopefully) future releases.