INCIDENTI - LO SCHIANTO

Claudio Milano and friends have been on hiatus for a very long time now and like mad scientists locked in a lab have been taking the last several years to alchemize their cauldrons of strange sonic sounds and preserve them in recorded form. Along with NICHELODEON and INSONAR, Milano hasn't been heard from since 2013's "Ukiyoe (Mondi Fluttuanti) / Quickworks & Deadworks" when they dazzled the world with a unique mix of experimental rock, avant-prog and modern classical music. So outside the realms of the current prog scene and discontent with retreading the endless cycles of retro prog that recycles 70s sounds, Milano has returned in 2021 and unleashed his most bizarre and most demanding works to date.

For those who love truly progressive music that pushes boundaries and expands musical horizons, Milano has been instrumental in keeping the Italian scene relevant by taking his theatrical vocal talents and commingling with some of the greatest talented vocalists and musicians on today's scene. Even more adventurous than the last album, INCIDENTI - LO SCHIANTO (Incidents - The Crash) released officially under the moniker NICHELODEON / INSONAR & RELATIVES took a staggering eight years to complete and features two more artists to join the Milano extended clan. NICHELODEON has been an expressionist theater music project formed in Milan in 2007 and has fused everything from traditional classical music with jazz, ethnic sounds, Italian folk, electronica and various shades of rock music. INSONAR on the other hand was founded in Venice in 2011 by Marco Tuppo and has dabbled in electronica, acoustic explorations and strange timbres from unusual instruments.

On this new release INCIDENTI - LO SCHIANTO, Milano, NICHELODEAN and INSONAR join forces with NOT ME and THIS ORDER. NOT ME is a newer project formed in Puglia in 2018. This group blends classical music with electronics and ethnic sounds with avant-garde harmonies, polyrhythms and atonality. THIS ORDER is a Gothic and theatrical avant-garde metal project that mixes metal heft with darkwave, stoner rock, math rock and avant-prog. Founded in 2015 in the small town of Taranto, this group has also cross-pollinated with many other artists and has even seen Paolo Tofani of Area in its company in the past. Together these four distinctly different bands have collaborated with Claudio Milano to craft one of the most outrageously creative and ambitious projects released in 2021.

This is the kind of music that really gets me excited. It's literally impossible to label as any particular genre given its scope is well beyond the limitations of any definitions thus designated. While the focus is on Milano's vocal gymnastics that distinguish him one of the most creative vocalists of the modern era accompanied by other gifted vocalists who craft intriguing and even freakishly weird harmonic displays, this album runs the gamut of Milano's classic avant-prog to chamber rock, contemporary classical, traditional Italian folk music, Gothic rock, avant-garde metal and much, much more. Everything is smoothly blended into one of the most stylish albums of the entire musical year of 2021. This album has taken several spins to really sink in but unlike some of Milano's avant-garde music of the past, this one has instantly infectious melodic hooks that are teased out into unthinkably strange terrain.

Milano's projects are like a musical circus really. While every release is ambitious beyond belief, INCIDENTI - LO SCHIANTO goes for the jugular. With no less than 44 musicians on board who contribute a whole warehouse full of instruments, this album is graced with a rich array of tones and timbres with all the usual rock, classical and chamber rock suspects however the album also features some homemade instruments such as something called the ghironda as well as other sounds from accordions, glockenspiels and exotic ethnic instruments. The is perhaps one of the best produced albums i've ever heard. Every detail is polished like a fine gemstone and then carved into one of the most breath-taking pieces of art that is almost too much for the ears to take given its stunning beauty.

Milano delivers some of his best vocal performances to date. While still delivering all those scrumptious operatic runs, he also surprises with strange screams, shrieks (reminiscent of Mike Patton) as well as Mongolian throat singing! His octave range seems to have expanded even further and his playful commingling of vocal parts with the female divas on board is utterly magical as they play off of each other with the precision of a Cirque du Soleil performance. Generally speaking the avant-riffs of various instruments weave hypnotizing tapestries of sound that generate unusually bizarre counterpoints that are based on recognizable melodic musical scales but twist and bend like refracted light through a crystal prism. The different bands contribute different tracks and they are distributed in a way that the album maintains a continuous flow yet offers an amazing diverse pallet of tones, textures, timbres, musical motifs and avant-garde weirdness.

The passion and talent that went into this album is unthinkable really. With so many bands simply trying to cash in on the sounds and styles of the original prog scene, Claudio Milano and friends are hell bent for leather in crafting fresh sounding music that actually takes you somewhere you never knew existed. This is the kind of music i crave for it is bold, daring and utterly uncompromising bravado yet as Milano has stated many times before, he is not about making complex music for the sake of complexity unlike his friends and fellow Italians Yugen. His motive is to make music that one can emotional embrace in a passionate love affair and then take you on a roller coaster ride of sound. Everything about this album is perfect. Every note and twisted avant-garde frenzy seems like it was divinely inspired.

Given the extremities of the music involved unfortunately Milano is one of those artists who is too far ahead of the pack for most music fans to comprehend. This music is as lushly orchestrated as a symphony, as angular and abstract as the most alienating avant-jazz and yet as sensual and inviting as traditional operas and arena rock. While the rock and metal aspects are limited, they offer the necessary contrast to keep this album firing on all pistons. I would say that the main gist of the album lies in contemporary classical and chamber rock steeped with avant-prog musical motifs with the many other sounds, styles and sensations offering supplemental sonorous splendor. Claudio Milano clearly never disappoints and with this latest jewel INCIDENTI - LO SCHIANTO he has raised the bar once again. Nothing short of an ingenious masterpiece of 2021. Bravissimo! Standing ovation! Clappity clap clap!!!!!!!!!

This one is an album that's been sitting in the list of things to give a proper review of for a while at this point but it's one that really, really deserves to be brought up because it is so cool. Incidenti - Lo Schianto is an album that feels so directly against the grain of what's to be expected of a lot of modern prog bands, trading the pastiches of the 70s and other retro elements in favour of taking the genre into some truly avant-garde territory while retaining a lot of that core symphonic approach and sound, essentially taking certain ideas from that era and then completely destroying and reconstructing it all. I absolutely adore the way this takes these orchestral, often even classical inspired elements and mixes it with some insanely operatic, dramatic vocals and then a hearty amount of various other concepts and sounds, ranging from jazz, to Italian folk, to some different shades of rock and even metal. This makes for a listen that feels impossibly dense, yet exciting, with the instrumental palette, atmosphere and tone varying wildly from track to track and making for an experience that never knows quite how to sit still, yet is able to make this work in its favour wonderfully.

The vocal gymnastics that go on are consistently one of the most engaging parts of this, especially with how it works within the context of everything else that's happening around these vocals. Sometimes you get these cold, high pitched, moments that feel almost entirely detached from anything other than pure dread, which is then complemented by some equally foreboding music that takes many different forms throughout the album. My favourite of these is with the opening track, Non Esistono, which almost completely cuts out in the final minute and introduces this eerie droning that sets the mood so nicely for some of what's to come. While you've got this brand of creepiness, you can then look on the other side of things with Variations on The Jargon King, which feels far more chaotic, with elements of jazz cutting through, with these atonal horns weaving amongst the shrill strings and whispers. The song in general takes on a far more maximalist approach that is hellbent on filling every moment with something downright strange whilst the many vocal harmonies try their best to play off all the craziness going on, which feels especially effective when more or less every element of the music drops off, only leaving these slow, ritualistic chants combined with a frenetic drum solo that sounds barely coherent. This focus on absolute dissonance on a scale this grandiose is a treat to hear and makes for a true standout song here.

While this tone is certainly one of the most striking aspects of this album, I'd be remiss to ignore how beautiful this can get at times and how this beauty is then often filtered through these more out-there sensibilities to excellent effect, allowing for brief moments of respite before thrusting the listener right back into the madness, amplifying it through using these once fragile, gorgeous melodies as the starting point to yet another tangent. Il Barbiere degli Occhi is especially proficient at this, with many moments that are dedicated to these more melodic elements to the point where the vocals even manage to sound really pretty in their own unique way, with the onslaught often fading out into extended piano sections moments of isolated, interweaving vocal harmonies, even the ending of the song focuses more on these elements than the surreal material which effectively juxtaposes what is expected to be the absolute norm at this point.

If I had one criticism about this it would definitely be that I felt the stretch from track 5 - 9 was a bit hit or miss and more messily constructed, not really having the same staying power as the earlier material and lacking a lot of the clearer arcs that the rest of the material has, being closer to scattershot snippets of ideas strung together as opposed to the fully fledged mastery of the other songs. That's not to say that they're outright bad either, they tend to have a lot of really interesting isolated moments that given them a lot of memorability, but I never really find myself connecting with them in the same way as everything else when looking at the bigger picture. It's very fortunate that the album picks up again once the 12 minute epic Ho Gettato mio Figlio da una Rupe perché non Somigliava a Fabrizio Corona comes in and not only makes for some of the finest music on the album, but also reveals a bit of a sense of humour that adds a surprising amount. No matter how many times I listen to this track I'll still be taken aback by the fact that a few minutes in, this song just has a demented version of the Smurfs chant before things continue on their way, it's such a bizarre thing to just put in but I cannot deny that I also love it.

The rest of the album follows a pretty similar structure to the great material this has to offer and it's overall just an incredibly impressive experience. Such a variety of sounds and ideas have all been jammed into this and made to be really cohesive, even at its most scattershot, unfocused moments, it still all feels like it belongs here in one way or another, and is easily one of the greatest prog albums I've heard this decade so far. Heavily recommend giving this one a couple of listens, it's a wonderful time full of such powerful creativity and heart.

Best tracks: Non Esistono, Variations on the Jargon King, Il Barbiere degli Occhi, Ho Gettato mio Figlio da una Rupe perché non Somigliava a Fabrizio Corona

Not an easy one, but usually there's nothing easy when it comes to a Claudio Milano's project. This time, even if released as Nichelodeon/Insonar and relatives, this album contains things from 4 different side projects and despite this, it's perfectly consistent. We can distinguish the different styles of the four bands, but in the same time, there's a "trait d'union".

As the previous albums, also this one features a huge number of musicians, from the former AREA Paolo Tofani to the French harpist Raoul Moretti, to say just a couple, but all of them mentioned as musicicans and nobody as guest.

The lyrics are in Italian, which is my language, but when the vocals are operatic, catching them is not always easy and even if the booklet mentions a link for the written lyrics, that link appears to be broken. Few words about the package: The sleeve is painted by Claudio himself and has a number of self-portraits in different positions and a target in the back page. It reminds toi the Swiss hero William Tell, but the apple close to what seems to be Claudio's corpse may have more than one meaning. In particular I think to Alan Turing's suicide.

The package contains also 4 circular stickers with parts of the sleeve design. On the first is written "Tie me where you like", then "Tie me when you like", "Tie me if you like" and "tie yourself". The Italian word "Attaccati" has a double meaning depending on where the accent is put. Another subtle ambiguity.

The first track is from the band "Not Me" and is not sung by Claudio but by the soprano Laura Catrani. "Non Esistono (They don't exist)" reaches a dramatic peak with the instrumental second part pf the track, just after an incredibly long and high pitched vocal note. Who are those who don't exist will be clearer with the following songs. Bass introduces Nichelodeon with their "How Hard Tune". As usual, between the avantgard arrangements strong melodies are perceivable. Claudio puts many layers of voice with different pitches. It makes difficult understanding what he says. There's no break with the following track, even if now it's the third band; "This Order". Some of the lyrics are in English. The music here is more chaotic, with brasses, strong percussion, and an obsessive bass. There's a lot of rock in this track, including a guitar solo which could be featured on a metal track. I'm not sure whether the repeated sentence is "To the jargon king". This is what I've understood.

"Il Barbiere Degli Occhi" (The barber of eyes) is quite disturbing. I think it's about torture and this supposition will become more consistent later. Piano and strings set a chamber music mood but the percussion makes clear that there's nothing to relax on. Again Nichelodeon hide good melodies behind multiple musical layers. The multiple harmonizations of Claudio's voice are remarkable. This track contains some very melodic moments.

There's a lot of melody also on the second "Not Me" Song. The text is quite surreal: about someone getting so much involved in the vision of a movie to end inside it: "I'm no longer here". As soon as I find the lyrics I'll probably rewrite this review. I have the sensation of being missing a lot of its meaning.

"Senza Ritorno (with no return)" Speaks, I think, of esistential troubles. The vocal harmonizations are supported by the keyboard and also who doesn't understand the words can perceive the dramaticity.

"La Scatola (the Box)" Alternates a Xmas carol theme with a vocal and piano duo. "There's a black box at the feet of the world where all the untold thoughts roll"... then strings and brasses and drums are added. Then it becomes very dark. Anyway the main theme can remain in the listener's mind for long. The final of violin and clarinet leaves room to dark noises for what I suppose is the central track of the album: "L'ultima sigaretta - Fantasmi ad Argun(The last cigarette - Ghosts in Argun)" is explicitly referring to the "gay lager" of Argun, in the Chechen Republic. Also the following song mentions Tadzio, a character from Thomas Mann's novel "The Death In Venice".

Next "Ho gettato mio figlio ..." Fabrizio Corona is a controversial figure: a VIP photographer who has been jailed for blackmailing. Throwing my son from a hill because he's not like Fabrizio Corona is quite self-explaining.

Now it's the time of one of the darkest moments of the album: "Sabbia scura (dark sand)". I can't tell what's about, but it's hypnotic. It's the track where Claudio's vocal layers work better.

Then the soprano Laura Catrani sings for the second time, but just in the intro, then is Claudio again, supported by brasses and violin and it's time for the only "Insonar" song: Nyama. I don't know if it has anything to do withe the Yoga. The curious mixture of classical music mood and sonic turbulences permeates the album. The violin solo has something of Debussy, or at least is the sensation that it gives me. There's also another female singer, but I can't find any female vocalits mentioned on track 13. She has a very good high pitched voice, anyway.

"La Montagna ed il Trono (The mountain and the throne)" is the last Nichelodeon track. Again, there's a good melody but is hidden behind the percussion and the accordions. Laura Catrani has a part also here. At the end of the track Claudio repeats "Essere solo (to be alone)".

The title of the closing track is quite hermetic. I have an idea about the meaning but I'm not sure so I keep it for myself. "I can't survive any longer to what I know". The last verb changes at every repetition until he says "to what we are". The album is closed by this sentence and I think it may be the key to the whole album. Another very challenging effort from Nichelodeon and co.

Not for every taste. Who likes the immersion into many different musical and lyrical layers wil surely consider it a masterpiece of the genre. I also think that should my wife spin this album by mistake would throw it down the window like the son who is not similar to Fabrizio Corona.

There's a lot going on and it requires the attention it deserves. A good surprise after more than 6 years since the last UKIYOE. Again many thanks to Claudio for having sent me a physical copy of the album. I haven't decided yet wheter to use the stickers or not. I'll let you know.

After seven long years, Claudio Milano has returned to give us another excellent collaborative album. Where before he simply unified his two long running projects NichelOdeon and InSonar, here he and his fellow musicians - now 44 total! - represent four groups, each with a unique take on RIO style prog that still forms together into a cohesive and powerful whole. The musicianship on display is some of the finest of the year, creating ever evolving songs that at once develop and obscure melody through twists and turns. The standout for me was This Order's cover of Peter Hammill's "Jargon King", with the industrial original profoundly updated to heavy, often guitar driven heights.

Most impressive of all, though, are the vocalists. Milano makes room across the record for a variety of other singers, such as the soprano Laura Catrani who opens the album with Not Me and the thousand voices of Coucou Salavy on the latter two parts of "Fabrizio Corona". As for Milano himself he has truly outdone himself both vocally and lyrically. Witness his reinterpretations of "Jargon King", compounding the nightmarishness of the original through his range and self-harmonizing, rendering the lyrics at once opaque and extra chilling. NichelOdeon's "L'ultima Sigaretta" is haunted by two of the other vocalists who perform voices from the past, as Milano paints a grim portrait of loss and devastation. And then there is what I believe to be the LP's centerpiece, the "Fabrizio Corona" sequence, which reads as a sort of rumination on art, and perhaps also parenting, the sea, and criticism. Milano leads in the first part, disgusted that his son (some of his music?) is not like the infamous titular paparazzo and 'did not know how to tell himself, only to exhibit[...] didn't know reality'. 'I threw my son off a cliff, or maybe he fell, I certainly felt like it?' The effect is compounded by creepy sampling of the Smurfs theme song. Salavy takes over from there, cheating death before reading "The chorus of critics on the last shore of the farewell", namely several reviews of "Ukiyoe" including PAers such as yours truly, in the process achieving surreal vocal heights to match some of Milano's.

Put simply, "Incidenti" is one of the most exciting and groundbreaking records to come out of avant-prog for years, a rich sonic tapestry that is all too human.

This might be Claudio's crowning achievement. Claudio Milano also might be the most talented composer and vocalist that we have on this site. I will also say that this is difficult music and way over my head, and my way of rating which doesn't include the word "objective" means I can't go more than 4 stars here because my enjoyment level plays the biggest part of my ratings.

Man so complex, so many innovative ideas. We have 44 talented people involved in performing here from 4 different bands including NICHELODEON, INSONAR, NOT ME and THIS ORDER. This was recorded between June of 2014 and July of 2019. This is a load people with all the info and instruments and different singers and we get 17 tracks over 77 minutes. Honestly to be fair I should be spending a month with this to properly appreciate it. There are songs dedicated to people(I think 10 in total) including Peter Hammill as THIS ORDER covers his "Jargon King" track.

Claudio explains "This is my panic scatter themed album(my thirteenth one) talking about the dispersion of those who flee or fall victim to an ideological system that represses, kills, reduces love to consumption through infatuation." He talks about those in a Soviet concentration camp or those fleeing death by crossing the Mediterranean on a boat or living on constant alert as a homeless man. That being constantly on edge in that state of panic. He goes on to say "With this album I wanted to express the alteration of perception that an individual can have of sound while a truck hits him."

Claudio has always been different with the visual being as important to the audio when it comes to live performances. Even the album itself has little info or track listing on the front and back covers but the focus is on a little story about a knife thrower. The liner notes though are filled with information as he has a "the places, the times" section about where and when but also the writing process is talked about and a section disclosing the credits of all who were involved and what they played and more.

As I said earlier this is complex and difficult but my appreciation for great Avant music was on full display here even though I also feel it's hit and miss based on my tastes in music. If I was forced to pick one track that stands out for me it would be "Sabbia Scura", especially after 2 1/2 minutes. So good! I used the word "suspense" a lot when making notes about this record along with "lunacy". The Hammill cover is a top three track for me. Some "out there" vocals on this one and we get hit with some power too. Atmosphere galore before 5 minutes. I also love that closer which is dark and experimental bringing UNIVERS ZERO and ART ZOYD to mind.

There are so many instruments in play here that we do get a variety of sounds but it's all directed towards that awful feeling of being always on high alert, the dread, the fear that life has presented you with. One crazy thing I discovered in the detailed liner notes and why I do pour over these things is track 12 where the lyrics are actually excerpts from the reviews offered by Mellotron Storm, Votums, LearsFool, Zravkapt, Tszirmay, Guldbamsen, Silly Puppy, Octupus-4, Windhawk and more on Prog Archives. I told you this man is just so full of ideas.

This has been such a challenging album for me to get to know. I still feel overwhelmed and I've owned it for over two months! The compositions and performances are brilliant, stunning, out of this world, but the music is often so dense and obtuse--the melodies and harmonic structures so new and unheard of--that I have had a great deal "liking" or enjoying the music. Claudio says that the songs here are best envisioned as companions to television. I get that--and think it would be well worth Claudio's time and energy to render the music as such: in video form; I believe this would help the listener tremendously with the otherwise-Herculean task of trying to get inside, get into, these songs. This is one of those albums that I appreciate and admire--and even find myself humbled by the talent, knowledge, and sophistication represented herein--but which does not lead me to want to come back for the sake of my enjoyment; the responsibility of wanting to deliver a review of this highly intelligent and accomplished music has actually been quite a burden because of the fact that I am only enjoying it on a mental/intellectual level, not on a visceral emotional. Claudio's talents seem beyond me, beyond prog, beyond any kind of music that is currently being made that I know of (the closest neighbors to Planet NichelOdeon that come to mind being perhaps Dave Newhouse's collaborations with Carla Diratz, the work of Factor Burzaco's Abel Gilbert, and Caludio's own friend, Stefano Giannotti (OTEME). Again, this is astonishing music--visionary beyond my tiny brain's ability to comprehend--but it is not the type of music that I feel compelled to return to (except, as with Factor Burzaco, as a curiosity).

I am a romantic guy who has always been enthralled by poignant melodies, intense choruses and miscellaneous musical goosebumps, as well as heartfelt instrumental performances. While prog represents 95% of my interest, I still get emotional when I hear a thousandth rendition of Nessun Dorma, as well as deeply enjoying many non-prog artists whether in jazz, blues or even pop environments (mostly in a live setting). I do not care much for mainstream, rap, death metal or country, its just not my bottle of vino rosso. Even super complex is something I generally shy away from, like most experimental, minimalist or RIO artists. Then comes along Claudio Milano, a ''classically trained seven-octave vocal range ''singer from Milan who owns a voice that is squarely not a pair of lungs, but an outright musical instrument expressed through his body. His various projects under different names surely rank as some of the most ORIGINAL music, any genre, anywhere.

In 2014, I reviewed his Ukiyoe album, inspiring me to compose one of my most 'out there' assessments ever, as if I had been under the influence of some Dali-esque hallucinogenic that directed my fingers on the keyboard. Claudio actually included a small excerpt in this new 2021 release, as well as quoting a slew of my PA colleagues, proving only that the relationship between artist and fan is truly binary, timeless and cyclic. I enjoy his music enormously, mainly because his energy literally intimidates me into abject submission, generally accompanied by huge grins, massive smiles and waves of chicken skin (this being a rare event; I assure you all, as well as myself). My grandfather once commented to me when I was a little boy" Italy is not a country, it's a theater'' and in Claudio's case, a theater of sound is what he judiciously presents on his latest work. He is both supremely talented and a touch 'pazzo' (crazy) because he tosses the normal musical manuals right out the cathedral window, landing somewhere in the Duomo's Plaza, pecked upon mercilessly by a bevvy of supercilious pigeons and the odd foreign tourist, cell phone camera in one hand and a dripping gelato in the other.

17 tracks that cover 78 minutes Incidenti-Lo Schianto delivers a more accessible insanity, where a multitude of instruments and guests provide a proper backdrop for some of the most overpowering singing you will ever hear anywhere. Claudio's irascible temperament and colossal talent are both on full display, unfettered, unafraid and confident. Swerving, veering, spinning, twirling, screeching and always stunning, the tracks bleed (literally) into another, as if ready a sci-fi book in an unknown language (like Kobaian LOL). The prevailing emotions are of humour/insanity, oppression/deliverance, pain/bliss, with forays of synths, bass rumblings, sax blasts, guitar scratches and percussive mayhem, all delivered in sharp compact eruptions as on the fabulously Gothic third Track "Variations on the Jargon King". Pleasantly weird.

Futuristic theater is next on the menu as "Il Barbieri degli Occhi" introduces violin, bass and Claudio's intestinal lung work, Wagnerian piano and a whole lotta love. Over 7 minutes of exploration and a healthy dose of surrealistic pillowing, never boring, always heading somewhere that only Claudio"s fertile musical imagination can control. Slightly 22nd century schizoid with a baroque undertone. Satisfyingly bizarre.

A couple of slippery snippets of "balance, composure and harmony", where the voice pied pipers along merrily intervene unexpectedly (well, that was to be expected!). A medieval flute paints the initial background for La Scatola , another extended piece that confounds time and place, as if Claudio has morphed into a perfectly rational troubadour entertaining a castle full of insane knights and wacko lords with their conniving dames in attendance. Stark, torchlit and sooty walls of sound, that spin into a musical gavotte on a sesterce (Roman coin). This violin- driven collision of "avant' and 'apres' (read before and after) is truly a stroke of utter genius. It' s companion piece, the proverbial "Last Cigarette" has a decidedly more accessible, dare I say modern tone, a post-coital siesta that showcases Claudio's incredible instrument. Some lung tapping stuff here. Agreeably unusual.

A three-part section comes into play, the This Order & Coucou Selavy suite of 'gothic and theatrical avant-metal' that features heavy drums and a vocal delivery that will test your aural endurance. A dark wave of brash insanity (lalala lalala), where dissonance and melody coalesce albeit reluctantly, which makes it even more anguished. Suddenly, the clown shows up, red-nosed and oversized carnival shoes in tow, as the merry go round runs cheerfully in spheres, a dizzying out-of-body aural hallucination of the best kind. The third part is where excepts from Progarchives reviews are inserted into the vaporous blend, with mountains of voicetronics to paraphrase Mister Fripp. Delightfully strange.

A return to more electric incongruity, 'Sabbia Scura' and a operatic flight on 'Del Mondo Gli Occhi' establishes more sonic room to elaborate the whopping 10 minute + finale 'Nyama'. Here there are more world/ethnic/avant intonations, with chamber orchestra welding itself to voices, vocals and arias, chanting and warbling as well as outright singing. Sounds like a late 13th century Marco Polo bard stuck on some Great Wall of China parapet, yearning desperately for his mama, and yelling his heart out! This is quite the mammoth piece and will require a great deal of intestinal fortitude. That heavy bass onanism at the end?.well! Charmingly peculiar.

2 extra little tidbits to put this monster album to bed (a four poster with canopy and veil, please) . What a session?..exhilarated but pooped! Thank goodness I am vaccinated?.

Why bother being so pedantic and boringly obvious with heavy metal growls and booming drums, if you really want to get back at unruly neighbors, play this FULL blast (during legal hours) and scare the be-jesus out of them. You only need to do it once?. The effect is permanent. As Claudio theatrically states" With this album, I wanted to express the alteration of perception that an individual can have of sound when a truck hits him". On some Hungarian street in Milano, I guess?.wink

This needs to be in every audiophile's collection, as that out-of-the-sleeve joker will stun any guest.

4.5 Incidental crashes

originally written for www.jazzmusicarchives.com

Italian seven-octave vocal range singer Claudio Milano after seven years gap returns with impressive album, released under NichelOdeon/InSonar & Relatives name. What we got here in fact is a collection of music, recorded with different line-ups in different places all around Italy during 2014-2019.

Extremely eclectic, this album in whole works surprisingly well as if was recorded at once, according to (mad) scenario. In a few words, what happens here can be described as the soundtrack for(inexistent) "Picasso's Guernica" movie, recorded by Frank Zappa XXI century's incarnation after his return back to fatherland of Sicily. Quite cinematographic, album's music combines prog rock, metal elements, baroque organs, Gothic darkness, operatic vocals, Weimar Republic operetta, classic strings, bombastic pathetic atmosphere cross-mixed with Diamanda Galas aesthetics and... many many more.

Vocals (and lyrics) is still a king here, so I would recommend to find the lyrics in the language you understand (originally - in Italian),it helps(English translation has been kindly provided to me by Claudio himself). As with many Claudio's previous albums, the main problem is who the listener is. The album is so radically eclectic, that it's difficult to imagine which musical genre fans will accept it as "music, produced for them". Those fearless hearts, searching for something they probably never heard in their life, must give it chance.

[Originally published at The Progressive Aspect]

In 2021, I belatedly came across a magnificent album by the Deadburger Factory collective of Italian artists, which blew my mind. This year (2022), I've belatedly come across a magnificent album by the NichelOdeon/InSonar & Relatives collective of Italian artists, which has blown my mind. While the two albums are very different in sound, both mine avant garde territories full of intense and extreme soundscapes, resulting in music that may be a challenging listen for many, but which I find I cannot get enough of. The thread that ties together the four groups who make up the music of "INCIDENTI - Lo Schianto" is one Claudio Milano - a self-described speleologist of sound, implying not so much an exploration of sound (that would surely be a spelunker, rather than a speleologist), as a scientific interest in the form and structure of sound, and the processes that can affect its constructions and appearances. Speleology is a cross-disciplinary field, and that too fits the character of Claudio Milano as a "designer of sonic geometries for theater/performance/dance/installations". If a traditional speleologist can be said to develop portraits of caves as complex, evolving systems and relationships, so Claudio has developed over the years his own portraits of sound as complex, evolving systems and relationships.

Another link to caves, to my ears, is the shamanistic sound of much of this album (which again draws me back to Deadburger Factory's La Chiamata, and the importance of the shaman to its concept and themes). If you have any doubt about the ubiquity of the idea of a shaman in their cave, simply Google and find a plethora of images and links. The polyphony (some might call it a cacophony) of Claudio's vocals could well be the echoing chanting of the shaman in their cave. Not that this shaman is alone, as over forty musicians perform on the album, within four band projects. It might then sound surprising that the whole is so remarkably consistent and cohesive. Perhaps because all are pursuing a similar vision, and probably more so because of the presence of Milano throughout. In fact, I imagine some listeners might well assume this is the output of just one band, if they were not told otherwise. While there are differing sounds between the four bands, and it doesn't take long to be able to recognise their individual aspects, all mesh together beautifully. Chaotic, atonal jazz, foreboding, dissonant folk, Gothic, operatic metal, and more, all of which coalesces into one breathtakingly, jarringly, exhilarating, radically eclectic, genre- bending whole.

The album's title recalls Porcupine Tree's "The Incident", which explores throughout how the words 'accident' or 'incident' can be so detached from something destructive and traumatic. But the second part of the title "INCIDENTI - Lo Schianto" ('The Crash') brings its own mental imagery that is almost cognitively dissonant to the abstract notion of the first part. That dissonance, and the alteration of perception that individuals can have about an incident or accident, is wonderfully communicated by the multiple vocal lines of Milano - who has an extraordinary range (spanning octaves) and styles (including some quite marvellous throat singing). The vocals of Milano will either make or break this album for listeners. I love Milano's singing, in all its extremes and eccentricities, and the breadth of emotions he can evoke with just his voice is quite astounding - even if one can't understand what is being sung. I resorted to asking Claudio Milano for the lyrics, so I could churn them through Google Translate, and thankfully he obliged. The lyrics can be particularly graphic, especially earlier on in the album. It's no wonder Milano's vocals are so tortured and anguished at times. It makes sense that the reinterpretation of a Peter Hammill song is one about repressive hegemony, and which serendipitously appears on an album most famous for a side-long suite detailing the aftermath of a crash.

"A Black Box" aside, the concept of "INCIDENTI - Lo Schianto" possibly couldn't have more relevance now; as Russia continues its aggression, invasion and occupation of Ukraine, for 'the crash' of INCIDENTI is the collapse of social equilibrium, and the fear and terror generated by this - of repression and murder, and dispersion of those who fall victim to it. The album is not as depressing as this sounds, though, as it is more about overcoming that aggression. Even the artwork expresses this, with the knife almost omnipresent - but a symbol not necessarily of danger and violence, but of responsibility and redemption. The knife in the target, and particularly in the inner artwork, above the head, along with the apple (again particularly in the inner artwork), could be considered an allusion to William Tell, Palnatoki, Egill, Henning Wulf and all the many other Germanic and Norse figures of legend who shot an apple off a child's head to escape injustice. The cover art itself is also somewhat reminiscent (if only to me) of Salvadore Dali's Autumnal Cannibalism, and its theme of dissonance in the face of the destruction of war. In both artworks, there are elements of tranquillity and horror, and in both an apple features prominently. Dali's apple was a deliberate reference to the William Tell tale, but in his version, Tell's son does not survive. (Less obvious than the whole apple on the head of one of the figures, is a peeled apple below, representing the death.)

All these words, and very little describing the music. But for that I make no apology, as this album is all about the words of Claudio Milano, and the creative manner in which they are performed. As great as the music is - and it is great (amazingly so) - it is secondary to the voice(s) of Milano. Apropos the Peter Hammill reinterpretation, as Marmite as Hammill can be, Milano stretches the listener's limits even further. But so long as you are willing to be stretched, the rewards of this album are almost limitless. Heck, there's even a snatch of the Smurf's la-la song, and no matter how many times I hear it (and that's very many, by now) it still puts a smile on my face. Each song on the album is appended "Senza Valore" ("without value"), which is perhaps just one more example of the dissonance and alteration of perception, as every track holds a great deal of value for me. And, for those like me who can't get enough, the longest track from "INCIDENTI - Lo Schianto" has also been released as a stand-alone single, with an alternate version that is as enthralling as the album version. I can very highly recommend this, in addition to the album itself. Wow! Just, wow!

Delighted to finally be getting to this, the latest from Italy's NichelOdeon (2021). Vocal maestro-frontman Claudio Milano reached out to me here almost a year ago about this album, and I'm so grateful they did. I was already going to listen, yet the answer as to when, as is often the case, was unknown. And even if I go backward, I'm excited to do so. Unmentioned below, I would say this should appeal, to certain degrees, to fans of Univers Zero, Slapp Happy and Art Zoyd.

We are thrown into Drama Italiana [Is that good grammar anyhow? haha] via the opener "Non Esistono", the soprano-capable vocals of Milano met with dark strings and, later, eerie and distorted electronic tones. Chilling track to start us off. Static frizzles as we pick up apparent far-off transmissions. The bass from Andrea Grumelli sounds off the next, "How Hard Tune!" Here vocals overlap with different timbres as the full ensemble lightly swings underneath. This is the sort of material that I would hope fans of, say, Serj Tankian (of System of a Down) would be happy to discover. Nearly percussion-less, the effect is striking and poignant. Rhythmic vocalizations at the start of "Variations on the Jargon King" evoked Ruins' own drummer-vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida. Here, Mimmo Frioli has a proper introduction via the drums, entering a mostly bleak musical landscape. In its latter half, this is what it's really all about. Spacy, devilish synths clash with relentless guitar (Stefano Ferrian); the groove remains.

"Il barbiere degli occhi" is like a dark waltz. A lot of emotion is explored across its 7+ minutes, from apparent melancholy to sweet nostalgia. What's really striking about much of this album, well displayed here, is the stark instrumentation. I feel it's a sign of extreme purpose and care. It's well arranged, with a wide variety of instrumentation heard as the piece breathes, ebbing and flowing. Bold juxtaposition once more, "Con dedica" is just Milano and keys. Timpani, perhaps, appears to be there, but I have a feeling this deep pulse on occasion is merely the lowest notes from the 88s. As a piece of the whole, great track. Distorted vocals clash--sometimes with an alien waver, otherwise choppy and broken--underlaid with what sounds like pipe organ on "Senza ritorno". Its effectiveness when compared to "Con dedica" is less of note to my ears.

We seem to turn the page with a piano ballad, "La scatola". And this piano falls away, replaced by a swirl of reeds (all performed by Evaristo Casonato). Classical then meets modernity, as reverberating percussion marches in approaching minute 2. Erica Scherl has a beautiful performance on the violin here. Even the moments of sparseness are full, and full of life. Definitely pay attention as you approach minute 4. This track is one of the most striking moments on the album. "L'ultima sigaretta - Fantasmi ad Argun" is certainly maximal (and therefore a challenging listen)... Clear already, this is one of those albums, and certainly not despite its appearances (huge production, as you can see), where you will want to devote your attention to all of its nuances. What I assume to be Pt.2, "Fantasmi ad Argun" features that same level of classic Horror as the beginning of the album. Some of the most provocative moments are from female musicians, here the zither (of all instruments) performed by Paola Tagliaferro. Terrific. And Milano likewise stretches himself to the max on this'n, delving down into throat singing.

We enter a dream-like state on "Idiota - Autoritratto (Tadzio's Death)". And just like many dreams, it's simultaneously wondrous and mysterious (or maybe 'mystifying' is a better word). We then get the return of Frioli on drums with "Ho Gettato mio Figlio da una Rupe perche non Somigliava a Fabrizio Corona", effectively contrapuntal in its irregularity to the vocals. This is our first of two mini-epics, as I'd call it, this one lasting 12 minutes. This is more or less the sort of feeling that I look for from Avant-Prog. We are thrown to and fro here, from a seemingly mocking children's song to a hilariously irreverent folk tune. The latter (lasting for longer than expected) was certainly a shock, and for the better! As the folk number falls away, the song slips into what I can only describe as 'nightmare' [a very specific term used to describe a female horse you might encounter after dusk /s], achieved by a great variety of voices--some tortured and anguished, others taunting my ignorant, English-speaking ears haha--constantly overlapping one another. Feels like a false equivalence perhaps, but this maybe reminded me of maudlin of the Well(?); I feel I'm once more slightly off base.

The spook continues with "Sabbia scura", though it eases slightly in the middle with an increase in vocals. There's an interesting whipping sound, if I can try to describe it, the track otherwise being sans-percussion. On the minute-long track "Del mondo gli occhi (New Moses)", we get one of our few vocal features, Coucou Selavy, interestingly attributed in the liner notes as 'one thousand voices/theatre'. Beautiful and operatic. This acts pretty well as an introduction then to "Nyama (Gettarsi oltre)", itself introduced with some of the best vocal performances, in my opinion, and bombastic instrumentation comes in harsh attacks. This is our second so-called mini-epic at just over 10 minutes. Interestingly, perhaps, some of the 'group vocals' remind me of the specific arrangement style of one of my favorites, Native Construct. Guitar enters, reminding me of "Mood For a Day" off Yes's Fragile. Then we get some spanky sax! We get another vocal feature, but I wasn't sure who it was. Beautiful, regardless. Great duet. It sort of lost me in the second half: its sparseness [both in the song and the album as a whole], sharing in surprise(?) maximalism, often did it for me (but not so much here). "La Montagna e il Trono" certainly made it all aright to me. Vocals are great, and we get another violin performance, met with a sort of wild scurrying from the other underlying instruments. And finally we have "Out Let - Viae di (s)Phjga)". We get our final statement here from guitarist Stefano Ferrian, and a fantastic way to go out. The orchestration as well was notable. Sort of a general effect found in the work of John Zorn or Trey Spruance (the quieter moments from his Secret Chiefs 3 project came to mind).

Overall, a striking release, highly cohesive in feeling and in its quality from track to track. Can't wait for the next one. Cheers!

NichelOdeon came together from a series of compositions at the end of the Nineties by composer, singer and performer, with a group taking shape some time later with their debut album released in 2010. Another two followed in fairly quick succession but then there was an extensive gap until this was released in 2021. This album is probably best described by the cover art where we find Claudio in different positions and moods, as this album contains performances by four different musical entities, namely NichelOdeon, Not Me, InSonar and This Order, all of which have Claudio at their heart. In the small booklet he details what each group attempts to achieve, and interestingly he refers to each one of them as a project as opposed to a band, and there is definitely the feeling that this is music which has a huge visual content as opposed to just aural.

The music is progressive, eclectic, RIO, avant-garde, chaotic yet controlled and always with the understanding that it is designed to make the listener think. Some of the lyrics are in English, many in Italian, and one feels being absorbed into a musical theatre which is true art, yet there is no doubt that many people will feel this is just uncontrolled noise. This really is only for people who feel they have wide tastes in music and can open their minds to different experiences, who feel Art Zoyd and Can should be considered mainstream and not exciting or intriguing enough for their adventuring minds. There are spoken word passages, beautiful harmonies, scraped violins, and a desire to always be non-conformist while also not falling into repetition. That there are four quite different projects taking part never matters as the album works incredibly well as a whole, just that each one takes their own theme and pushes in a different direction while all starting from the base of Claudio Milano.

This is not music to be taken lightly, or to be played in the company of those with a weak disposition, and is certainly not something to be enjoyed on first time of playing, as this will take repeated listenings on headphones before one starts to get inside Claudio's mind and understand what he is trying to achieve. This will certainly not be for everyone, but for those with broad tastes this is something which needs to be give the care and attention it deserves.

An amazing release!

Some of you might have read or listened to the name of Claudio Milano, but if you haven't, let me tell you that you are truly invited to discover his music, because he is quite a talented mind, one of a kind.

Eleven years after my introduction to his music with 'Il Gioco del Silenzio", he gave light to an ambitious release which gathers four different projects in which he is involved with, and despite he is a mastermind, he couldn't have done this without the help of his fellow Italian musicians, which is why in the credits with can read over 40 names, each and every one of the adding their grain of sand and their soul in order to deliver a top-notch work.

So this is quite a journey, and if I wanted to give you a summary, I would say that this is an avant-garde album that will challenge your perception about music, however, I will give you more details.

First I would like to talk about Not Me, a project that features six tracks in the album. As long as I know, it was conceived in 2018 and has approaches life topics such as social problems in a libertarian way, so criticism is always present. What I love about Milano's music is the evident theatrical feeling they provide, and that's not an exception with Not Me, because since the opener track 'Non Esistono' we can appreciate a soprano female voice (Laura Catrani) in a really theatrical way. The music is quite interesting because is not really opera, it takes elements of classical music but it also makes some electronic noises that produce tension, that wonderfully work as a revulsive. Claudio's voice appears then in 'Con dedica' while some piano notes are played here and there, and synth produces spacey but strange atmospheres. 'Senza Ritorno' has a darker sound made mainly by organ and that quirky vocal game, where different male voices talk to us.

Before continuing, I'd like to clarify something important: the projects are intercalated in the album, so you will listen to Not Me at track one, then six, then eleven, so the experience is even more challenging and interesting, it is like a mixture of sounds but at the same time, they all are ONE big project, because somehow they are all connected.

'Sabbia scura' has a sinister sound made by organ, and the vocal experimentation is inherent, almost every track carries it, reminding me of the immense vocal work of legendary Demetrio Stratos. With 'Del Mondo gli Occhi' we enjoy once again the female soprano, with a softer sound as background. And finally they share 'Out Let - Viae di (s)Phjga' which not only finishes with Not Me's tracks, but with the album. This is an extraordinary closer, cinematic, classical avant-garde music, I would say.

The second project featured here is NichelOdeon, which was my introduction to Milano's work. It was conceived back in 2007 and it might be the most personal, intimate project of his. What the musicians share here is also theatrical, covering a wide range of musical genres and eras, and taking a rich diversity of influences and knowledge, since all of them are studied musicians. 'How Hard Tune! La canzone dei soli' is a beauty, chamber rock with a RIO sense and with the amazing addition of electronic elements. 'Il Barbiere degli Occhi' is like being reading a novel, it is so visual, I mean, strings and vocals sound but there are also some noises like a whiplash or steps, so it is easy to put some pictures in your mind. What I also love about this track is its changes in tempo and mood and how crucial the piano is, because its participation is what normally opens the gates to those changes.

'La Scatola' is also great, and it is impressive to see how they ensemble a lot of sounds and changes in only six minutes, because here we can appreciate a richness of textures and emotions provided by accordion, violins, oboe, piano, synth, stick, drums and of course, vocals (and I am probably missing something). I love how they take us from one place to another, I repeat, just like reading a novel, it is musical literature.

'L'ultima Sigaretta - Fantasmi ad Argun' is as its name suggests, a ghostly track and we can tell it by the different voices we listen here and there. It is a bit creepy, scary, but quite interesting, because when it becomes totally instrumental, the feeling completely changes, sharing a bit of light under the darkness. 'Idiota ? Autoritratto' is a shorter track, however, the theatrical and visual feeling prevails. It is a lament which has a dark and sinister essence, mainly made by piano and vocals. And the sixth and final NichelOdeon song of the album is placed at track 14th, entitled as 'La Montagna e il Trono', which might be the closest one to rock, and I am being bold with this phrase, but I said it due to the drums work (which is not present in the whole track, by the way). Amazing, wonderful project, so creative and always pushing boundaries, which to me is awesome, but I am sure to some people might be difficult to dig, to listen.

The third project is This Order, which features only two tracks in the album. However, This Order is deeply interesting and different from the previous two, since here Milano and company share gothic-driven music, taking elements from a variety of musical realms such as avant-garde, rock, prog and of course, goth. 'Variations on The Jargon King' is the first one and it is awesome, like a blend of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum with Fantomas, so the sound as you can imagine, is much louder, more explosive. I didn't know this project and with this only track, it blew me away.

'Ho Gettato mio Figlio da una Rupe perché non Somigliava a Fabrizio Corona' is the other track of this project, with the difference that it is introduced as This Order & Coucou Sèlavy. It starts with fast drums than all of a sudden stops and then voice appears. Little by little the instruments are being added, bass, guitars and drums again, creating a heavier and experimental sound which, of course, has also a theatrical feeling. This is the longest track of the album, with a length of 12 minutes, so as you can imagine, you will find a lot of changes here, in a challenging and quite creative composition that let us know, once again, the amazing compositional and executional skills of Claudio Milano and co.

And last but not least, the fourth project: InSonar, which was formed back in 2011 with the help of Venetian artist Marco Tuppo. There is only one track featured here, but it happens to be one of the longest. 'Nyama - Gettarsi Oltre' is a 10-minute trip to a diversity of textures, nuances and sounds, where elements such as sax, bassoon and even glockenspiel are featured; of course, the voice is once again a main element because it is capable of producing a lot of atmospheres and even emotions, which is why to me, Claudio Milano is really a one of a kind artist. And despite most of the tracks here are not for the common mainstream listener, I dare to invite anyone who likes music to discover what these musicians can do, because it is avant-garde music indeed, but it is also very human, emotional, memorable.

Congrats to all people involved in this outstanding record!