28/06/2014

GRUPPO DI IMPROVVISAZIONE NUOVA CONSONANZA


Gruppo Di Improvvisazione was Ennio Morricone's jazz/avant-garde/classical group throughout the 60s and early 70s. The group's style changed in the early 70s from Stockhausen-esque possessive soundscapes to dry drum breaks with screaching trumpets and guitars. "The feed-back" is considered highly as an Italian avant-garde classic.

 'The feedback' showcases Ennio Morricone sounding off a flat trumpet that fits perfectly with the cold and cacophonous intermingling of instruments. "Seguita" is from 'Gli Occhi Freddi Della Paura' (Cold Eyes of Fear) a dramatic action movie Morricone soundtracked in 1971. The song spawns images of tall, dark men in black suits running through damp streets and narrow alleys. I haven't seen the movie so perhaps my mental image isn't too far from Morricone's theatrical intention.

 CD edition. Long-awaited reissue of this incredible and near-mythical 1970 album, remastered from the original master tapes with superior sound quality, replica of the original RCA LP (in gatefold digipack with additional liner notes) in a limited edition of 500 copies. An insane amalgam of avant-improvisation and motorik krautrock beats that, understandably, has become one of the most collectable LPs ever issued (original copies are impossible to obtain).

 Just as the first "krautrock" lp's were coming out in Germany, in Italy we had a surprisingly similar counterpart: this album. It consists of three long instrumental tracks, somewhere in between psych-rock, avantgarde jazz and funky jams. The sound is definitely experimental and ostentatiously "underground". None of the instruments involved tries to be reassuring: the guitar is scratchy, the trumpet sounds choked, piano and keyboards are always dissonant and a background of "proto-industrial" noises is present all along the record.

The music, anyway, is thrilling. The drum patterns, in particular, are extraordinary: regular, tight, groovy, and incredibly close to the "motorik" beat of Can and Neu!...Mystical, spaced-out free music at its best "The Group" was not a band of young beatniks. As a matter of fact, it's just a pseudonym for Gruppo d'Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, a project of renown soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone along with other important experimental musicians. The rock-focused attitude of the record is quite surprising for such a team of classically-trained men already in their forties!

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