Esma - The Lost Atoms
by Maarten Schiethart
published: 18 / 3 / 2012
Label:
La Cantina Appena Sotto La Vita
Format: CD
intro
Stunning combination of post-rock, minimalism, field and urban recordings, drone rock and electronica on twenty third album and first CD release from Esma, the project of Italian musician and composer Eugenio Squarcia
On 'The Lost Atoms' Esma's many faceted modern composing excels in brevity. Esma's album is his 23rd digital release since the year 2000 and the very first I have warmed my ears to. Born in 1984, Eugenio Squarcia now releases his first CD. His label La Cantina Appena Sotto La Vita, who are also from Italy, have just released three CDs. Two from Margaret Lee contain ballet music, and now there is this elegant collection of contemporary composing from Esma. It is a pot-pourri that includes post-rock, graceful minimal music, field and urban recordings, some drone, and imaginative electronica intertwined with calming interludes, all of which make this a stunningly mature debut. The seventeen minute long centre piece 'No Place For Love and Dream At All' portrays Eugenio Squarcia as both the conductor, and also a member, of a small symphonic orchestra. 'The Shell' is the second of three epic and long pieces on this 13-track CD. Now sounding like a tiny philharmonic with an electronica player also on board, Esma performs an almost Caribbean sounding mini-symphony where the xylophone and a piano exchange the lead. The 'Approaching of The Pneumatic Void'', and the third audio saga of 'The Lost Atoms' / 'The Last Atoms', combine and conclude with a top tiptoe exercise on the keys of the piano. The album makes for a baffling experience. If, like me, you were unacquainted with Esma's previous 22 digital releases, you will enjoy how on 'The Lost Atoms' the music comes together, sounding like an eruption in melody. Esma epitomizes so many styles of modern music that this is, however, just one fine highlight of its sound.
Track Listing:-
1 Autarky of the water2 Where light is dim
3 The white road
4 Somewhere 6AM
5 To a child dancing in the wind
6 No place for love and dream at all
7 Edge of reason and the age of prudence
8 Xibalba (the Central Atom)
9 The shell
10 Two swans came flying up to him
11 Like a storm in a bathtub
12 A window on J's heart
13 Approaching of the pneumatic void
Band Links:-
https://esma.bandcamp.com/https://twitter.com/studioesma
https://www.facebook.com/eugenelucienmoreau/
https://www.youtube.com/user/studioesma
http://www.studioesma.com/home.html
Label Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/lacantina.it/soundcloud
reviews |
Energomash (2013) |
Minimal and contemplative twenty-fifth album from Esma, the moniker for Italian composer Eugenio Squarcia |
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