Press release:

All music performed and recorded live by Andrea Marutti in Archiaro (Catanzaro, Italy) on August the 24th, 2007. Edited and mixed between September and October 2007 by Andrea Marutti at Lips Vago Digital Studio (Milano, Italy). Digital Mastering by Karel Kourek at RA Studio, Prague, Czech Republic. Pictures by Andrea Marutti and Tommaso Cosco, artwork by Amonit Sharpei. Special thanks to Tommaso, Fernanda and all the Cosco Family for their invaluable support and friendship durnig the years. All titles and music are based on and inspired by visual and verbal suggestions by Tommaso Cosco.

Reviews:

"...also live but of a somewhat different kind is the release by Andrea Marutti, whom we sometimes know as Amon and Never Known and also as the label boss of Afe Records, releasing many Italian artists. He too operates in the area that we could loosely identify as drone music, or ambient, but unlike his German counterparts on the other CD this is of a much darker nature altogether. It's hard to tell what it is that he does; be it synthesizers, samplers, computer processing or just tons of sound effects, in the end the effect is a seventy-minute opus of dark, utter dark electronic music. The planets mentioned in the title may give away some of some of the darkness, and perhaps its all too easy to say that its pitch black as the stars by night, but on Christmas eve, with stars bright and almost full moon, these sort of references may count. Think Lustmord meeting Mirror, the darkest fantasy of Klaus Schulze or such cosmic hero from yesteryear, and Andrea Marutti is your man. The ambient/drone posse might be a dead end, and as such none of these three offer any real innovation of the genre, but they all do a great job, producing some excellent music, the best you can get these days. That alone justifies the release of their music on CD and before you know, we have our own new stars."
Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly, December 2007

"In the recent few years, Italian artists seem to be well represented on the ambient music scene and are at the same time its most interesting movers and shakers. One of them, the Milanese artist Andrea Marutti, has released his latest album on the Czech label Nextera. Andrea Marutti is a representative of the huge Italian electronic scene, ranging from acoustic ambient through post-industrial to noise. Marutti releases his monumental ambient both under his name and since mid-1990s in projects such as Amon, Never Known, Lips Vago, Spiral or The Afeman. His own label Afe Records releases his recordings as well as albums (including high-quality CD-Rs) by others, more (e.g. Telepherique, Bad Sector, Maeror Tri or Aidan Baker) or less well-known musicians. Marutti released about six records under his own name, this latest release being the first one to appear on a factory-made CD. It bears the title "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" and was released on the quite active, Prague-based label Nextera, which has established itself in the recent few years among leading European labels in experimental electronic music, especially ambient music. The album itself, consisting of one single stream of music, is divided into four tracks. Marutti recorded it live in mid-Summer 2007 in the picturesque settings of the Archiaro village, inspired by the visual and textual works of his friend Tommaso Cosco. This is reflected in the music itself - with mainly spheric athmosphere, on the verge of dark ambient and shperic drone music, shifting towards more layered, soft electronics in "The Pulsating Silence". The moods and individual soundwaves alternate in an organic fashion, very gradually, and the result is far from stationery; the moods are of a rather gloomy, cold kind. The album "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" will remind you (apart from related Italian projects) of darker albums by Mathias Grassow, most probably of Lustmord / The Place Where the Black Stars Hang or the split CD Erotomechaniks by the Swedish Coph Nia and American Mindspawn. The graphics of the booklet / inlay are by Michal Kořán (photos were shot by Marutti himself directly in Archiaro), one half of the electronic project Kora et le Mechanix."
Igor Nováček, Freemusic.cz, January 2008

"Andrea Marutti, também conhecido por Amon e Never Known, inscreve-se numa área que se identifica vagamente como drone-music ou ambient. É difícil identificar o seu processo criativo mas, sejam sintetizadores, samplers, processamento digital ou apenas um montão de efeitos sonoros, o resultado final são 70 minutos de electrónica absolutamente sombria. Apresentado e gravado ao vivo em Archiaro, Catanzaro (Itália) a 24 de Agosto de 2007, e trabalhado em estúdio em Milão nos dois meses seguintes, The Subliminal Relation Between Planets alinha pela melhor tradição space-ambient de Lustmord ou Klaus Schulze. Sem ser particularmente inovador é no entanto um disco de excelente música, perfeita para induzir à contempação das estrelas... ou antes, dos planetas."
Distorsom, Distorsom, January 2008

"Un'altro "classico" CD di musica dark ambient / drone oriented ad opera di Andrea Marutti, che con il presente "The Subliminal Relations Between Planets" sembra riprendere il percorso sonoro esattamente laddove lo aveva interrotto con il precedente "The Brutality of Misbreathing". Molti gli elementi in comune tra queste due releases... La scelta di firmarle a proprio nome e non utilizzando uno dei numerosi moniker con i quali ha siglato molti dei suoi precedenti lavori (Amon, Never Known, Afeman, Spiral, Lips Vago, solo per citarne alcuni...), il fatto che entrambi i CD nascano da materiale registrato dal vivo successivamente rieditato e "ottimizzato" in studio, il fatto che in entrambi i casi la musica fluisce ininterrottamente dall'inizio alla fine senza pause tra le tracce. Ma a parte questo sono in realtà il "sound" generale, le dinamiche, i tempi, le progressioni, l'approccio, l'intento, la forma e la struttura compositiva che, pur con le ovvie variazioni del caso, risultano convergere in modo assoluto, e appartenere chiaramente ad un unico progetto, ad un immutabile "disegno sonoro", tracciato con la consueta abilità dalle mani esperte di uno dei maggiori maestri nell'ambito della musica dark-ambientale, italiana e non solo. Il nuovo "viaggio" di Andrea Marutti, questa volta alla scoperta delle subliminali relazioni tra i pianeti, continua ancora una volta nella più inviolata e inviolabile oscurità..."
Giuseppe Verticchio, Oltre il Suono, February 2008

"Conobbi Andrea Marutti parecchi anni fa grazie ad un glorioso negozio, chiamato Fluxus II, che ebbe il coraggio di tentare la via di vendere musica sperimentale ed estrema in quel di Milano, peraltro in una zona tutt'altro che centrale. I proprietari, dai quali mi lasciavo consigliare volentieri, mi sottoposero "Twilight's Last Gleaming", ad opera di tal Never Known, nome che per me corrispondeva precisamente alla scarsa conoscenza che a quei tempi avevo di certe derive estreme dell'ambient. Il disco mi colpì profondamente per il suo incedere lentissimo e per le sue atmosfere sempre ad un passo dell'essere cupe, ma mai così tetre da sconfinare nella più facile dark ambient o nell'isolazionismo. Nel mantenersi in qualche modo leggera, quasi soave a tratti, nel suo far proprio lo spleen della new wave (più tardi scoprii che i Durutti Column erano tra le ispirazioni di Andrea), quella musica mi calmava, commuoveva, rilassava ed affascinava. Solo anni più tardi, ad ascolti più attenti, mi resi conto anche di quanto ricca era quella che non poteva forse più essere considerata semplice ambient, dato il suo stratificarsi in livelli tipici invece di generi musicali forse più ‘colti'. Oggi Andrea Marutti pubblica a proprio nome questo disco, abbandonando la propria etichetta e la fidata Eibon che finora aveva supportato molti dei suoi lavori, per approdare alla rinomata Nextera (tra gli altri in catalogo The Hafler Trio, Lustmord, Klaus Wiese e Mathias Grassow) con un disco che riprende tutto quanto detto a proposito del progetto Never Known, ma affinando ulteriormente le armi del passaggio lieve tra un suono ed un'altro, ricoprendo dei soliti riverberi paesaggi acquatici e droni infiniti, creando climax invisibili ed emozionanti. Un disco splendido, da ascoltare nel misterioso transito tra la veglia ed il sonno."
Matteo Uggeri, Sands Zine, February 2008

"...Interestingly enough, this brings about musical changes as well. "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" (on Czech label Nextera) is a great example of his new, more varied and oppulent style. "Subliminal Relation..." is dedicated to the beauty of the countryside of Italian region Catanzaro, its timbres are still dark, but no longer just singularly dominated by the colour black. Sixteen-minute ouverture "A drop within a Drop", a gentle caress of harmonics and warm tectonics, is possibly the most positive and sensous statement he has ever produced and a similarly upbeat mood is present in the other pieces as well, although the gargantuan fields of "In the Fish Trove", with its haunting phantasmagoric dissonances, are yet again a step into the void. Here, heavy lungs are in and deflating as heavily as ever, hard pressed to suck in the necessary air. Other than that, however, it seems as though Marutti has all but defeated his demons. A joyous harmonica features prominently on "The Pulsating Silence" and the feeling of "Wonderful Ostentation is rather one of glorious majesty than of pain. Which is not to say that this man is no longer of interest for fans of the genre. Quite on the contrary. The newly-gained optimism has allowed Marutti to build his pieces even more freely, without answering exclusively to his fears. "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" is an album noone with an interest in Drones and Dark Ambient should miss this year."
Tobias Fischer, Tokafi, February 2008

"To date I haven't had the experience or pleasure of seeing an ambient artist perform live. I've always wondered what it would be like. I've always thought of it as being an event where everyone is sitting down in a shadowy hall around a dimly lit stage, candles burning on the tables, drinks in hand (wine seems appropriate), while everyone gazes at the projection screen that a lot of ambient artists use. Or maybe it's like a normal concert where everyone is just standing and taking in the music in there own special way. I don't know. Still I'm curious. "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets (Live in Archiaro)" is obviously a live recording from the hard-working Andrea Marutti, and it's a very enjoyable album too. Through four songs and seventy five minutes the listener is treated to an unearthly like voyage past the clouds and deep into space. The music is unhurried, soothing, spacious, and trippy; truly giving the feeling of floating with the stars (or at least how I would imagine such an experience, if it were even possible). Interestingly the album plays out more or less as one long song since there are no breaks for silence and no clear indication when one song ends and another begins. Also unlike some of Andrea's previous work this album doesn't really have much of a dark or ominous feeling at all, which is more common with this genre. As the journey ends there is basically nothing to complain about on this recording at all. Everything flows perfectly for a genuinely pleasant relaxing ambient escapade, one which I think I'll happily take often. (9/10)"
Joe Mlodik, Lunar Hypnosis, March 2008

"Archiaro é una piccola località calabra, dove Tommaso Cosco, amico di Andrea Marutti, ha un'idea tutta sua riguardo la rotazione delle colture: non lascia parte dei terreni di sua proprietà a maggese, ma li adibisce a "usi" artistici. Infatti, quello dell'uomo-AFE non é il primo disco nato in questo luogo, perché Nextera, l'etichetta che pubblica "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets", ha già fatto uscire un disco di Oöphoi (Arpe Di Sabbia) sempre "live in Archiaro". Un luogo che unisce natura e cultura, dunque, dove nell'estate del 2007 Andrea ha registrato quest'esibizione live (i suoi live sono strutturati in modo tale che egli possa anche improvvisare), che poi é stata sistemata in studio l'Ottobre successivo. Ha inoltre scattato delle foto che vanno a comporre l'artwork del CD, che si ricorda per immagini davvero surreali di mura virate al celeste. Le quattro tracce, di fatto senza soluzione di continuità tra loro, sono caratterizzate – come sempre – da drone abissali, ma non poi così cupi, da momenti (logicamente) più spaziali ad altri più liquidi. La profondità e l'essenzialità sono le caratteristiche principale dell'ambient di Andrea Marutti, che non é mai troppo "cavernoso" o "gotico", ma nemmeno innocuamente new age. Questi sono dischi che chiedono la fatica iniziale dell'ascolto attivo, ma nei quali non é per nulla difficile rimanere poi immersi, in virtù della loro capacità avvolgente."
Fabrizio Garau, Audiodrome, March 2008

"Se un giorno qualcuno dovrà redigere una mappa il più possibile dettagliata della cosidetta dark ambient in Italia o altrove, il nome di Andrea Marutti, meglio conosciuto anche come Amon o Never Known sarà tra quelli importanti da ricordare. Senza contare la sua personale Afe Records entrata ormai nel tredicesimo anno di vita, per la quale hanno inciso altri nomi di spicco del genere o comunque legati alla sperimentazione elettronica come Nimh, Aidan Baker, Dronaement, Maeror Tri, Raffaele Serra, per citare soltanto quelli a me più vicini. Questo nuovo disco esce però per una piccola etichetta dalle parti di Praga, la Nextera, anche se si tratta di un live registrato nella campagna di Archiaro (Catanzaro) nell'Agosto del 2007. Titoli e musiche sono ispirati alle suggestioni visuali e verbali di Tommaso Cosco, che insieme ad Andrea è artefice anche delle immagini di copertina. L'appellativo dark ambient in tal caso si sposa con quello di una deep ambient, che rimanda ad abissi esistenziali oltre che planetari. "Wonderful Ostentation" e "In the Fish Trove", le due tracce più lunghe, sono in tal senso esplicative di un mondo in cui il sublime e il subliminale si confondono, raffigurando in egual misura percezioni di realtà ed alterazioni percettive, come in uno dei tanti viaggi dell'anima (7)."
Gino Dal Soler, Blow Up, April 2008

"We've already interviewed Andrea Marutti for Chaindlk, but for those who don't know him, this is the man behind Afe label, but also a recording artist who's put out material in different format and on several labels using both his birth name and also monikers like Amon, Never Known, etc. Having been active for ages Marutti has developed his own approach to ambient music but differently from several of his past dark ambient releases, with his own name this guy works mainly in the area on the edge between experimental music and ambient works. Despite what the title may suggest, this live recording has the usual top notch sound quality (he's a good sound engineer) even if beside some post production I don't think he reworked the whole matter. You pass from heavy atmospheres to ethereal moods, from thick layering of sounds to quasi-silent "landings", as usual Marutti drags every sound around bringing it to its extreme consequences (that's one of his main peculiarities) but differently from some past works it's not just an heavy trip, but take for granted that it will slow down your heartbeat, above all with the more than twenty minutes of the final track. I've no doubt this is probably one of the best releases he did so far and that's due to the fact even if living patiently the suspension builds through repetitions, it doesn't get boring and those depressed melodies he inserted here and there helps a lot like in that small gem of "Wonderful Ostentation". This track quiets down everything preparing for the narcoleptic grand-finale of "In the Fish Trove" where Marutti switches the light while increasingly making his way to the depth of the darkest sea. We're not dealing just with dark ambient but it's magmatic music that makes you feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel."
Andrea Ferraris, Chain D.L.K., April 2008

"Recorded live in the small rural town of Archiaro (Calabria, Southern Italy) during a festival of electronic music in August 2007, this is a classic dark ambient album of today - very long, slowly unfolding, apparently menacing but in truth rather innocuous. In typical fashion, the instrumentation is not specified, although synthesized and sampled sounds - heavily processed to become interminable shadows - should be at the basis of the performance. Those who read this website regularly know that I’m not an enthusiast of this kind of release. Apart from my well-known position against the myriads of amateurish dabblers proliferating in this area (from which Marutti, who seems honest in what he does, should be excluded), what’s utterly ridiculous is the “cosmic” angle generally attributed to drone-oriented soundscapes, usually by people who don’t have a clue about what “self evolution” really means. That said, taken at the right moment and considering the fact that this is a live recording, this CD works alright in spurts. This listener can’t find new words to indicate how a rumbling mass takes centre stage in the mix, or to applaud the precision of cross-fades that put a mourning pseudo-choir in the background to bring forth echoes of metallic clatter instead. I do like when the whole gets near immobility, so that one can stop for ten seconds, hold the breath and mentally nod “yes, this is good”. Overall, a few interesting moments amidst things sniffed as pretty regular. Best used as a soft presence at late night (for me) but the hardcore fan of the genre will certainly be satisfied."
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes, June 2008

"A black surface from which no light escapes, a white dwarf that, having shed its envelop, burns unremittingly at the core, Andrea Marutti's work pushes dark ambient to its limit. The Subliminal Relation Between Planets, while continuing in this vein, sees his work spill over onto another logic, one that tears it open, lifts it up out of itself and gives it a luminosity, dim and red. "A Drop Within A Drop", if not suffused with the burning shell of warmth found on previous efforts, is certainly more radiant. Its sonorous electro-acoustic squalls and feint squiggles shoot across the stereo sky, throwing off white light and evanescent heat haze before they carom into silence. These landscapes maintain a dark edge, but it's rarely monolithic enough to case a pall over the proceedings. Rather they are magisterially relaxed, and with their energy circulating more freely than ever before, they make for a splendid osmosis for messages of change. Only "In The Fish Trove", as though a fatal, indeed grim reminder (effect?), what with its acerbic seismic vibration, provides a decisive, subterranean counterpoint."
Max Schaefer, Furthernoise.org, June 2008

"Esibizione live dall'alto valore evocativo, un'esperienza d'ascolto suggestiva, la nascita di una foresta in chiave ambient a tinte fosche. La località dove si svolge è Archiaro in provincia di Catanzaro nell'agosto del 2007 e l'autore è Andrea Marutti, nome grosso dell'elettronica italiana, sperimentatore sonoro dagli anni 90 e mente di innumerevoli progetti, tra cui la Afe Records, etichetta dedita all'avanguardia che negli anni ha fatto uscire, tra gli altri, anche dischi di Gerstein e del mostro sacro Maurizio Bianchi. Il concerto è un viaggio nelle tenebre, una cascata di pulsazioni psicostimolanti e ombre allucinate. Dal vivo deve essere stata una mazzata annichilente, una meditazione trascendentale di gruppo, un'esperienza devastante. Speriamo in una replica."
Stefano UK, RockIt, October 2008

"All the music on "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" was performed and recorded live by Andrea Marutti in Italian countryside of Archiaro near Catanzaro on August 24th 2007. Based on visual and verbal suggestions from fellow artist Tommaso Cosco, the album comprises of four lengthy dark ambient soundscapes. Marutti, based in Milan, Italy, has been recording electronic music since the early 1990s and is also the founder of the Afe Records label. He releases music under the names Afeman, Amon, DJ Lips, Lips Vago, Lips Vago Quartet, Never Known and Spiral, each pseudonym covering a different style of electronic music. With a long list of collaborators and releases on many labels to his name, Marutti is also part of the bands Hall Of Mirrors and Sil Muir. Recording under his own name since 2001, his music focuses on the dark ambient and experimental side of electronic music. Musically, "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" is a dark but serene journey on waves of low droning sound with cascading chimes, vaguely coherent voices and other miniscule sounds carefully assembled to form a hypnotic sonic bedrock. Often resembling a deep dark ocean bed with an ever present bassy drone, each track holds a certain sub-aquatic charm of tiny chinks of sound, both melodic but strangely distant and unseen. As the low rumble continues to gently roll on, synth tones criss-cross, slithers of sound fall all around and half-heard voices are caught in the tranquil haze of mesmerizing sound. Something about Marutti's music is both serenely relaxing and subtly unnerving at the same time, almost as though the calming aspects are masking the true meaning of the dark undertones it hides. Under those shards of sonic beauty lie dark unseen forces, almost like an unknown danger lurking deep in the watery depths of the ocean the sounds resemble. All the way through the mood very slowly heightens until the 24 minute closing track "In the Fish Trove" unleashes its darkest passage yet with anxious tension building all around, almost as though some impending danger is nearby, tones echoing like disembodied screams before dissipating with a steady rise to the surface, leaving the fear of the darkness to rise again another day. Ultimately, "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" is a beautiful dark ambient soundscape that must have been fascinating to experience first hand during the recording process."
Paul Lloyd, Connexion Bizarre, November 2008

"Performed and recorded live in Archiaro (Catanzaro, Italy) on August 2007, "The Subliminal Relation Between Planets" presents outstanding sensory-emotionally ecstatic droning textures with a great feeling of floating sensations. The concept fit perfectly with the symbolical significant musical harmony of the spheres (Pythagorean Greek theory on mathematical principles). In this magic live and largely improvised performance built on synthesised sounds and electronic treatments, Andrea Marutti invites the audience to a sacred mission connected to other worlds. The album seems to redeem the world through art. The opening musical scene provides a certain exalted and peaceful psych electronic chant built on massive droning waves, punctuated by natural and noisy amplified effects. Angelic and long sustained melodies are floating on the surface. "The Pulsating Silence" is a vigorous tranced out excursion throw sonic noises mixed with field recordings and fragmented dronescapes. "Wonderful Ostentation" contains completely absorbing echoing metallic lines inter-twined with cosmic synth drones are reminiscent of early Cluster / Eruption works. The album closes with deep resonant synth-scapes creating a type of hypno-magnetic attraction on the listener. This live recording is an ecstatic-aesthetic peak experience that transform our perception of sounds and forms."
Philippe Blache, Prog Archives, May 2009