Published by Davide Pappalardo on September 11, 2018
Our readers already know about Psycho Kinder, the project of Italian musician Alessandro Camilletti, characterized by minimal new wave sounds and a punk attitude driven by social and existential theme expressed via spoken words. We reviewed his remix album ExTension, in which artists from the underground scene reworked tracks coming from his past works, like Democratiche Ipocrisie (self-released, 2012), Il Tramonto Dell’Evidente (Fonetica Meccanica, 2014) and The Psycho Kinder Tapes (Alienated Records, 2016).
Now he returns with Diario Ermetico, his new work for his own imprint Fonetica Meccanica. Here he collaborates with Italian experimental artist, and piano player, Federico De Caroli aka Deca, and with the poet Luca Ormelli on the fourth track of this sound-diary. With this album the author explores personal themes, even through the use of literary references, offering an experience going well beyond the boundaries of genres and market logic. Inward music, but with a selfless soul, conceived for an intimate journey in which any listener will find a part of himself. The cover art is a work by Francesco Pirro, who already worked on the one for ExTension, while Michele Caserta is another familiar collaborator., once again the producer of Camilletti’s output. Each track is simply called Diario (diary), as a part of a coherent flux moving through the album.
Starting with the spiraling ambiances of Diario1 we move among dramatic atmospheres and solemn spoken words, soon discovering the beautiful piano melodies of Diario2, soundscape for the enigmatic but poetic lyrics by Camilletti, once again mixing personal emotions and social commentaries about our daily life. Diario3 returns to ambient music, using droning layers of chaos while the author describes his inner turmoils, and the aforementioned Diario4 gives a sombre musical background for the words of Ormelli, delaying existential problems and reflections about life and death, surrounded by melancholic piano sounds and eerie effects. Diario5 employs drum sounds and grim baritones, opening itself up to militant marches which follow Camilletti declamations and evocative synths.
Diario6 sees the return of Deca’s piano, conceiving a minimal setting for Camilletti words full of grief and sadness, a very brief episode followed by Diario7 and its dark ambient tones slowing turning into an epic passage, in which Camilletti free himself of inner turmoils thanks to mysterious lyrics. Diario8 is an experimental track built on dissonances and eerie ambiances, evoking a sense of distance and personal introspection, while Diario9 uses more abrasive effects playing with distortions and obsessive loops, generating a non-track which makes us think of something that couldn’t be expressed by words. Diario10 sees shrilling effects and drowning mantras in an alarming crescendo full of controlled tension end oniric atmospheres with ritualistic qualities, an apt soundtrack for Camilletti’s apocalyptic words about the end of days. Diario11 follows suit with sampled vocals taken from Tarkovskij‘s Solaris, a reading of Ezra Pound by Pasolini, El Topo by Jorodowsky, and Bergman‘s Smultronstället, an artistic view of electronic music enhancing the suggestions and the power of words by the means of hypnotizing layers.
The final track Diario12 dwells in antagonistic minimal synth-soundscapes picturing a desolate world in which Camilletti, surprisingly, attacks the concept of word itself , a self-conscious final consideration about the nature of communication and the impossibility to really express oneself through words.
A work going well beyond the concept of disposable music, a stream of consciousness in which short tracks, or suits, showcase an inner word made of personal thoughts expressed through poetry, declarations, and crawling monologues. The most personal work by Camilletti to date, it moves away from the wave and guitar-driven sounds of the past, choosing a way more experimental approach, focusing on inward musical worlds where the minimal lyrics give us innuendos and references to Camilletti’s life and mind, without becoming too personal: everyone can find himself in the album. Another step in the evolution of one of the most interesting projects in the Italian underground, following no rules or genre, but a personal muse.
Label: Fonetica Meccanica
Rating: 7,5