Press release:

Born from an original concept by Paolo Ippoliti of Logoplasm, this compilation is a collection of 17 randomized and "unplugged" tracks by aal, Andrea Marutti, Carlo Giordani, Crashcars For The Ravers, Fhievel & Luca Sigurtà, Madame P, Rinus Van Alebeek and Vale.

All the artists were asked to create their contributes without using any electrically-powered source/instrument, just like they were experiencing a real blackout situation. Only battery-operated small devices (walk-mans, minidisc recorders, etc.) were allowed in the process.

All the individually numbered tapes in this small edition were recorded one by one in random/shuffle mode; each tape has a different running order!

Three different versions of this release exist:

- a regular edition of 47 individually numbered copies;

- an "artists" edition of 9 individually numbered copies with different cassette labels and exclusive printed insert [not available for sale];

- a promo edition of 9 individually numbered copies marked as "afe072p" [not available for sale].

Reviews:

The approach of this compilation is quite nice: ask musicians to create music without 'using any electrically-powered source/instrument, just like they were experiencing a real black out situation', and we are left in the dark too. There is no tracklist and each tape (limited to 47 copies) is copied in a random/shuffle mode. So if I wanted to write that say Rinus van Alebeek's piece is great, I couldn't. Or if Andrea Marutti's track sucks, I couldn't either. Even more: if I would write that the first ten minutes on the b-side is great, you couldn't verify that: your copy might be different. A true black out indeed. The 'unplugged' approach relates to field recordings here, which I think is cheating the idea. Field recordings are always unplugged, me thinks. The best pieces are those that use any kind of sound that is acoustic, the voice/poetry bits, or the use/abuse of acoustic objects. Interesting stuff, difficult to review. It may have tracks by aal, Andrea Marutti, Carlo Giordani, Crashcars For The Ravers, Fhievel & Luca Sigurtà, Madame P, Rinus Van Alebeek and Vale. Perhaps in an order of some kind. Maybe not.
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, October 2010