BONO/BURATTINI – Ora Sono Un Lago – LP – Vinyl [MAR 6]

LP – Standard Edition Black Vinyl.

Like the emerald merkiness emerging from the cover photograph, Bono / Burattinis new album Ora Sono Un Lago transcends elements, a tenacious and brooding collection of work that testifies the duos growth and ghostly ability to immerse kosmische landscapes, stripped electronica and oscillatory psychedelia and emerge with songs meticulously constructed, dense and unforgiving, full of richly assembled textures and echoed out other-worldly choirs. Some might call it confessional mysticism.

Ora Sono Un Lago was recorded and produced impeccably by Grammy Award winning engineer Francesco Donadello (Hildur Gudnadottir, Johann Johannsson, Modeselektor & Thom Yorke, David Sylvian, Ben Frost, Nils Frahm) giving Francesca Bono (vocalist, performer, founder of Ofeliadorme and member of the Donnacirco collective) and Vittoria Burattini (percussionist, multi-faceted drummer and member of influential Italian avant-rock band Massimo Volume) the freedom to truly explore different compositional directions after their acclaimed debut Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato.

The palette is wide, from the standout title-track, where scintillating complex sequences leave space to a spellbinding synth, to the menacing Prove desistenza/Il gesto lead by its funked-out robocop drums or its evil twin Acrobata, all hovering choppers and Carpenter existentialism. Pastoral minimalism and spiritual elegance take over on Fragili danze, a mesmerising dance that mixes the emotional engagement found in Laurie Spiegels compositions and that constant search for human fabric. This is an element that is widely explored on the masterful album closing sequence of Oltre le palpebre and Lonely blue star where acoustic instrumentation pinpoints Bono / Burattinis silky stratifications creating a sense of three-dimensional space and gentle propulsion.

A mysterious mix that touches on the obscure rumblings of early UK post-rock greats Bark Psychosis/Disco Inferno while keeping a hand deep in the pockets of Italian archival folklore and 70s tradition. Songs like Come Un Riflesso are a good reminder that the duos rhythmical complexion definitely takes nods from Liebezeits playbook but are set on the duos own pace, a lone voyager on a hallucinatory trip. Ora sono un lago is an album of staggering depth, a pointillist manifesto of contemporary futurism and hand-cranked emotionalism inspired by the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Patrizia Cavalli, where hypothesis and suspension become Bono / Burattinis brushes for their distinctive blend of intimacy and reckoning. Burattini crafts tense, hollow drum patterns that she pairs with Bonos alien melodies, komische-influenced soundscapes and sparse, choral-esque vocals that ebb and flow throughout the LP. – Ransom Note

“Italian library music meets Ghost Box meets Morricone ripples and pulses in the synth-laden sound world of Italian duo Francesca Bono and Vittoria Burattini” The Wire.

Tracklist:

1. Ora sono un lago
2. Prove desistenza / Il gesto
3. Nuda vela
4. Come un riflesso
5. Acrobata
6. Tra le labbra
7. Fragili danze
8. Volo dellAngelo
9. Oltre le palpebre
10. Lonely blue star