FRANCESCO MASSARO “Body Electric”

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ARTIST

Francesco Massaro

ALBUM TITLE

“Body Electric”

LABEL

Desuonatori

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Massaro returns to the solo album format, continuing his personal exploration of sound, which he approaches not as something to be celebrated, whether aesthetically or as an expression of identity. Instead, layers of sound occupy space as a form of “matter”: irregular, dark and seemingly external even to the musician who produces them.

As the pieces unfold, they come together to form a continuum, not necessarily narrative in nature, but certainly one of uninterrupted flow. In this sense, the division into separate parts does not follow any formal principle. Although the music develops in ways that sustain the material and bring it through a coherent cycle, these processes have little to do with traditionally recognisable forms — melody, rhythm or harmonic structures. Rather, they involve masses of sound that continually change as they move forward, sometimes becoming porous, drawing noises and breaths into their flow, at other times growing denser.

What changes over time, then, is never a theme but a kind of shifting spatial volume, whose impact is constantly transformed. The baritone saxophone provides the “voice”, its expressive range extended through non-idiomatic and unconventional techniques, while electronics constantly intervene, generating breaths, noises and structures that are inseparable from the instrument’s own sound, ultimately merging with it into a single entity. Even the contributions of the guest musicians remain elements drawn towards, and absorbed into, this central magma.

Although there seems to be no resolution to this interplay of forces, statements and questions, the “sound system”, in its purely objective unfolding and governed by a syntax entirely its own, never feels incomplete to the listener.

The result, however intensely personal, can never be described as “closed” — the soloist does not assert a fixed identity but instead tends to lose or transform it — nor does it exclude the listener. In this creative journey, begun some time ago and pursued with unwavering determination, Massaro displays a consistent and admirable courage, which on this album seems to have yielded entirely convincing results.

Sandro Cerini

DISTRIBUTED BY

desuonatori.bandcamp.com, francescomassaro.bandcamp.com

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