[releases] afe50016
the afeman vs. madame p: journey through the shadow of the sun

Track List:

1.  Journey Through the Shadow of the Sun  23:23

Description:

The Afeman is one of the multiple personality of Andrea Marutti, best known as Amon, Never Known, Lips Vago and Afe label owner.

Andrea began his experiments with music in the early '90s using tapes and concrete elements. A few years later he also began to use synthesizers, samplers and other electronic devices, and founded the Lips Vago Digital Studio.

Several releases of Ambient / Dark Ambient music were published by labels such as Eibon Records, Amplexus, Drone Records, Taâlem, etc. on CD and other medias.

He is also responsible of many other projects dealing with different styles of electronic music ranging from Lo-Fi / Weird / Cheap Electronica to IDM (Wolkspurz & Ramirez, Lips Vago), Dada / Noise / Non-sense (Spiral).

Recently he also started recording and releasing experimental/ambient tracks under his own name, in duo with Nimh / Giuseppe Verticchio as Hall of Mirrors, and again in duo with Andrea "Ics" Ferraris as Sil Muir.

Madame P is the latest musical incarnation of italian artist Patrizia Oliva. In the past she was a co-founder and member of the seminal all-female band Allun. She was also a member of Rosas Y Tulipanes duo along with Luca Pagani, guitarist of the alternative rock back Viclarsen.

She collaborates with Luca Sigurtà in the highly experimental project Macaya, and with Tommaso Rolando and Marco Ravera, guitarist and double bass player of the acclaimed jazz/fusion band Calomito, in the impro/jazzy combo Toba. Recently she also started a collaboration with drummer/experimentalist Stefano Giust giving life to the Camusi duo.

A few self-released EPs and a long series of successful concerts rapidly brought her among the most promising female italian acts.

Her "official" debut album was released in Germany by Cold Coffeine Addict in November 2005. A live album entitled "Spellbound" was released in late 2006 on the british label Curor Recordings. A live collaboration with noisers Bjerga / Iversen entitled "Broken English" was also published in Spring 2007 by Ambolthue Records in Norway.

"Journey Through the Shadow of the Sun" is The Afeman's radical reworking of "Ombra di sole", one of Madame P's finest solo vocal tracks originally recorded and mixed by well-known italian electronic maestro Fausto Balbo.

Madame P and The Afeman previously collaborated on the noisy "April's Fool" - released by Afe in April 2006 - but this time the results are quite different: Madame P's voice is overcome by The Afeman's treatments and it is turned into an infinite array of ghostly whispers and hisses which slowly build up a droney lamentation of biblical proportions.

The artwork for "Journey Through the Shadow of the Sun" was created by Afe Creative Laboratories and features an original painting by Patrizia Oliva herself.


Reviews:

"...'intorno' ad una canzone di "Gestuelle du blue Tempo" il prode Afeman costruisce un remix che, cosa affatto curiosa, dura da solo più di tutto il disco firmato dalla 'tigrotta' di Vigevano. Il musicista milanese ci riporta indietro, agli anni dei 'grandi' remix, mutando la sensualità della pista originale in solenne misticismo. Nella realtà, seppure la sua sontuosità possa far pensare ad un grande viaggio spaziale, quello dell'Afeman è un viaggio 'cosmico' rivolto più verso l'interiorità che verso l'esteriorità, e che nasce e si sviluppa come autentico atto d'amore verso gli elementi base forniti da Madame P..."
Sound and Silence [more]

"...ora viene il "drone eterno", dal principio dei tempi abita nell'Universo quale suono immanente. Andrea Marutti e Patrizia Oliva ne intercettano una porzione temporale dalla cabalistica durata. Una stratificazione di suoni non descrivibile, se non per macro-percezioni. Ci appaiono alle orecchie tre presenze. Un suono immanente e immobile, il marciapiede del continuum spazio-tempo. Una massa risonante, cumulo nembo nel quale siamo immersi, i cui armonici e le cui coloriture di frequenza sono in perenne cambiamento. E risonanze metalliche più interne (non del tutto... "visibili") di oggetti che, forse, hanno una loro tangibilità..."
Blow Up [more]

"...Il viaggio attraverso "Ombra di sole" va fatto trasportati dai drone profondissimi di Andrea Marutti: si può immaginarlo come un galleggiare sconfortante nello spazio, sapendo di essere spacciati, oppure un perdersi nelle regioni più cupe del nostro inconscio, ma di sicuro si sa che sarà cibo prelibato per tutti quelli che nel tempo hanno apprezzato il progetto Amon. In effetti, sembra proprio che Andrea abbia portato alla perfezione un certo tipo di discorso "dark ambient" iniziato molti anni fa..."
Audiodrome [more]

"As usual with Andrea and his label in general we're treated to some very interesting dark electronic music. In this case "Journey Through the Shadow of the Sun" is a major alteration of one of Madame P's solo vocal works, previously called "Ombra di sole". Andrea manipulated and re-worked this song into a deep droning ambient piece with odd indistinct whispers and violent hissing sounds, which I'm assuming were previously Madame P's voice. The whole thing is really quite interesting and it's astounding to think someone could take what I'd imagine was once a normal song and turn it into this. It's a really fascinating piece that begins calm, but slowly builds into a more epic piece of dark ambiance that's enjoyable on a multitude of different levels."
Lunar Hypnosis [more]