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LP
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SV 130LP
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2023 repress. "Of all the releases on Italy's legendary Cramps Records, Raul Lovisoni and Francesco Messina's seminal LP from 1979 has long remained among the most beloved. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo not only introduced the world to the work of two gifted composers, but also is notable for being produced by electronic pioneer Franco Battiato. A sister album to Prati Bagnati would be Giusto Pio's breathtaking Motore Immobile, likewise graced with the maestro's gentle hand around the same time. Lovisoni and Messina are both central figures within the Italian avant-garde. Part of a generation of artists who contributed to a radical rethinking of musical practices and composition, they reveal Minimalism as it's rarely known: delicate melodies, subtle harmonic interplay, incorporating diverse creative traditions and slowly giving way to an ever-expanding open space. Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo's meditative title track, inspired by René Daumal's surrealist novel Le Mont Analogue, features Messina on synthesizer and Michele Fedrigotti's impressionistic piano, while on Lovisoni's 'Hula Om' and 'Amon Ra,' solo harp, crystal glasses and Juri Camisasca's radiant vocal drones further ascend into the stratosphere. Skirting the outer edges of ambient, new age and experimental music, Prati Bagnati has a transformative beauty unlike anything else. Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design and is recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Luciano Cilio and Popol Vuh."
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CD
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DS 025CD
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Originally published in 1979 by the legendary Gianni Sassi's Cramps Records label as part of a series curated by Franco Battiato, the long-awaited Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo is finally made available by Die Schachtel in a repackaged deluxe edition, fully remastered (by Giuseppe Ielasi) from the original Cramps tapes, and complete with three extra tracks (in the CD edition) dug from Francesco Messina's archives. Produced by Franco Battiato, the breathtaking oeuvre of Francesco Messina and Raul Lovisoni is openly inspired by the unfinished metaphysical novel Le Mont Analogue, by the French writer René Daumal, who had been for many years a student of the teachings of the enigmatic Armenian Georges Ivanovich Gurdjieff. The reference to Gurdjieff is important in order to frame this work in its own context, because at that time the great Greek-Armenian mystic was beginning to exert a large influence into the diverse and stimulating artistic environment that for many years developed around Battiato, which included, among the others, Juri Camisasca, Francesco Messina and Giusto Pio. Battiato's entourage was characterized by a deep desire of spirituality that would not adhere to a particular faith, but rather involved a full opening of the mind and body. This spiritual quest, that one can hear shining through the music, was something intimate and personal and it never became the expression of religious extremists looking forward to life in another world. Similarly, Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo is a stage of that journey that the artists developed independently, yet with a constant tension of the spirit resulting from years of readings and reflections shared with others. The music on this album is an exact compendium of such an intimate journey: drones and overtones, repetitive patterns, a deep, meditative feel, and space atmospheres. "Writing this on a Sunday afternoon during breaks taken from restoring two zithers from the late 19th century. I love the instruments not only for their beautiful craftsmanship and sound, but for what they've seen, the stories in which they've played a part, and the journey that brought them to me. Francesco Messina and Raul Lovisoni's Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo is playing on a loop as so many times in the past, coloring the space I inhabit with its glowing overtones, spreading its majestic quietness. Taking as a starting point an unfinished utopian novel, written by French pataphysician René Daumal, in which is described the ascension of a mountain connecting Earth and Heaven, the three compositions take us on a journey through the rich green pastures of Mount Analogue, occasionally pausing beneath veils of light, only to stride determinedly onwards, to the realms of an ancient wind deity. At some point during this incursion, you may find yourself in a landscape set out by John Cage, witnessing Vainqueur, Substance and Resilient as children chanting their vocoded chants, or else enter a false portal planting you in Anthony Moore's cloud and ballroom. While the subject matter is esoteric and the music makes no attempt to conceal this fact, it's time we released these haunting pieces from the demesne of obscurity. Messina and Lovisoni have created a work of radiant beauty, oneiric states waiting to be explored, to lose ourselves in." --Stephan Mathieu, from the liner notes
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LP
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DS 025LP
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2015 repress; LP version. Includes insert. Originally published in 1979 by the legendary Gianni Sassi's Cramps Records label as part of a series curated by Franco Battiato, the long-awaited Prati Bagnati del Monte Analogo is finally made available by Die Schachtel in a repackaged deluxe edition, fully remastered (by Giuseppe Ielasi) from the original Cramps tapes, dug from Francesco Messina's archives. The music on this album is an exact compendium of such an intimate journey: drones and overtones, repetitive patterns, a deep, meditative feel, and space atmospheres.
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