Claudio Scolari: Reflex (2005)

Franz A. Matzner

Columnist since 2002

Franz Matzner has contributed interviews and coverage from the Kennedy Center since 2002.

Recent articles (178 total)

Published: March 13, 2005

Using only voice, percussion, and synthesizers, Italian composer/percussionist Claudia Scolari blends ambient, darkwave, and world music textures to create an album of dramatic musical landscapes.

Heavily minimalist and more organic than most ambient electronica, this music will tip those familiar with O Yuki Conjugate, Main, A Small Good Thing, and other similarly texture-oriented bands to the roots of Scolari's experimentation. Those unfamiliar with this heritage will be stepping into foreign realms far removed from mainstream—and even most avant-garde—jazz.

This doesn't mean jazz aficionados should shy away from this artist. Quite the contrary. Scolari's work is intricately composed, highly original, and distinctly personal—all qualities that mark steps forward in musical innovation.

On this collection, more a complete experience than a set of individual pieces, let alone "tunes," Scolari employs a diverse array of percussive tools from around the world to establish expanses of sound that depict physical environments, moods, abstract concepts, periods of time, and distinct physical attributes.

Alternately vast, particular, cinematic, contemplative, embracing, removed, warm, and icily ethereal, Scolari's Reflex fully embraces the compositional potential of percussive sound and demands precise listening.

Visit Claudio Scolari on the web.

Track Listing: 1. In the clouds 2. Everywhere 3. From dawn to dusk 4. Glacier 5. Lille 6. Deep Blue 7. Mildness 8. A mountain pass 9. Noise in the dark 10. To love Mirca 11. Reflex 12. The shades of night 13. Vera 14. Tristezza 15. Tetralogy 16. Landskap jazz

Personnel: Claudio Scolari: Drums, Percussion, Voice, Synth
Guests: Martina Gianotti: Voice, Sandro Animini: Pianoforte

Record Label: Principal Records
Style: Ambient