Des Cendres à la Cave

On le comprend dès les premières secondes de Synth On Axis, le nouvel album des Napolitains de Retina.it porte on ne peut mieux son nom. Transfuges de l'écurie chicagoanne Hefty Records (Savath & Savalas, Telefon Tel Aviv...), on retrouve aujourd'hui Lino Monaco et Nicola Buono du côté de Glacial Movements (Stormloop, Loscil, Bvdub... et tout récemment Pjusk dont le superbe Tele est chroniqué ici) après un bref détour par les discrètes structures Mousikelab et Flatmate et si les étendues gelées auxquelles on associe naturellement les travaux du label d'Alessandro Tedeschi (Netherworld) sont loin d'être étrangères à ce choix, c'est plutôt la dimension isolationniste qu'en retient d'abord notre duo en s'enfonçant sous la glace au gré des sinuosités claustrophobes d'un étroit boyau rocheux.

Freezing The Fourth String voit toutefois ce ténébreux conduit déboucher sur une caverne aux dimensions monumentales, dont les parois phosphorescentes semblent s'animer au contact de la faible lumière émise par la torche que l'on avait pris soin d'emporter avec nous dans cette descente à l'issue incertaine.

La musique de Retina.it se fait alors hypnotique, conjuguant pulsations minimales, nappes analogiques et orchestrations synthétiques, et l'enfermement devient féérie, nous faisant oublier jusqu'à l'existence même du monde extérieur sur un Moonshine dont le ballet scintillant va jusqu'à épouser le rythme de nos battements de cœur pour mieux prendre le contrôle de nos émotions.

Ainsi, aucune raison de se méfier de cette étrange force qui nous attire peu à peu dans le plus sombre recoin de cette chambre souterraine. La lumière de la torche elle même semble se résorber à l'approche de ce puits d'ombre qui nous engloutit dans un interminable fondu au noir sans que l'on sache vraiment si l'on doit capituler ou résister. A mesure que l'on avance à l'aveugle, le sol se liquéfie et bientôt, de l'eau glacée jusqu'à la taille et l'humidité suintant de ce que l'on imagine être des stalactites suspendues comme autant d'épées de Damoclès sous une voute résonnant de mille échos troublants, une angoisse sourde nous étreint.

La lumière à nouveau, fragile, hésitante, mais suffisante pour jeter un bref coup d’œil au thermomètre qui nous sert de brassard de survie. - 32° Fahrenheit ? Un éclair de lucidité, une boucle rythmique de piano préparé charriant dans un flot indiscernable de souvenirs et de regrets toute l'urgence désespérée d'un souffle de vie qui s'accroche en vain à ce qui n'est déjà plus.

Le noir à nouveau, on s'enfonce mais sans bouger cette fois. Engourdi, et pourtant conscient, quelque part, de l'inéluctable tragédie qui s'amorce. Aucune lumière au bout de ce tunnel là, mais les échos déchirants des plaintes émises quelques milliers d'années auparavant par les âmes damnées qui nous ont précédés sur ce chemin où ténèbres et beauté se confondent, condamnées à errer entre coma et trépas. Un purgatoire de glace en mal de combustible spirituel, voilà donc la nature de ce piège qui s'est refermé sur nous sans que l'on y prenne garde et devrait faire de nous dans les semaines, les mois voire les années à venir, les tributaires désarmés des envoûtements soniques de Retina.it.

Gonzo Circus

Wat ooit gecomplimenteerd werd als een duidelijk afgebakend concept, loopt het risico om vroeg of laat geconfronteerd te worden met de eigen vormbeperkingen. Als je label Glacial Movements heet, en je van de artiesten verwacht dat ze ijzige ambient soundscapes creëren, kom je na veertien releases op een punt dat het voor de luisteraar niet veel meer uitmaakt of je de noordenwind voor de zoveelste keer over een sneeuwlandschap dan wel een gletsjer hoort tekeer gaan. Maar alle kwantitatieve vooroordelen ten spijt, zijn dit twee verdomd degelijke cd’s. Het duo Pjusk is in elk geval authentiek door de Noorse afkomst en het feit dat ze in een afgelegen sneeuwhut verzamelen om te componeren. Hun concept-cd rond bevroren water klinkt bij momenten erg dreigend, en roept beelden op van Lustmord en vidnaObmana die samen in een koelcel worden opgesloten. Maar dat Pjusk ook melodieuze aspiraties heeft, bewijst het soundtrackachtige ‘Skifer’. Ook Italië heeft frisse dagen, maar Lino Monaco en Nicola Buono evoceren op 'Descending Into Crevasse' toch eerder het koudegevoel van een smeltend ijsje. Hun koeltechnieken worden immers doorkruist met warme tonen van analoge synthesizers, waardoor ons onderbewuste in kosmische jaren 1970 modus komt. Geen wonder dat Retina.it al podia mocht delen met zowel Biosphere als Kraftwerk.

Caleidoscoop

Hoewel je Italië wellicht eerder associeert met warme temperaturen en temperamentvolle mensen, weet het duo Lino Monaco en Nicola Buono (beide ook in QMen en Resina) als Retina.it toch een behoorlijk rustiek en onderkoeld geluid aan de dag te leggen. Op eerdere releases zitten ze nog wel een in de IDM hoek en brengen ze complexe elektronica, waarvan een aantal op het Hefty label is verschenen. Voor hun nieuwste album Descending Into Crevasse hebben ze bewust gekozen voor een meer vloeiende aanpak. Ze hebben namelijk altijd een meer klassiek gericht werk willen maken, wel met elektronica maar meer gecomponeerd, waarbij ze de kalme plekken in onszelf onderzoeken. Hierbij trekken ze de metafoor naar de eeuwige ijswallen met hun verborgen ruimtes. Ook in ons brein zit veel verborgen informatie, die soms als verwarde flarden weer opduiken. Dit hebben ze in zacht pulserende muziek weten te vangen. Je hoort elektronische minimal music, dark ambient, glitches en zachte beats, die samen een ongelooflijke diepgang kennen en je helemaal weg van de realiteit brengen. Dagdromen en zoektochten vol desolate, maar wonderschone beelden die trekken langs bewuste en onbewuste zaken. Denk daarbij aan een kruisbestuiving van Gas, Markus Guentner, Stars Of The Lid, Biosphere, Thomas Köner en Celer. In 6 nummers en ruim 52 minuten weten ze je helemaal aan de grond te nagelen. Onbeschrijflijk mooi!

Dr. Blowfin's Archive

The so-called ‘Plinius Observers‘ Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono have been operating under the name Retina.it since the late 90′s, releasing IDM, experimental and ambient works. This original duo still manipulates sounds from modular and digital synths, or environmental sounds, researching not only one sonic identity. The title of their last album is a sort of metaphor, or a conjectural journey between the gorges of eternal ice. The result is a deep influx of dreamlike elevation through frozen landscapes of classical orchestration, slowly connected to bubbling reverberations and heavy swells. A sinister mood constructed from hypnotic loops lets the frosty isolationism reign.

Mind Bomb

There is a marked difference between the Italian duos previous album “Randomicon” and “Descending into crevasse”. The former is more complicated and mechanistic, more aligned with IDM via its beats, whereas the new album is noticeably more fluid and rich in feeling, perhaps to fit better in the Glacial Movements label aesthetic and sound. Indeed, some passages of “Descending…” are so mesmerizingly rich with beauty and soft-lit emotions that they are almost painful. The key is the simple melodies that repeat in different spaces and with varying trajectories, often derived from what sound like samples of jazz and classical music. This is not to say another Gas-like album as here the constructions are melodic, simply repeating phrases that wash and tremble. The second track “Freezing the fourth string” is perhaps the most obvious, at least by the name, combining string washes as if hearing chamber music play in the room next door from the throes of sleep. “Moonshine” is perhaps the standout track and features on this week’s show. The mood is harder to divine, a little dramatic like the “Moonlight sonata” perhaps, and yet uncertain and merged with endlessly changing thought. The mood darkens as the album plays out, with the micro rhythms of “-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice” adding an extra sense of urgency, whereas the closing title track is stark and threatening at times with monumental grandeur. But “Descending…” is not overly a dark album. Rather its coolness is a slowing of process that gives a luxurious sense of immensity.

Clair & Obscur

Maintenant que je suis devant mon écran, les doigts suspendus au-dessus du clavier, je me rends compte d’une chose. Comment parler d’un disque de musique ambient ? Concrètement, qu’est-ce qui va rendre le dit objet, excellent, bien, pas mal ou mauvais ? Qu’est-ce que je peux affirmer, finalement, sur une expérience solitaire, dont chaque écoute aura un tout autre visage, une expression multiforme ? Il est vraiment difficile d’apposer des mots, une rhétorique face à ce genre de pièce. À cheval entre l’art contemporain, la musique et les traitements analogiques ou numériques, l’ambient est un genre qui échappe à toutes connotations ,et la critique que j’émets ne peut que péniblement rassembler une bribe d’informations ou de pensée éparpillée. J’essaye quand même. " Retina. It" n’est pas du tout venant, le duo Italien a déjà fait ses armes à la fin des années 90, passé par la période myspace (où on n’aura jamais vu autant de projets electronic/ambient à ce jour) et continué son bonhomme de chemin. L’analogique, ça les connait, le numérique aussi. Les ambiances éthérées qui prennent leurs ampleurs dans l’obscurité d’une chambre, ça marche aussi.

Sons classiques retravaillés, percussions sourdes émergeant d’un abysse inter-dimensionnel, mélodies vaporeuses, utilisation spatiale du silence, les amateurs se retrouvent dans un terrain connu, à défaut d’ouvrir un portail sur un monde nouveau. Mais là où j’aurais pu pointer du doigt "gna gna gna" qu’on a déjà entendu ça, "gna gna gna", ce qui est en partie vrai, "Retina.It" parvient à envelopper celui qui écoute. Les basses répercutent comme il faut, un peu grasses mais vivantes, un passage plus électro classieux aère l’ensemble qui aurait pu ressembler qu’à un vulgaire bloc de glace frappé par le vent, ou encore à du Thomas Köner avec un zeste de mélodie. "Descending Into Crevasse" a mis du temps à me donner un aperçu. Il m’a bercé quand j’étais allongé, accompagné, café à la main en train de regarder la neige tomber.

Un contexte qui en crée un autre car, soyons franc, la thématique d’un disque d’ambient n’est que très rarement tributaire de son écrin sonore. Après tout, c’est toi qui va te monter ton propre film expérimental, ta propre fiction, ton propre paysage, et la thématique d’approche sert, en effet, à juste "approcher". Car, en fin de compte, ce qu’on retient, ce sont les structures minimales (mais pas vides), l’émotion par son absence, le fantastique, ces sonorités détaillées qu’on entend à peine mourir. En cela, "Retina. It" peut se targuer d’avoir réussi à m’avoir fait passer des soirées hivernales où être seul ne rime pas forcément avec solitude.
Jérémy Urbain (7,5/10)

Fluid Radio UK

Descending into crevasse” is a kind of metaphor. An hypothetical journey between the gorges of eternal ice, an internal journey in search for reassuring corners. A flux of muffled and confused memories, frosted in a wave moving like an algorithm.

Descending Into Crevasse was composed especially for Glacial Movements. To fit within the label’s remit it also represents a new shift in your work towards a more ambient / isolationist direction and a less electronic based sound. How did the album came about and will you be exploring similar territories even further in the future?

Lino Monaco: Nicola and I had been thinking about doing an album based on studies of classical music for years. As a matter of fact, some of the tracks that ended up on the album had lied dormant on there as simple sketches. Last Winter, when we met Alessandro Tedeschi, Glacial Movements’ labelhead, we realized the time had come to tackle that same project. As we were chatting about music in our studio, we listened to the three tracks that were to become the stumbling blocks basis for Descending into Crevasse. Alessandro was so taken by what he heard that he urged us to complete the project, which he then asked to release on GM.

The idea behind it was to process a number of samples from some of the milestone of classic music. We had started with an aria by JS Bach, which became Freezing the fourth string and Debussy’s Claire de Lune, which we rendered as Moonshine, only to end with some samples from Satie’s Gymnopedye, which we used in–32°F porcelain metal and ice. To complete the picture we chose two great Italian modern composers, Bruno Maderna and Giacinto Scelsi who were at the forefront of musical experimentation. To complete the picture we chose two great Italian modern composers, Bruno Maderna and Giacinto Scelsi who were at the forefront of musical experimentation. The track by Maderna we selected is Syntaxis, a piece recorded in the 50s, which is representative of his abstract electronic output. After we processed it, with the help of Fabrizio Matrone (Heidseck , Matter), it became Synth on Axis.

The final two tracks are instead studies based on samples taken from Giacinto Scelsi’s opus. What we value about this particular composer work is the contamination with music from the Far East and the use of unconventional instruments within the context of western classical music. His music is filled with pathos and mystery and is the result mainly of the manipulation of sound. As a matter of fact, Scelsi prepared filters for wind instruments and tuned them separately thus obtaining different degrees of sound. The tracks Attrazione Magnetica and Descending into Crevasse are therefore a humble homage to Giacinto Scelsi, a real alchemist of sound.

As for what lies in store for the future, we cannot tell. Based on past experiences, I can only say that we won’t remain static. Throughout the years we moved between different genres without asking ourselves too many questions. Our work is based on an ongoing and stimulating exploration born from a physical desire for sound.

Santa Sangre Mag.

Retina.it are two Italians, Lino Monaco and Nicola Bruno, who have worked together for a few good years, although that amount of time isn’t reflected in the number of releases they have produced. Only a few full-length CDs, some EPs and in fact mostly single performances on various compilations. Roughly speaking, ambient musicians are generally fairly prolific, so in this matter Retina.it extracts itself from the norm. The musical aspect of Retina.it is more classic, and quite well served, I tell you that.

I didn’t know of this project before, so “Descending Into Crevasse” is my maiden voyage with it. It is interesting that, although these guys are living almost at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, yet they chose a rather different atmospheric journey on this album. On the other hand, you know, it’s Glacial Movements, so it couldn’t have been otherwise… The album opens with “Synth On Axis”, composed together with Heidseck, a very cold song which is a perfect illustration for the title of the release. Indeed, it sounds like the wind whistling in glacier crevasses, looking for a vent, a piece of empty space wherever it’s possible. I expected that this dark and minimalist approach would characterize the entire album, but in “Freezing The Fourth String” I met with a surprise, because the song is built on paradoxically warm drones, looped samples, pulsating bass and string instruments. Associations with Biosphere’s “Substrata” and Rapoon’s “Time Frost” haunted me immediately. The same thing takes place in “Moonshine”, only here the string instruments are replaced by piano sounds. “Attrazione Magnetica” is once again a return towards minimalism, maybe not right away in Thomas Koner style, but after the two previous tracks, this looped, cyclically repeated sound of a dying radio transmission enriched with deaf murmurs – not necessarily of an organic origin – and disquieting guitar sounds, establishes a severe and definitely colder impression, not necessarily in a purely meteorological meaning. Brighter landscapes can be noticed in “-32F Porcelain, Metal & Ice” – the design of this fragment is similar to “Freezing The Fourth String” and “Moonshine”, yet by introducing some subtle “clicking” sounds it gains strongly on the dynamics front when compared to the rest of the tracks. Finally, the title track which is a sort of return to the place where we started from, although in addition there are strong, primal-sounding synthesizers that can be visualized as some ancient force being revealed in the midst of arctic cold.

It’s not the best album in the Glacial Movements catalogue, but it’s still a very good piece of ambient music. The diversity of moods and multitude of measures used to create these atmospheres attracts the listener’s attention from the beginning. Italians generally do not fail in the ambient field, and so it is in this case.

Monsieurdelire /Blogspot

This young Italian duo (Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono) is playing isolationist ambient electronic music. For this production for Glacial Movements, they have adopted the label’s glacial theme. Descending into Crevasse features cold, solitary atmospheres with a touch of claustrophobia – we’re travelling inside the cracks of sonic glaciers, at unfathomable depths. Sound environments are perfectly executed – they rumble and scintillate. A fine ambient listen.

Rockol

17 mag 2012 - Uscirà alla fine di maggio il nuovo album dei Retina.it, storico duo elettronico napoletano composto da Lino Monaco e Nicola Buono. La nuova pubblicazione si intitola “Descending into crevasse” ed è pubblicata dall’etichetta Glacial Movements. Non sono molte le informazioni trapelate in merito al quinto album del progetto partenopeo, ma dovrebbe essere (secondo quanto emerge dalle note stampa) un lavoro incentrato su sonorità ambient-drone caratterizzate da beat e ritmi decisamente minimali. La prima canzone, “Synth on axis”, è stata composta con la collaborazione di Heidseck (al secolo Fabrizio Matrone). I Retina.it hanno stampato il loro primo album “Volcano wave 1-8”nel 2001 per l’etichetta di Chicago Hefty Records, mentre l'ultimo lavoro prodotto fino ad oggi risulta "Randomicon" del 2011. Nel 2003 Buono e Monaco diedero vita al progetto Resina con Marco Messina dei 99 Posse, pubblicando l’album “Opinio Omnium”.

Onda Rock

Si potrebbe pensare che la primavera non sia il periodo più adatto dell'anno nel quale far uscire dischi improntati alla "contemplazione sonora" dei ghiacci perenni. Eppure, da qualche tempo a questa parte, la Glacial Movements, curata con passione da Alessandro Tedeschi, sta cercando di sviluppare l'impianto concettuale delle sue produzioni, senza tuttavia con ciò sconfessare i propri tratti caratterizzanti.

Non è infatti la prima volta che, ascoltando una nuova uscita dell'etichetta romana, capiti di pensare di essere in presenza del disco "meno ghiacciato" del suo prezioso catalogo (basti pensare al maestoso "The Art Of Dying Alone" di Bvdub). Eppure la "discesa nel crepaccio" del duo campano Retina.it, formato da Lino Monaco e Nicola Buono, si discosta almeno in parte non tanto dall'immaginario di riferimento quanto piuttosto dal monodimensionale isolazionismo ambientale a base di drone.

Se infatti la parte iniziale dell'album è lasciata a spesse modulazioni di note processate, al di sotto della coltre gelata cominciano ben presto a intravedersi residui organici ("Freezing The Fourth String"), mentre folate di rumore avanzano sinistre lungo gli oltre dodici minuti di "Attrazione Magnetica". Le atmosfere si fanno claustrofobiche sulle ali di synth analogici scarnificati e nell'abituale quasi totale assenza di elementi ritmici; unica parziale eccezione sono i poco più di cinque minuti di "-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice", che riassume in forma sintetica i sussulti provocati dalla congiunzione tra ghiaccio e fuoco, tra fragilità e resistenza, sottesa a "Descending Into Crevasse".

La conclusione del lavoro, con il pezzo che vi dà il titolo, non assume i tratti di una liberazione, quanto piuttosto quelli della chiusura di un viaggio senza meta apparente in anfratti spazio-temporali gelidi e angusti, metafora evidente di un percorso al tempo stesso di ricerca sonora e di umana ascesi.
La primavera è lassù in superficie, e anche se nelle profondità dei crepacci non potrà mai penetrare, la sua esistenza è tuttavia percepibile.

Textura

By now, one pretty much knows what the latest Glacial Movements release will sound like before hearing it—deep, frozen ambient of the isolationist kind, generally speaking—though that in itself isn't objectionable. If anything, it's kind of interesting to hear the particular solution the artist in question devises in response to the Glacial Movements concept. The choice of Retina.it, which Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono originated in the early ‘90s, is certainly fitting, given the duo's deep ambient soundscaping approach and their command of synthesis, both modular and digital. Though its six tracks are indexed, Descending Into Crevasse's fifty-two minutes appear without interruption.

“Synth On Axis,” co-composed with Heidseck (Fabrizio Matrone), establishes the material's brittle, ice-cold ambiance by pairing the ghoulish wails of freezing winds with cavernous rumbling, the implication being that such terrain is so severe no human could survive for long amongst it. We naturally expect the material to go deeper as it advances into the subsequent tracks and the explorers descend in the crevasses between the gorges of ice. The dreamlike, shimmering flow of “Moonshine” gives off a glimmer and glow that's appropriate to its title; “Attrazione Magnetica,” by comparison, is gloomy, its repeated muffled blows foreboding. The twelve-minute title track punctuates its ominous rumblings with violent screeches and dovetailing string figures, making for a dramatic end to the recording.

Though Descending Into Crevasse clearly perpetuates the tradition established by the Glacial Movements artists who've come before them, Monaco and Buono do bring a few unexpected moves to the series. “Freezing the Fourth String,” for example, introduces a startling wrinkle in adding orchestral strings to its reverberant ambient drone; in this case, the strings' silken timbres and swooping arcs offer a dramatic contrast to the electronic elements. And on an otherwise beatless collection, “-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice” introduces if not beats then at least rhythmic pulsations that give the track an almost Mokira-like propulsion. Such differences merely help distinguish Retina.it's contribution from others in the label's catalogues. At day's end, it's simple: anyone drawn to past Glacial Movements releases should find the latest one equally satisfying.

Boomkat

Longtime electronic practitioners and Hefty lumiaries Retina.IT return after a bit of a hiatus with a new album for the Glacial Movements imprint. In their own words - "Retina.t's music has been released on labels such as Hefty records (Us) , Mousikelab (It), Flatmate/Storung ( Spain) and Glacial Movements (It). They have worked with the likes of John Hughes, Marco Messina, Claudio Sinatti, Gabriella Cerritelli, Giorgio Li Calzi , Red Sector A. "Descending into crevasse" is a sort of metaphor. A journey between the gorges of eternal ices, such as a travel inside ourself researching reassuring corners. A flux of muffled and confused memories, frosted in a wave moving like an algorithm." So there you go.

TheMilkFactory

Retina.it, the Neapolitan duo formed of Nicola Buono and Lino Monaco, ordinarily assemble extremely intricate and gritty records which place them at the sharpest edge of electronic music, but, their latest sonic excursion is quite a different offering altogether. Published on Italian isolationist imprint Glacial Movements, purveyor of sub-zero desolate ambient since 2006, Descending Into Crevasse is an extremely contemplative collection, its components, almost entirely devoid of beats, crystallised into slowly looping patterns which occasionally disappear down incredibly vast reverbs. Described as a theoretical journey down ice crevasses, a metaphor for human introspection, Descending Into Crevasse is quite a departure for the duo whose releases on Hefty, Mousiklab or Flatemate have, until now, largely demonstrated a strong appetite for textured electronica.

Although they partly subscribe to Glacial Movements’ isolationist theory, Retina.it opt for a slightly more refined and open-ended approach for much of this album. On Freezing The Forth String for instance, the initial drone, once fully loaded, is layered with tiny electronic fragments and a series of string motifs which are not without recalling some of Biosphere’s work, notably on Shenzhou. Moonshine, and later on -32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice, are also very much reminiscent of Geir Jenssen’s work, but ark back to Substrata‘s peaceful arctic environments. On the former, Buono and Monaco slowly develop a series of melodic piano loops which phase in and out of focus with each other, their respective shimmering textures and ephemeral melodic patterns contributing greatly to the overall dreamy feel of the piece. The latter, at five minutes seventeen the shortest piece on the album, also stems from delicate piano loops, although both the context and realisation are different. The pair rely here on a three-note pattern, upon which a second looser one is occasionally added, stripping any purely melodic aspect to concentrate on building a gently hypnotic groove, partly by dubbing tiny electronic particles to create the illusion of a rhythmic structure.

There is nothing on these pieces of the impression of latent peril which often infuses isolationism, but the rest of this album takes on a much darker meditative tone. Whilst opening piece Synth On Axis slowly scans through a series of long drone forms, rendered hazier by the seemingly ever expanding reverbs, and tainted with randoms bleeps, glitches and what sounds like animals calling out, Attrazione Magnetica and Descending Into Crevasse are much sterner, bleaker pieces, built around extremely desolate soundscapes, with very little sign of any sustained activity. If Freezing The Forth String, Moonshine and -32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice somehow represented a euphoric notion of calm, the dystopian nature of these last two pieces is their flip-side. Attrazione Magnetica moves at the pace of the relentless flux and reflux of its soundwaves, with very little change through its whole course. If anything, Descending Into Crevasse appears even more barren and menacing, but the constant ebbing and flowing is much more random and takes on a variety of forms, from piercing noises to heavily distorted orchestral stabs, until they slowly die down.

Although they have never shied away from difficult music, this album is Retina.it’s most demanding record to date, and whilst the pair negotiate the isolationist concept well by injecting more accessible ambient components, the oppressive atmosphere which lingers through occasionally makes for quite an uncomfortable listening experience. If Nicola Buono and Lino Monaco have for now shed their complex electronica and successfully adopted to a much bleaker state, a rapid thawing of ambience would be very much welcome.

4/5

StarSend

On the CD Descending Into Crevasse (52'47") centuries may pass in the span of mere moments. Realizing music under the name Retina.it, Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono create aural constructions whose landscapes are interior, meditative and psychological. Reacting to the external world by exploring the internal one this duo offers six dreamy tracks worth staying awake for. At their slowest the surreal atmospheres found on Descending Into Crevasse churn and scrape in random expressions of cold abstract composition. But the mood may brighten, like light through ice, with synth strings, hollow drone and a languid repeating bass line as the luminous pieces unfold in layered mysteries - weaving between unique zones of light and dark. This work also holds a bracing sonic intensity. With its brooding synthetic inventions Monaco and Buono put into motion a lot of functioning parts - and leave it to the imagination of the listener to hold them together in a mental aural collage. Descending Into Crevasse feels sunk in a dreamlike realm. The music aligns well with pleasant reverie, while in other places it may seem more like a symbolization of some sight or experience perpetually trapped in the mind.

Nowamuzyka

The New Noise

In acque profonde.

Il gruppo campano a questo giro precipita in un crepaccio, e ne rimane soggiogato. Perso a contemplare le immense pareti del ghiacciaio nel quale è capitato, non si dà per vinto e comincia a misurarsi con l’ambiente circostante. Se già nei lavori precedenti erano adusi al confronto con gli elementi vivi della terra, in questo nuovo lavoro approdano nelle acque ancora più gelide dell’elettronica. Lo fanno alla loro maniera, con l’ausilio della romana Glacial Movements, che ospita queste nuove tracce nelle quali l’accento è posto sulle componenti legate all’immaginazione. Tutto Descending Into Crevasse (titolo notevole) è perciò una rilettura di gassose matrici ambient come da tempo non ci capitava di apprezzare. In “Synth On Axis” si fanno aiutare dal sodale Fabrizio Matrone (qui presente come Heidseck) nel tentativo estremo di porre rimedio all’evento appena accaduto (echi drexciyani e cigolii industrial la fanno da padroni). Si continua poi nel viaggio senza ritorno con “Attrazione Magnetica”, intestazione appropriata per un’immersione sorda nelle viscere del globo. Queste musiche avrebbero fatto una bella figura nell’ultimo film-documentario di Werner Herzog (“Cave Of Forgotten Dreams”), ne siamo sicuri.

Il finale poi è da brividi: la lunga title-track è un piccolo capolavoro di inquietudine post-atomica. Rumore bianco sciolto nella soda caustica, lontanissime voci aliene che urlano il dolore (il tipico sound-design di scuola lynchiana non è poi cosi lontano) e i pattern che sibilano metallici come non mai; senza dimenticare quella dimensione mistica che nei casi migliori condiziona positivamente le musiche di questo ambito.

Nicola Buono e Lino Monaco – con discrezione – se ne escono con un piccolo gioiello che farà felice chi gli rivolgerà la giusta attenzione.

His Voice

Electronique.it

Ad un anno esatto di distanza dallo splendido Randomicon tornano i Retina.it con un nuovo album per la romana Glacial Movements, label in continuo crescendo che tiene ben fede al suo credo continuando a produrre lavori d'ascolto dalle coordinate ambient/drones eteree e solitarie.

Assistiamo quindi ad un cambio di registro anche per i Retina.it che per la stesura di questo album lasciano momentaneamente alle spalle tutto l'armamentario techno/minimalista/sperimentale che finora è sembrato essere il loro marchio di fabbrica per concentrarsi in questa nuova avventura sotto lo zero.

Il loro suono diventa così un crescendo crepuscolare basato sulla modulazione lenta e delicata di oscuri tappeti, sin dal brano d'apertura infatti è possibile immergersi in questa dimensione distorta dove i pads vengono sollecitati di tanto in tanto da riverberi elettronici più sofisticati, particelle d'acqua e gelidi vénti.

C'è continuità nel loro lavoro, un evoluzione dinamica che vede la materia addentrarsi in territori cosmic con la seconda, bellissima "Freezing the Fourth String", un lavoro che strizza l'occhio a certa elettronica tedesca degli anni settanta grazie all'inserimento di un suono d'archi ed a synth acquatici che entrano ed escono sull'importante tappeto drones comunque intessuto nel sottofondo.
Ancora un picco nella successiva "Moonshine", un raggio di sole a portare tenue calore al rigoglioso crescendo sensoriale, il suono cosmico che entra in orbita ed inizia a girare con un accordo di chitarra registrato e manipolato.

"Attrazione magnetica" riporta le coordinate dentro un binario isolazionista con i suoi undici minuti di drones, carrelli, cascate elettroniche, ruggiti e lunghi tunnel sotterranei. Un brano ipnotico e freddo ma al contempo cinematico.

Entra in gioco il suono del piano in "-32°F Porcelain , Metal & Ice", altro brano che sembra voler prendere il volo nelle prime battute ma che poi rivela un anima psichedelica incentrata sulla ciclicità e sulla ricchezza degli elementi inseriti.

Il brano conclusivo "Descending Into Crevasse" (che da il titolo all'album) racconta in maniera precisa e fotografica la discesa nel crepaccio (Crevasse n.d.r.) tra i ghiacci. Il fondale oscuro in lontananza, negli abissi, un lungo viaggio nella paura, l'ignoto, il buio.

I Retina.it firmano un nuovo grande capitolo nella saga atmosferica della Glacial Movements. Dedicato a chi sa viaggiare.

Linus Records

Bleep

Exploring the capabilities of manipulated sounds and ambient soundscaping are Retina.it, the duo made up of Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono. ‘Descending Into Crevasse’ moves with icy awareness through landscapes of elegant classical orchestration, frosty synth-work, frozen ambient passageways and patchworks of unnerving field recordings. The result is a sudden influx of dreamlike elevation and ghoulish drama.

Blowup

Eyebient

This music could certainly be a friend of recordings created by Dadavistic Orchestra. Icy and industrial but beautiful tracks give a sense of communion with something monumental. Among recently released recordings which oscillating around the IDM genre that album deserves a unique position. Especially track 05 -32°F porcelain, metal & ice could be a fantastic description of scenery of Greenland.

Ikonen Magazin

Fusion ist ein unbeliebter Begriff. In seiner ursprünglichen Verwendung bezeichnet er die Verschmelzung von Rock und Jazz zu einer hybriden Mischform. Die dem Begriff inhärente Kritik kommt von den Puristen, die in jeder Vermischung gleichsam eine Verwässerung vermuten und die Gebote des musikalischen Reinheitsgebots verletzt sehen. Mit „descending into crevasse“ (dt. Abstieg in den Gletscherspalt) gelingt dem italienischen Duo Retina.it nicht nur eine atmosphärische Reise in die akustische Antarktis, sondern auch ein eine Fusion im Bereich der Ambient-Music.

„descending into crevasse“ ist das fünfte Album der Musiker Lino Monaco und Nicola Buono, die darüber hinaus allerdings auf eine weit größere Diskographie zurückblicken können. Das erste Stück des Albums „snyth on axis“ entführt den Hörer mit seinen gleißenden Drones direkt in die Welt des ewigen Eises. Anschwellende Synths und wummernde Bässe treffen auf pochende Geräusche, die das Tropfen von Wasser zu simulieren scheinen. Mit seiner immer undurchsichtiger werden Klangstruktur vollzieht der Opener den Weg in die Tiefe eines Gletschers nach und antizipiert die glatte, undurchdringliche und milchige Erscheinung des Eises.

Schon das nächste Stück „freezing the fourth string“ das mit seinem Titel erneut eine kryptische Assoziation zwischen Komposition und Thema herstellt, hebt das Tempo an. Unter einem vibrierenden Synthesizer-Teppich beginnen sich dezente Bass-Patterns und Violinen-Samples herauszubilden, die den Ambient-Charakter der ersten Stückes um Elemente aus Minimal-Music und Neo-Klassik ergänzen. Es ist eben dieser hybride Charakter, der sich auch durch die weiteren Kompositionen zieht, der dem Album eine gewisse Fusion-Natur verleiht. Immer wieder gewinnen die Stücke durch rhythmisch-wellenförmige Muster an Form, die den Hörer von der akustischen Mikrotextur des Eises zur kantigen Makrostruktur des Gletschers und zurück alterieren lässt. Abgeschlossen wird das Album durch den monolithischen Titeltrack, der die anderen fünf Stücke schon allein durch seine Spielzeit von 12.30 Min. überragt.

Retina.it verbinden auf „descending into crevasse“ sehr geschickt unterschiedliche Genre-Traditionen von Ambient über Drone bis hin zur klassischen Minimal-Komposition und führen dabei zusammen, was eigentlich schon immer zusammengehört. Der Gletscher wird hierbei als mythischer Gegen-Topos der Moderne zum Thema gemacht und in den Kompositionen klanglich immer wieder aufgegriffen. Auch die monochrome Gestaltung des Digipacks verweist auf diese Ästhetik und vollendet das Album stilgerecht: umfassend gelungen, große Empfehlung!

Brainwashed

Having been around since the early part of the 1990s, this duo of Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono seem as if they took their cue from that periods isolationist movement, that darker, bleak spin-off of ambient that had a short, but brilliant life. Heavily effected loops, guitars, and synths float together in an inviting dissonance throughout this album's six tracks.

Opener "Synth on Axis" (with guest collaborator Heidseck) and the closing title track embrace the album title literally, both conjuring images of drifting through aquatic murk. Slow, bubbling reverberations, bass heavy swells, and unidentifiable sounds slithering by feel like the oceanic equivalent of Thomas Köner's Arctic endeavors.

"Attrazione Magnetica" takes that sense of drift and exploration and casts it in a more cosmic sensibility. Loops of rhythmic guitar, heavily filtered and processed, arrive to just drift away again into the darkness. Between the overall darker mood and the erratic, sub bass swell that is monstrous on its own, there is a more sinister feel overall, although here it is blackness of space rather than our own seas.

The remaining pieces don't have as much of an environmental reference point, but instead construct slowly evolving ambient passages from heavily treated loops. "Freezing the Fourth String" begins simple enough, with an unending droning note that becomes more and more prominent, slowly augmented with other abstract loops, before finally what sounds like a symphonic sample is added in, casting everything in a much more melodic direction before slowly concluding.

"Moonshine" similarly takes its time, building upon a simple, but progressing melodic loop. There is just the right balance of repetition and change: it stays static enough to lock into a hypnotic groove, but slowly works in additional sounds so that, by the end, it sounds significantly different than how it began.

Isolationist ambient constructed from loops can be a difficult proposition: one of the reasons the genre died out so quickly is that almost everyone with a sampler and a reverb unit tried their hand and putting out an album, and too often the result was a boring sonic equivalent of beige wallpaper. While Retina.it are not necessarily revolutionizing the genre with Descending Into Crevasse, it makes for a strong nod to a sound that time forgot, and had it been released during that period, it would have been clearly on the better end of that genre’s spectrum.

Noise Mag.

Go Mag.

First-Stage Experimental

"Descending Into Crevasse", the latest Release from Italian duo Retina. IT (Lino Monaco & Nicola Buono) released in May of this year is described on the duo's website as:
""Descending Into Crevasse" is a sort of metaphor. An ipotetic journey between the gorges of eternal ices, such as a travel inside ourself researching reassures corners. A flux of muffled and confused memories, frosted in a waves moving like an algorithm."

Retina.IT, helped to "trail-blaze" the electronic scene in Italy during the 90's after the two first met through the DJing scene. As the two found they had a similar musical creativeness the two embarked together on a musical journey. They changed their name from Qmen to Retina.IT and as the latter have released inspirational albums such as: Randomicon, Semeion, S/T and Immediate Action.

The album released before "Descending", Randomicon, was released on Flatmate music in 2011, and blends glitchy beats with incredible soundscapes created through live synthesis. As an easily accessible album to listen to, I would personally recommend this album to anyone who has never heard the works of Retina.IT before embarking on the deep, soul searching soundtrack of "Descending Into Crevasse."

Maccheroni Elettronici

‘Descending into Crevasse’ è la nova produzione per i Retina.it, un elegante cd digipack di 6 tracce, distribuito dalla romana Glacial Movement, nato con la collaborazione di Fabrizio Matrone aka Heidseck, membro del duo noise bolognese Matter.
“Descending into crevasse” e’ una metafora. Un ipotetico viaggio tra le gole di ghiacciai eterni, cosi come un viaggio nel proprio se alla ricerca di angoli rassicuranti. Un flusso di ricordi confusi ed ovattati, congelati in un onda algoritmica ..

Foxy Digitalis

Alessandro Tedeschi should be applauded for his bloody-minded pursuit of what is essentially the essence of the earth’s polar regions through sound. His Glacial Movements label is unwavering in its focus, as the interview we conducted with Tedeschi recently testified, but it has meant that some of their releases have overlapped and blended together to increasingly become very much of a muchness. If you’re unaware of the label they employ various renowned sound artists (Bvdub, Loscil, Francisco Lòpez, Pjusk) in an attempt to place on tape what Tedeschi calls “the mythological significance of the Poles” and to “restore the primordial unity between man and nature”.
Retina.it’s Descending Into Crevasse is, happily, one of the most impressive releases I’ve heard from Glacial Movements in some time. Not content to let their music drift on a series of deep, creaking drones as so many of the label’s recent attempts have done, the Italian duo of Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono bring elements into the equation that wouldn’t necessarily be immediately associated with either the label or, most interestingly, the landscapes it obsesses over. The drones and loops are there, of course, but Retina.it build on them with icy piano figures, strings and even guitar that sometimes gives the sound a surprising warmth. Whereas many Glacial Movements releases have struggled to escape the mighty shadow of Thomas Köner’s Nunatak/Teimo/Permafrost trilogy, Retina.it’s background in electronica means they draw far more from Biosphere, especially on subtle pulse-oriented tracks like ‘-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice’, which brings a refreshing clarity to the typical isolationist sound that doesn’t usually get much of a look in.
The album’s centrepiece ‘Atrazzione Magnetica’ is the darkest and most threatening of all, and thus the most familiar. Even still, Retina.it manage to pull it off. The great booms that ring out, muffled by the sheer weight of water above and around you, sound like icebergs colliding. At over eleven minutes, ‘Atrazzione Magnetica’ allows the duo the time to build upwards to an all-consuming crescendo, the awesome reverb running into itself and the dainty spindles of guitar evoking minuscule sea creatures fleeing the scene. It’s a technique they return to on the title track – also clocking in at over ten minutes – when the feeling of being submerged returns for one final, crushing time. Sudden, high-pitched orchestral jabs pierce the darkness before they get overwhelmed by almighty gusts of frozen air. By far the most barren-sounding piece of music on the album, it’s also the most punishing. Listened to on headphones, it becomes almost unbearably loud and bleak before it draws to a fade, but it captures perfectly what Tedeschi has been searching for for all these years. As a distillation of the Glacial Movements sound it’s as close to perfect as anyone’s managed to come and it caps off what I think is the best album so far released on the label.

HotList

When the label is called Glacial Movements, the album is titled Descending into Crevasse, and the artist describes the music as “a fluxe of muffled and confused memories, frosted in a wave moving like an algorithm,” you can bet that the disc in question is not going to enliven your party. But if what you want is molten waves of carefully-sculpted gray and white sound that involves chords but nothing that can reasonably be called a chord progression, ambient music that doesn’t so much comfort or soothe as it does induce a vaguely troubled alpha state, then you’ve definitely come to the right place. Highlight track: the gently glistening “Moonshine.”

Megaphone

Un disco per un’etichetta dal nome Glacial Movements cambia il suono dei Retina.it. Non ci sono ritmi, non c’è minimalismo o particolare sperimentazione. C’è un suono ambientale puro, lenti movimenti nel ghiaccio sonoro, un suono avvolgente che a momenti diventa più organico, altre volte sprofonda nella pura liquidità. Un ambient una volta tanto coinvolgente, che attrae in ogni singolo momento, e ti fa entrare in una dimensione di pace.

Igloo Mag

Lino Monaco and Nicola Buono’s Retina.it project has been active since the early ‘90s, forging a name for deep ambient soundscaping heavy on modular and digital synthesis. Ordinarily the Neapolitan duo’s dealings are dense gritty affairs located towards the sharper end of the experimental electronic cline. Descending Into Crevasse, though, is something of a departure, responding to the Glacial Movements brief in more meditative mode with a symbolic psychonavigation down ice crevasses. Its parts coalesce in slow looping sequences diving into vast reverb nebulae, shivery synthesis colluding with neo-classical orchestrals, attended by unquiet field recordings, sudden oneiric incursions and spectral entrances. “Synth On Axis” sets a brittle frosted tone with chilly Zephyr blasts and chthonic resonance, a slow flow through a droning expanse hazed with exponential reverbs, laced with sundry bleeps, glitches and animal-esque cries. On “Moonshine” a series of piano loops is set in motion, phase shifting into convolving timbral shimmy and shimmer. On “Freezing the Fourth String” the duo draw out an initial drone, thread it through with particulate electronic fragments, then bring strings to tumescent ambience, as if of draughts of Shenzhou they had drunk, fulsome timbres and swooping arcs in relief against the less generous electronics. Rhythmic pulsations propel “-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice,” with a recall, albeit not total, of Mr Jenssen again, this time echoes of the pacific arcticism of his Substrata. While the early section is largely devoid of isolationist doom-tropes, a darker introspective tenor progressively sets in, the eponymous abyssal descent modeled at the meta-level of sound architecture. The gloom starts gathering on “Attrazione Magnetica,” a foreboding, attended by muffled recursive blows. Ominous rumblings continue on the title track whose dystopian mien is in stark contrast to previous—a harsh desolate affair punctuated by strident screeches and nervous strings. The emergent oppressive tenor may leave a discomfiting taste in the listening mouth, but overall Retina.it makes something particular out of the glacial isolationist construct, offsetting caustic components with more alluring ambiance.

 

Rockerilla

Ritual Magazine

Darkroom

Retina.it è un duo campano composto da Lino Monaco e Nicola Buono, attivo sin dalla prima metà degli anni '90. Dopo quattro album da studio, i Nostri accettano la sfida proposta dalla Glacial Movements di Alessandro Tedeschi e abbandonano le sonorità IDM e techno sperimentali per forgiare un lavoro a tema, dando ai suoni la forma di lastre di ghiaccio e crepacci ancora inesplorati. "Descending Into Crevasse" è un disco paradigmatico che non esce mai dai limiti tematici imposti, facendo della meticolosità descrittiva la sua arma vincente, cosa già propria di altri artisti invitati in passato alla corte della gelida label romana. Le architetture dei cinque brani risentono sia dei dilatati temi di synth tipici della cosmic-music che dei toni circolari e para-melodici già messi a punto dalla scena minimal amenricana: in pratica si sente non poco l'eco dell'elettronica sperimentale degli anni '70, aggiustata e rifinita in base alle necessità dell'album. Si lavora principalmente sulla linearità: suoni puliti e dilatati si distendono fino a mimare un'enorme coltre bianca, battuta da vento e misteriosi rumori naturali. L'isolamento, fisico prima che mentale, è il grande protagonista al debutto impetuoso già col primo pezzo "Synth On Axis" (alla cui composizione partecipa anche Fabrizio Matrone), incentrato su temi ventosi, riverberi che sembrano provenire dal vuoto e rintocchi che rimandano a picchettii su lastre di ghiaccio; l'oscurità e il mistero dominano un'atmosfera comunque distante da quella tipica della dark-ambient. Più scarna la seguente "Freezing The Fourth String", incentrata su un freddo sibilo cosmico variato di poco con l'entrata di un tema simil-sinfonico ripetuto circolarmente: un pezzo semplice e ammaliante, dotato di pochi ed efficaci suoni intrecciati in modo mirabile. Il drone monocromatico torna anche in "Moonshine", ma qui viene sovrapposto ad un motivo strumentale di arpa (ovviamente campionata) che crea sussulti sinuosi e liquidi: senza dubbio il brano più vicino alla scuola minimal. La sterminata "Attrazione Magnetica" viene strutturata su piccoli rumori e riverberi, lasciando da parte le sonorità che hanno segnato le tracce precedenti; la natura sembra prendere il sopravvento in un quadro di profondo isolamento fisico e mentale. "-32°F Porcelain, Metal & Ice" ha invece un orientamento più spiccatamente electro, dovuto a piccoli rumori ritmici che vanno a creare una base glitch in sovrapposizione al solito drone bianco e al tema circolare di synth. La conclusiva title-track è una trasposizione in suoni di una 'discesa nel crepaccio': raggruppando le peculiarità dei pezzi precedenti viene ricostruita un'atmosfera gelida e solitaria, perfetta colonna sonora di un qualcosa posto al limite della possibilità umana, tra drones freddi, temi sinfonici ripetuti in loop e ventose bufere. "Descending Into Crevasse" è un preciso quadro naturalistico dipinto con le tecniche proprie dell'elettronica anni '70, a cui viene pagato giustamente tributo. Forse in assoluto l'album più aderente al tema tra tutti quelli prodotti dalla Glacial Movements, la quale aggiunge al suo catalogo un altro tassello di indubbio valore. Chi ha apprezzato i precedenti lavori di Retina.it non rimarrà deluso da questo CD, sebbene si troverà dinnanzi ad uno stile decisamente diverso. Mastering curato dal grande Denis Blackham.

 

Rumore Mag.