[reviews] afe017cd
raffaele serra: theta experience

The Italian Ambient, Raffaele Serra, hails from the same consortium of musicians as Never Known. The approach to music is "Environmental Ambient", the compositions wrought with worldly sounds - that of a speeding train, bird songs and the like.

Raffaele Serra has composed the music in a way that works around the ‘sounds’ – thus creating a symphony of life. Sometimes the music stops for a period, allowing the listener to soak up the sounds of a forest brimming with creatures.

This effect reminded this listener of Kurwisawa’s films, where the camera – in the middle of a gargantuan battle sequence – cuts to colossal, feathery clouds suspended in a robin’s egg blue sky. The effect is quite effective reminding the listener of the vast world outside.

The composition – although sub-divided into separate tracks – is recorded as a seamless whole. There seems to be a theme as the voyage takes us on a journey from the ancient to the future – the end replete with bleeping, machine-driven sounds.

There is, in "Theta Experience", originality found lacking in many ambient recordings – managing to distance it from the mundane. Another winner from the Italian team.

[Glenn Hammett]