Giovanni Francesca / Aldo Galasso / Dario Miranda: Telegraph (2011)

GLENN ASTARITA,

Glenn Astarita

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Published: February 28, 2012

Giovanni Francesca / Aldo Galasso / Dario Miranda: Telegraph

Track review of "Mod 1"

This Italian trio imparts a cunning and personalized manifesto within the fuzzy area that borders free jazz, jazz-rock and avant-garde musings. The artists' realm of applications and concepts elicit an aura that hovers atop many theme-building episodes, prudently morphing various perspectives into loosely organized structural facets. These components serve as a baseline for both the intricately stylized or hard-hitting parts.

The musicians mix it up via a jam band orientation or generate semistructured motifs amid live electronics implementations and guitarist Giovanni Francesca's rocketing and, at times, heavily distorted lines. Uncannily melding a doomsday approach into a listener-friendly vibe, the musicians tone it down, however, on "Mod 1," where they integrate darkly ethereal treatments with contemplative sound-sculpting mechanisms, adorned by the guitarist's ambient volume control techniques.

The trio operates across a forbidden zone, abetted by drummer Aldo Galasso's periodic accents and metronome-like undercurrent. Otherwise, they slowly raise the pitch with sprawling choruses, unexpectedly intertwining an easygoing country-blues groove during the bridge, tinted with Francesca's delicate inflections. A slice of Americana ends the piece and instills one of many unanticipated niceties spotted throughout a first-rate product that offers more than the norm, especially when considering the breadth of guitar trio fabrications of this nature.

Track Listing: Francesca/Galasso/Miranda

Personnel: Giovanni Francesca: guitar, live electronics; Aldo Galasso: drums, percussion; Dario Miranda: bass, electric bass, shruti box, kalimba, live electronics.

Record Label: Leo Records