NEMO, MILANO, CLEMENTE - FRATTURA COMPARSA DISSOLVENZA

* originally written for www.jazzmusicarchives.com

Unorthodox Italian vocalist Claudio Milano's newest album, "Frattura, Comparsa, Dissolvenza," was recorded by a quartet with electronic artist Borda and two pianists/electronic artists, Niccolo Clemente and Alberto Nemo. Unlike many of Claudio's previous releases, the new one has nothing too much in common with the progressive rock of the 70s, which always was a strong Milano influence.

Just four pieces, 43 minutes long in common. Minimalist and liturgical atmosphere, dark and partially chamber. The opener "Frattura Iniziale" is Alberto Nemo's composition. Nemo began his career performing sacred music in chapels. Slow, dark, and minimalistic repetitive piano and Claudio's operatic voice together sound like church liturgy. Partially recalls Ran Blake's music. Beautiful song and the best on this album for my ears.

"Comparsa" opens with a dark and dreamy(gothic?) piano solo, and operatic Claudio vocals come soon after. Songs author and composer Niccolo Clemente adds vocals and electronics too. Claudio's vocals feel the space flying free. The same atmosphere of church liturgy and Gregorian chants continues.

"Dissolvenza", the longest album's composition, is more based on electronic effects sound. Claudio's vocal acrobatics pushes it towards a more leftfield zone. If the album's opener can be compared with chamber Ran Blake's works, "Dissolvenza" is closer to Diamanda Galas' music.

"Frattura Finale", the album's shortest piece, is written by Nemo again. Chamber piano, minimalist repetitive construction, and Claudio's emotional voice over it. The Mass is ended.

As always, Claudio adds a lot of philosophical themes and minds in lyrics (true, it's good to be fluent in Italian though). According to liner notes, the album was recorded somewhere in a gas station. Surprisingly enough, its acoustics recall more of a church space. Probably not an album for Claudio's prog rock side fans, "Frattura, Comparsa, Dissolvenza" shows his great alternative talent - an electro-acoustic minimalist chamber vocalist. Well done!

This time Claudio Milano releases a live album from a performance in a very unusual place, a gasoline station in a town close to Florence, together with two other vocalists and authors. They agreed to add this album to Claudio's discography on PA even if it's a sort of "split".

The first performer is Alberto Nemo who is also the pianist. "Frattura" (Fracture) is present at the beginning and at the end of the album, but the total time of the two parts together is inferior to those of the other two performers.

So let's start with "Frattura Iniziale (Initial Fracture). It's started by the piano. There's a lot of reverb, but I think it's just the acoustic of the venue. It doesnt sound like an electronic effect. Nemo's voice is strong and has some similarities with Claudio's voice. I must confess that I've had a doubt about who this singer is. Luckily the whole live performance is also on Youtube. Alberto Nemo sits at the piano dressed (or betteer, undressed) like a Sikh, and his vocals which I was struggling to understand are just vocalizations. It's a sort of fusion between Dhropal singing and Catholic chants. It may sound like a prayer, but the only intelligible word that I catch is "Matame" ("Kill me" in Spanish). The real meaning performance is well explained in the album's booklet (in Italian, sorry). I don't know whether an English version is available. In any case, the "vibrations" created by the voice and the piano can vehiculate the message, partially at least. My own consideration: being able to put the eastern and western souls together is a proof of the common roots of the Indoeuropeans. Traditional musics share their vibes from Ireland to Bangladesh.

Niccolo' Clemente, aka Whale, has a composing style similar to Claudio. This time his piano accompanies real lyrics. Not very easy also for an Italian. I interpret it as the appearance and disappearance of life on Earth. The mortal remains of an extinct mankind. The lyrics are not much long, but enough to make phylosophical references. In particular the sentence "Il Tempo ingoiato dalla tempesta dell'atomo" gives me the idea of an Universe totally indifferent toward us. It literally means "Time swallowed by the atom's storm" It's the alpha constant that changes its value and destroys matter and energy. Time remains but is no more useable. There are remains, but not the mankind. Very good instrumental piano coda follows.

It's now the turn of Claudio. Now there's electronic behind, An unusual loop is the base on which Claudio repeats four words several times before staring o use his voice as i knows: "Morte, Dissolvenza, Vita, Trasmissione" (Death, Fade, Life, Transmission). The multi-instrumentis and electronic maestro Teo Ravelli aka Borda creates very intriguing soundscapes also distorting the voice of Claudio, adding echoes and effects to the vocals. Listening carefully, it's like Claudio is singing acapella over an invisible (inaudible is better) chords progression. This atonal music may can be reconducted to a proper song...but why doing so? As usual the lyrics written by Claudio are harsh, row, intense and sometimes disturbing. And it ends with a catholic standard prayer before getting back to the initial four words, but with different interval, tonality and background toward the sudden end. Trying to interpret the poetry, I think there's a connection to "The Wall". Traumas and a consequent attempt to hide himself (I want to dive into an ocean of [&*!#]) until the decision to escape "With the voice of an angel I scream my interior void. I want to get out!". I see it like the desire of tearing down the wall. Of course it's just as I interpret it, I can be completely wrong. The key is more likely in the word Dissolvenza (Fade). Disappear, melt into small pieces of awareness in order to rebirth.

Finally, Nemo is back with his mixture of east and west backed by his piano. It's a reprise of the first track and an excellent conclusion of the performance that closes the circle. At this point we have experienced the wordless chant of the soul, the disappearance of the mankind into the void of existence, the death and the desperate desire of rebirth, to the return of the wordless voice of the soul.

Challenging but rewarding. It's a sort of journey to the abyss and back, in some ways similar to what Dante does in the Comedy's Inferno, which was the subject of the previous performance by Claudio Milano with "I Sincopatici".

Claudio Milano is perhaps the most unconventional and boundary pushing artist that I know of. And this attitude is from top to bottom. From the studio albums he is on, to those legendary live performances that are as much about the visual as they are the audio. To even the packaging that the music comes, which has been so unique at times. One of his recording I own has a literal string tied in a bow around the cd package. This most recent cd comes in a glossy, mini-magazine that is about 8 1/2 inches high and almost 6 inches wide. Some ten pages or so of lyrics and info all in Italian, plus pictures. The cd is held in a clear plastic sleeve attached to the inside back cover.

Like Claudio who is honest to his visions, I feel like I too have been honest with my opinions. Especially when free physical music has been sent to me for review. Not swayed in the least by that, and Claudio knows this, but still keeps them coming. I decline free downloads, as my whole reason for being on this site is to have a place for my opinions of My record collection. I have zero interest in throwing up reviews for music I don't physically own. Of the fourteen cds I own that Claudio's on I have given 6 three star reviews, 6 four stars reviews(including this one), and 2 five star reviews.

I have really fallen for this album. And talk about unconventional! We have three very classy, world class singers and a keyboardist playing a live gig at a gas station in Prato, Italy. A city of around 200,000 people, and the second largest city after Florence in Tuscany. In a gas station?! Unconventional right? Claudio Milano sings on the longest and by far most adventerous track on here called "Dissolvenza" at almost 19 minutes. Milano as usual provides an incredible performance that is as varied as the song is long. He puts on a show, and this is the only song featuring our fourth member Teo Ravelli, who can play drums with the best of them and is also known as Borda. He is also an electronics guy, and it's this song that instrumentally does something for me with those electronics. I love the sound of them as they come and go throughout. This is the track that prog fas will appreciate.

The other three tracks are quite sparse instrumentally, usually piano only. This really is a vocal album which usually isn't my thing, but it is here. We also have Niccolo Clemente on vocals singing on track two called "Comparsa". My least favourite but I still like it. He adds his own piano and synths to his vocals, and is somewhere between the adventerous Milano track, and the mellow Nemo songs.

Lets talk about Alberto Nemo. My first spin of this recording left me completely taken with Nemo's vocal style and tone. He clearly is a spiritual man, from the way he dresses to the music he performs. His songs open and close this album which just seems so appropriate, tying it all together. He sings in wordless melodies like some of those traditional middle eastern singers, or even like some of the singers from India. I had an Indian co- worker who always had his music cranked, and I always complimented it. I'm for some reason really drawn to this style of singing. Slow moving with Alberto emphasizing every syllable, and holding the notes. So impressed.

A very solid 4 stars for this special release that I'm so proud to own. Thanks Claudio!