“You had a rough day? This is the perfect way to reach this level of calm needed”
1 The Inner Sea (Silver Sea) 5:29
2 Dreaming Tree 9:05
3 Crepuscular Birds 10:24
4 La Grotta Delle Naiadi 11:39
5 Numinous Veins 9:11
6 Across a Splendid Vista 8:03
7 Revenir 4:28
(CD/DDL 58:34) (V.F.)
(Ambient)
The first time my ears embraced the fascinating world of Alio Die was with Deconsecrated And Pure in 2012. The adventure had left me neither fish nor fowl with those contemplative musical structures where the music was created from winds and drones from which old tones have lifted dust of rattlesnakes and other percussions with stone tones. Except that AMIDST the CIRCLING SPIRES brings us to another level. A very meditative level where the wonderful elven voice of Sylvi Alli embellishes the harsh breaths of drones and those gloomy ambiences of a universe molded on artifacts of a more acoustic EM. The union of the two contrasts then becomes all the charm of this last album of the Italian painter soundscapes.
And the universe of Alio Die is always ambient, always drifting to the limits of a contemplative The drones that rise up at the introduction of The Inner Sea (Silver Sea) take a tint as much translucent as the delicate breezes of synths and of their breaths which make sing some twinkling particles. One would believe to hear lamentations of the solar gods on a sonic pattern which reminds me of some Buddhist prayers while that, so mysterious, the voice of Sylvi Alli blows a suave poetry which is murmured by the breezes of her voice. The fusion of the synths to her voice offers a rather moving sonic show which adds a veil of serenity to some very esoteric titles such as Dreaming Tree and its ballet of percussions which sound like an old musical box or still the very peaceful Numinous Veins and its symphony of hollow breaths. Her voice, which is as much mesmerizing as that of Alquimia, is also very celestial on Crepuscular Birds which presents a slow structure quite as meditative but where the long and sinuous drone lamentations add a dramatic dimension to a sound panorama decorated by tinkling sounds. We commune with ourselves and we doze off on La Grotta Delle Naiadi which plunges us literally into the gaps of a grotto where, isolated, the listener is captive of his thoughts. The atmospheres of the contemplative prayers are dense and to cut with a knife in this soundscape pattern where the water oozes among thick clouds of synth layers of which the hollow breaths let filter a bright ray of voice. Less dark, Across a Splendid Vista is just as much intrusive with its slender synth lines where sing flutes and drones as much musical than immersive. At this stage, we sleep! But we have to persist and to hang on to our meditative thoughts in order to listen to the very beautiful and delicate Revenir. The morphic voice of Sylvi Alli is simply heavenly. Together with the delicate jerked synth pads, she floats to let slide her pensive prayers in the deep of our ears. And we hear these muted pulsations beat, like in Across a Splendid Vista, like a circadian poetry so that to put us in mode dream and better guide us towards sleep.
Life is stressful? We have the impression that the whole world wants our skin and even our bones? Well I would tell you that AMIDST the CIRCLING SPIRES is the ideal remedy to calm this soft temporary paranoia. This subtle battle between the opalescent voice of Sylvi Alli and the hoarse, sibylline breaths of synths and drones of Alio Die is the heart of an unreal beauty where everything inhales tranquillity and even in the moments more disturbing like in La Grotta Delle Naiadi.
Sylvain Lupari (February 25th, 2014)
Available on Projekt Records Bandcamp