ReviewsVital Weekly

There are many forms of ambient music, from extreme drones to ambient house, from metal to new age. Here at Vital Weekly, we write it all, and yet some variations are not present a lot. Such is the case with variations as played by Michael Peters and Fabio Anile. I am not sure if I heard of either of them before, and perhaps I am too lazy to found out. Peters is a guitarist from Germany who played in punk bands, avant-garde jazz/rock band, "open improvisational groups" and ambient.

He uses electronics, software and live-looping techniques, which includes the classic Frippertronics variation. Anile plays piano is classically trained and he uses electronics. They have been playing for some time together as these recordings were made during "several recordings sessions in Rome between 2010 and 2019". All music was improvised, except for field recordings which have been overdubbed. To start with that: I didn't hear many of those, so I am guessing they are there but they don't take up much space (only in 'Hovering' there is some sound of water and doors).

The thirteen pieces on this CD are not very long, ranging from one minute to seven minutes. That makes all of this perhaps a bit sketch-like in approach. When you think you are into something a piece, it is also gone, such as 'In The Distance'. That is a pity; it seems like they are an extract of a much longer piece, which we are not allowed to hear. With music like this, I think it needs some space to explore the sounds used; even if these sounds are only sparse, as in 'Frozen'. Some glacial-like drones swirling slowly in and out of the mix and with some time before a very sparse piano note drops in.

It is here where the music owes quite a bit to the work of a certain mister Brian Eno, who from time to time also had albums with such shortish pieces and with the piano it is not difficult to think of his work with Harold Budd. I have no idea what kind of software they use (perhaps the one that this label also produces? I wrote about that before; see Vital Weekly 1205) and if this software is a live treatment of the instruments they play. There is a pleasant variety in these pieces here, which makes it all the most enjoyable. The music is never really dark, which is a rarity among ambient
music it seems, without being very new age; here, another Eno rule is observed; the music can be both enjoyed as well as ignored like all good ambient music should be. I wouldn't have minded if some of the shorter pieces were a bit longer and then we have fewer pieces here, but it would not make a difference for the variety of ambient interests on offer. Sometimes piano and guitar are easily recognized, and sometimes not at all. It is the two parameters between which all of these pieces seem to move. This is music for a lovely Sunday afternoon, at home with a book. (FdW)

Merchants of Air

When creating a minimalist album everything has to surrender the approach you take for such an album cannot simply “be made” - it needs a framework in order to make sense of itself. It is nothing you can simply do, right? Hell, no! Sometimes minimalist recordings can be created out of nothing, but only if the people involved know what they do and how they need to do it. Simpletons cannot create minimalist music for improvising such an abstract version of music needs a lot of skill, knowledge, craftsmanship and experience. 

Fabio Anile and Michael Peters, two very experienced musicians with more than 50 years of making music shared between them, are such connoisseurs and aptly skilled instrumentalists stemming from very different backgrounds. While Fabio was trained in composing and performing classical music, Michael comes from the rather avant-garde corner of punk and direct interaction. Both artists share a sense of closeness when performing together, which they did over a longer period of time. The recording of “Presence” took eight years, probably because they did not follow a pattern but improvised everything together which, of course, is pretty difficult considering you must really get a feel for where your partner “is heading” with this one sound and this one idea. 

When you combine that with an immense feeling for beauty, for just the right amount of using the elements of Peters’ guitar (looped through some effects and such, sometimes even certain software) or the right pressure on Anile’s keys (also incorporating field recordings of natural sounds) in order to make it sound like a perfect soundtrack to a day off in the dark, newly erect skyscraper before it’s being furnished or amidst the rain in a dense, moss-covered wood with the first rays of sunlight just stretching through the clouds and touching you while simultaneously the last drops splash heavily onto your shoulders and neck.

This is a really, really beautiful ambient album made by two musicians who know themselves, their instrument and each other so well that the product inevitably had to be either a forerunner for next year’s album of the year among post-rock and ambient fans or a late dark horse for this year’s lists full of such sounds and spaces.

EtherREAL

Pour terminer l’année dans une belle douceur cotonneuse, à l’image de la pochette et de ses quelques traits de couleur venant parcourir verticalement un fond écru, Audiobulb nous offre une rencontre entre deux musiciens actifs de longue date et amateurs d’improvisation. Réunis à plusieurs reprises depuis une dizaine d’années, Michael Peters et Fabio Anile ont enregistré ces treize morceaux au fil de leurs retrouvailles, à Rome, attendant, donc, d’avoir quelque chose de véritablement consistant pour livrer un album complet. Tandis que le premier opère à la guitare électrique, le second se charge des claviers, pour des digressions ambient assez minimales, jouant sur l’étirement des sons et leur caractère divagant.

Sur la cinquantaine de minutes du long-format, ce sont donc des notes espacées qui agissent principalement, dans un climat épuré, propre à la rêverie. Par endroits, des bribes mélodiques peuvent se faire plus saillantes, lorsque la guitare de Michael Peters se dégage pleinement (le morceau-titre), ou bien, plus loin, ce sont quelques petits souffles, façon grésillements discrets, qui renforcent l’aspect éventuellement onirique des compositions du duo (Microcosmo ).

Ailleurs dans le spectre fictionnel que l’auditeur peut se faire à l’écoute de l’album, Fabio Anile instille des samples plus mécaniques (bruits métalliques, grincements du bois) (Hovering) ou, dans un registre beaucoup plus ouaté, des tessitures très enrobées de ses notes de clavier (Impalpable, I’m My Quiet Place). C’est d’ailleurs possiblement dans cette veine que le duo germano-italien livre ses plus intéressantes compositions, avec cette impression que les notes sont étouffées à peine jouées. Pour terminer l’album, ce sont des cordes samplées qui interviennent de manière plus saccadée, ouvrant la voie vers d’autres rivages (Last Train Home).

So What

L’istante colto nella sua fugace pienezza, privo di orpelli e sovrastrutture che possano scalfirne la cristallina essenza. Si affidano all’esserci, all’estemporaneo navigare all’unisono  Michael Peters e Fabio Anile per dare concretezza al loro condiviso immaginario sonico fatto di frequenze e riverberi liberi di fluttuare per disegnare contemplativi territori sensoriali.

Generati da un reiterato processo di improvvisazione a cui a tratti si sovrappongono flebili echi ambientali, i paesaggi risonanti plasmati si sviluppano quali vaporose istantanee in graduale definizione che combinano essenziali fraseggi di tastiere e chitarre con sinuose modulazioni sintetiche fissandosi in fluide visioni pervase da una luminosità calda e morbida, solamente a tratti velati da un senso di latente inquietudine che appare sotto forma di ruvida grana tendente al rumore.

Tutto suona immediato e confortante, accogliente come un rinfrancante sogno lucido nel quale immergersi per sfuggire alle ansie di una quotidianità frenetica e opprimente, flusso avvolgente di evanescenti trame che strutturano un ambiente sospeso privo di connotazioni spazio-temporali.

È un incedere lieve, che concede il giusto respiro ad ogni singola stilla, consentendole di sprigionare interamente il suo portato evocativo estratto da un quieto vibrare con un presente effimero che immediato si tramuta in preziosa memoria.

Spontanee cronache di attimi di preziosa calma interiore.