Mark O'Leary Nuova Musica Elettronica review Tobias

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Review: Mark O'Leary – Nuova Musica Elettronica (TIBProd. Italy, 2017) By Quentin Tobias In the shadowed alcoves of experimental electronics, where the ghosts of mid-century Italian studios still linger amid tape hiss and transistor glow, Mark O'Leary’s Nuova Musica Elettronica arrives as a quiet yet resolute invocation. Released on September 23, 2017, via the discerning TIBProd. Italy imprint, this seven-part suite stands as one of O'Leary’s most focused forays into pure electronic terrain—an Irish expatriate’s homage to the luminous, labyrinthine legacy of Luciano Berio, Franco Evangelisti, and the RAI Fonologia era, yet filtered through a distinctly personal, almost melancholic lens. The structure is austere: seven untitled movements (Nuova Musica Elettronica I through VII), each hovering between 4 and 9 minutes, totaling nearly an hour of unbroken sonic inquiry. Recorded at Neu Hub Studio in San Benedetto Del Tronto, the album credits O'Leary solely for the music, with Daniele Santini handling executive production and the austere, evocative artwork. No guests, no concessions—just voice, piano, electronics, and the subtle alchemy of manipulation. O'Leary describes the work as “pastiches” of experimental contemporary electronics: a deliberate collage of influences that never devolves into pastiche for its own sake. The opening movement unfurls with crystalline piano gestures—iridescent, almost classical in their poise—set against a backdrop of shimmering synth pads and fragmented vocal apparitions. These are not mere samples; they feel like excavated memories, processed until they hover between intelligibility and abstraction, evoking the discursive ruminations of vintage radio broadcasts or half-remembered opera transmissions from 1972 Italia. What elevates the album beyond tribute is its refusal of obfuscation. O'Leary’s touch is direct: minimalist motifs repeat and mutate with patient insistence, electronic flourishes arrive capriciously yet never gratuitously, and the occasional eldritch confluence—those moments where voice and synthesis entwine into something faintly unsettling—serves to deepen rather than disrupt the narrative arc. Track V, the briefest at just over four minutes, functions as a perfect interlude of restraint: sparse piano tones drift through a haze of processed static, allowing the listener to breathe before the longer, more expansive pieces resume their hypnotic pull. The closing VII synthesizes everything: swirling electronics, elegant piano lines, and those nostalgic patinas of Italian pop culture (think fragmented broadcasts, retro images crystallized into “aesthetic algorithms”) coalesce into a transfixing resolution. It is ambient in the truest sense—demanding immersion rather than mere accompaniment—yet it carries an experimental rigor that aligns it more closely with the post-war avant-garde than with contemporary chill-out aesthetics. For devotees of Berio’s Visage or Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), the early works of Alva Noto, or even the more contemplative side of Fennesz, Nuova Musica Elettronica offers rich kinship without imitation. O'Leary, already a veteran of post-jazz, ambient landscapes, and collaborative explorations, here distills his multifaceted practice into something singular: a compelling experimental ambient narrative that bridges decades and geographies with unerring poise. In an age of fleeting digital ephemera, this is music that rewards the slow listen—layers revealing themselves over time, like old tapes rediscovered in a dusty archive. A panegyric indeed, but one spoken in its creator’s own unmistakable voice. Rating: ★★★★¾ (out of 5) A masterful, understated homage that transmutes nostalgia into forward-looking intrigue. Essential for those who treasure the intersections of contemporary classical electronics and ambient introspection.

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