Argonauta 2014
Awaking the sleeper, Italian drone masters look inside their psyche.
Usually, meditative leanings don’t rub shoulders too comfortably with rock but there are exceptions where philosophy goes electric, and with their second offering this trio boldly reach for the same heights as JADE WARRIOR’s "Kites" did, albeit it’s an inward flight here. With focus on kundalini and the titular breathing technique, the trio fill the triplet of epic compositions with a floating spectrum of moody atmospheres that perpetually and gradually grow in tension and thicken; even the opening lick in the strum of “Kamakhya” creates a luring soundscape. Yet when Anna Airoldi’s sitar crawls underneath Riccardo Fassone’s guitars, a magical mirage comes into play, as Marco Castagnetto’s electronic textures make the air jitter – and fritter away into the fragments of folk and baroque until the tentative clang unfurls into a full-blown metal riff which shatters the Earth – while “619-626 Hz” rises from the throat-shaking mantras to hit dystopian lows.
It expands into a quiet, if anxious, drone – wrapped around the foreboding strum and pierced with the shaking percussion – that gets so close to edge of sanity as to almost fall apart: a perfect reflection of one’s mental turmoil abetted with indistinct voices. But “Aurora Consurgens” drifts on the beams of light, as raga gets sprinkled with piano chords and synthesizers’ modulations and jubilant chants touch the melodic surface before the resonating strings bring the reverie to a close. That’s where the dormant energy springs out to life once the silence take the reins. Breath in now.
****3/4