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Aix (vinyl LP)

Giuseppe Ielasi - Aix (vinyl LP)
A timeless collection of 9 evocative minimalist soundscapes, available on vinyl again (remastered by Giuseppe Ielasi) after 10 years.
“Aix” is an outstanding piece of work by Italian electro-acoustic savant Giuseppe Ielasi, originally released in 2009 on Taylor Deupree's 12k label, the follow-up to 2007's “August” (12k) and Ielasi's first collaboration with Nicola Ratti as “Bellows”, also out in 2007 (Kning Disk). Originally only released on CD (12k), the album got a very limited vinyl issue on Czech label Minority Records in 2010. Keplar presents this extraordinary and timeless collection of 9 evocative minimalist soundscapes on vinyl again after 10 years.
With “Aix” we see Ielasi building his layered, atmospheric music around rhythmic grids. Most of the time these are quite irregular and the pulses are not neccessarily stable or clear. Where his previous work approached sound in a linear fashion “Aix” imposes a strong vertical development with the aforementioned grid and a production consisting of ons and offs, employing as much improvisation as Ielasi's previous work, but in a different way.
Despite the self-imposed grid structure, Aix relies heavily on randomization. Not in the traditional sense of sound placement but instead of the spatialization of sounds, echoes, reverbs and the stereo image. As a result, Aix has an amazing sense and clarity of space as the small fragments of sound breathe and find their own place in the mix, thanks to Ielasi's sublime skills as a mixer and engineer.
Ielasi relied heavily on numerous short samples and combining them in ways that fell into his groove; some found from others' recordings and many more recorded in 2008. We hear fragments of percussive (acoustic) objects, drums, piano, trumpet, guitar, and, of course, synthetic textures. Although there is a distinct rhythmic pulse to “Aix”, Ielasi manages to mold it into something wonderfully languid and warm... and strangely inviting.
Giuseppe Ielasi (born in 1974, lives near Milan since 1990) started playing guitar in 1988, and worked for many years in the area of “improvised music” (long term collaborations with Renato Rinaldi in the duo Oreledigneur, Thomas Ankersmit, Michel Doneda, Ingar Zach, Dean Roberts).
Between 1997 and 2006 he has performed live with Taku Sugimoto, Jérôme Noetinger, Mark Wastell, Martin Siewert, Nmperign, Brandon Labelle, Nikos Veliotis, Alessandro Bosetti, Gert-Jan Prins, Phill Niblock, Oren Ambarchi, and many others.
From 2007 on, his main interest has been in site-specific solo performances, still using guitars as primary sound sources but integrating microphones and multi-channel speaker systems in order to create complex networks for sound diffusion in relationship to space.
He recently started a collaboration with Austrian video artist Michaela Grill (US tour in 2007, participations at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Evolution Festival in Leed, FilmSoundFilm in Marfa,TX) and is more and more involved in performances and installations with Renato Rinaldi and Armin Linke (ZKM Karlsruhe, Villa Romana Florence, Kunsthalle Berlin, Festival della Scienza Genova).
In 1998 he founded the “Fringes recordings” label, closed in 2005, and co-founded “Schoolmap Records” in 2006.

See also Bellows (Giuseppe Ielasi & Nicola Ratti).
Composed and recorded by Giuseppe Ielasi in Aix-en-Provence, Autumn 2008.
Remaster by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Cover photograph by Taylor Deupree.
Layout by Dan Dudarec/Marco Ciceri.
 
published in June 2020
 
20.00
 
in stock
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