TUTTO IL TEMPO DEL MONDO - 1.ÒIKOS

Obviously 2020 has been a challenging year, and historically, it should be reminded that it was the first time since Armstrong set his foot on the Moon (and even then, there were a few areas still in the realm of the unknown) that the entire globe was affected by the same thing, at the same time.! While it has created a fair amount of trepidation, anxiety, and outright dread, I am glad to report that we now have proof that the human species (while still plagued by many ills) have not conducted themselves like lemmings and collectively jumped off a cliff (except maybe politically, LOL). Being an amateur historian, I cannot help remembering my interviews with Londoners who survived the Blitz and extrapolated these words today:" We live under perpetual fear of death (bombardment) every day, every hour and every second for years, we can and did overcome". So, it is for the pandemic, for most of us found a way to cope, in conditions still way more comfortable today than in 1941. In relation to music, and for ever more, all productions recorded from April 2020 and ongoing, were under this bunker-mentality umbrella, a fact that warrants at the very least our admiration. Music has always been the panacea that keeps humanity sane.

As Andrea explains: "As you can hear, it is completely different in terms of sound, due to the conditions in which it was born: the April / March lockdown. We never met during the composition, it was recorded separately in our houses, often using objects adapted for the purpose! (especially the rhythm part: electronic drums were NOT used; everything is played by hand). The project was born spontaneously, without premeditation and almost for fun ... and in the end our most experimental work came out".

While "4 "was a smashingly modern instrumental prog album, you can immediately "feel' the difference here, I can give the analogy between Talk Talk's Colour of Spring and then subsequent leap forward on Spirit of Eden: an existential shift away from the comfortable and the immediate. Metronhomme sought to include voices, screams and vocals but more as effects than, say actual 'songs. I managed to catch on from the get-go, the material on this EP is more ephemeral, more spiritual, more confused and confusing than anything before. It is also a musical window on a specific place and time, where entitled freedom is tossed out with the dishwater! I mean titles like "Quarantine" and "Supermarket" clearly sheds light on the austerity of the crisis and the sounds, effects match the angst. Some will not necessarily like this starker minimalist approach, yet it's the product of our current reality, which is why this is an EP, something I am rarely fond of because I get teased into believe something substantial will come about before it suddenly ends with an unsatisfied appetite. The future will better reveal what we have lived through, especially if we do all return to "normal". "Tutto il Tempo del Mondo" (All the time in the world) is an appropriate title for a glimpse into a moment in time when, collectively and individually, we are somewhat brutally reminded what is important in our existence. I for one, miss visiting my numerous Italian friends and musicians. One fine day, soon!

This is one of the exceedingly rare times that a rating is not really a rational exercise. But those are the rules, so do not attach too much importance to the numbers but instead to the words.

4 patient patients