MAURIZIO BIANCHI &
SPARKLE IN GREY

"Nefelodhis"

Cold Current Prod. / Musica di un Certo Livello - 2007

CD

The incredibly prolific Maurizio Bianchi is back with another brick in the huge wall of his discography, once again in collaboration with another artist of the Italian underground. For "Nefelodhis", the companions of the noise grandmaster are Sparkle In Grey, a very interesting experimental post-rock band from Milan. Their joint forces create a mesmerizing and intriguing journey through distant and almost ethereal sceneries, quite far from the recent return of MB to his classic devastating sonic assaults. The CD's cover, with creamy clouds on a blue/grey sky, perfectly matches with the meditative feeling of the music, set on a background of electronic and concrete sounds provided by Maurizio and melted with the instrumental pieces played by Sparkle In Grey, who handle effected guitar, bass, violin, harmonica and improvised piano. The result is a very interesting blend of minimal post-rock and hypnotic drone/ambient music.

Obviously, "Nefelodhis" can't miss in a any MB collection, since it's one of the best accomplished and most interesting releases in the Italian industrial prime mover's second artistic life, but it will also appeal to a wider audience of experimentalists, post-rockers, drone addicted and unconventional music lovers. Sparkle In Grey, on their side, proved to be a well-worth listening too, intriguing enough and far from the consolidated stereotypes of their genre.

- Simon V.

Website: http://mcl.altervista.org