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5/22/2013

Ongaku2 - Short Stories (2013)




9.3

/Improvised music, Glitch, Art pop, Post-psychedelic electronica, Acousmatics, Sampledelic, Electro-acoustic, Chamber music, Abstract, Dark ambient, Psycho-acoustic, Neoclassical, Experimentalism, Avant-garde/ 

Comment: La bèl is a record label which is being known to have been releasing the issues of musicians related to the island of Sardinia (with some exceptions as common- the albums of Plusplus, the collaborative issue Cuatro Covers of F.S. Blumm and Lucrecia Dalt). Ongaku2 is the duo of Elia Casu (prepared guitars, electronics) and Paolo Sanna (drums/percussions, artifacts) who provide a batch of 12 tracks, any of them will be finished off exactly at 2.30. Stylistically the whole sways and flutters somewhere in between art-y guitar fingerpicked outlets and galvanized riffs (of course, the listener can unmistakably recognize the distinctive, metallic timbres of prepared guitars) and more frightening electro-acoustic ambiance tightly wrapped up around it. Furthermore, Elia Casu generates lofty but barely audible ambient whiffs in the meantime thereby giving the album a little bit horrible, ticklingly ghastly touch. Maybe the most moment emerges out from within the eighth snippet Osaka which depicts the presence of tuning the radio waves (with some amusing, ancient melodies) blended with sublime glockenspiel-alike chord progressions. The ending composition is a fragmented one of different particles of spoken word, hand clapping, exotic singing and solemn chords of a cathedral organ. All in all, the result is intricate and interesting.