Ab Uno - Les Gens De Mogador
There was a show on the other day about making counterfeit money. The most difficult aspect of making something genuine was the specifically unique texture required. Without even looking, just holding, fingertips start the synapses to the brain. The messaged relayed, this is the real thing or not. Listening to Les Gens De Mogador, makes me think of this. There is a texture within these sounds giving weight to sonic substantiation. An immeasurable tone reaching back and extending forward. A compositional path of heavily weighted droning ambient creative gems with a stop right here in the center of consciousness. Maybe it is the analogue circuitry, the modular synthesizers or the deconstructed field recordings. These are warm components adding to the complete construct, but the most undeniable feature is the patient and heart felt creativity of Eugenio Petrarca and Roberto Di Ciaccio. They are the gentle and mysterious force behind Ab Uno. This newest composition, Les Gens De Mogador, holds class with a handful of ambient greats and will be one to go back to for countless listens.
Sometimes when listening to Les Gens De Mogador, I hear SPK. Well this could be considered a stretch, since SPK was an industrial band and Ab Uno is not that at all. But take Zamia Lehmanni - Songs Of Byzantine Flowers and dive into "In Flagrante Delicto" and then listen to Ab Uno's "Fishermen's Bay". There is a sonic corporality residing in these passages, deep ties extending beyond the physical moment we live in now. A connection to super continents like Pangaea, Gondwana, and Panottia, with somber tones of the great extinctions, an asteroid impact causing the Cretaceous dinosaur extinction and the Big One, volcanic eruptions in Siberia ending the Permian era. A little heavy with thoughts, but this is really the distance Les Gens De Mogador can carry them. Most wisely, Eugenio Petrarca and Roberto Di Ciaccio infuse their composition with aural helium, holding the blissful heaviness above. Listeners are bestowed with abilities to feel and experience a sweep across billions of evolutionary years. The encompassing magnitude turned tranquility for thirsty spirits in corporeal form.
In the states, two mountain ranges are the Rockies and the Appalachians. The Rockies extend above the line of tree growth, snowy, barren and difficult to access. They are beautiful but majestically aloof. The Appalachians have lush forests all the way to the top. Mountains that are easy to climb, explore and be part of. The beginning of this description referenced the 1986 album Zamia Lehmanni in regards to the new 2022 release Les Gens De Mogador. These two albums are like the mountains. Zamia Lehmanni, gorgeous and many times untouchable. Les Gens De Mogador completely immersive, ancient time worn elegance. Listen to the fifth track "Plan D'Immanence" to help understand how Ab Uno has eroded sounds to reveal the most raw and sublime exquisiteness.
Released on the Italian label Dornwald Records in a very limited edition of one hundred records. This is on 140gr vinyl in no other color but classic black. The label's twelfth release since 2017, and the first exclusive vinyl for Dornwald. The label's sixth release is also on vinyl, but in a cooperative with other labels. Really amazing catalog by the Dornwald Records, worth all the time to check out.
Ab Uno has a handful of releases, most can be listened to and purchased digitally through their bandcamp page. In the physical format, this is their first release on vinyl and everything before this on cassette and compact disc is sold out. Les Gens De Mogador is a beautiful gem and should not be missed, copies are available now from Dornwald Records.
Links
Comments