QUIGYAT (WITH BORDA)

3.5 stars. "Quigyat" is NICHELODEON's first production with electronic artist Teo Ravelli, who also adds drums. According to Inuit folklore the Northern lights were the spirits of children who died a violent death or died on their birthday. I live in central Ontario and am far enough north that I have seen these lights many times but it seems like a long, long time since I've witnessed them. There was to be quite the show of these lights about a month ago but we happened to have cloud cover making that advertised event a bust.

This record was taken from an event called A.N.F.O.R.E. which stands for "a new form of European recital". The voices on here were recorded from that live event and added to the studio compositions. This is surprisingly stripped down with us often just hearing bass, piano and Claudio's voice with electronics creating atmosphere. Considering the subject matter I am not surprised at how dark this can be and especially sad. They do go into the difficult side of our music but this record is less that than any of the previous NICHELODEON cds I own, in fact even Milano's vocals sound strangely normal at times. Still, this is not for the faint of heart believe me.

I think that second song "Requiem In Defense Of Children's Rights" is like a mini version of the album in the sense that everything I have described about this record is here. A great track to sample to see how you feel about this album. We get five tracks worth about 39 minutes and some of the instrumental sections were taken from previous NICHELODEON tracks. That closer might be my favourite, haunting and I like that there's drums and how about that powerful section just before 6 minutes. So good!

I applaud Claudio and this band for doing something a little different here although it seems Milano is always searching for something new and different to unveil to the world. I'll admit that their music doesn't always work for me, with me giving half of their records less than 4 stars over the years, but then there is always this guarantee with his music that new paths will be forged and that is exciting and welcomed whether I think it works or not according to my musical tastes.