Anyone with the slightest interest in the international electroacoustic/improv scenes should be intimately familiar with Giuseppe Ielasi's signature guitarese, unless such enthusiasts remain too attached to a postmodern jazz vernacular whose veneer has cracked. Ielasi's a true original, regardless if whether he's manipulating his chosen instrument unadorned or zapping its pram with the latest electronic gizmos. Releases across the board on such stalwart labels as Hapna, Sedimental, and Erstwhile prove that net results are all that matters, and in his case, those results yield immeasurable dividends.
August is relatively brief at 37 minutes, but that diminutive length doesn't belittle the recording's remarkable calculus of contrast. The initial piece (all tracks are untitled) unveils faux raindrops cascading onto a lapping sinewave which seems to remain static but does in fact exert a gravitational push/pull against the grain; when gentle strums of bass emerges out of the pillowy din, their intended acoustic distraction emits a delicate, almost buoyant aftertaste. On the second piece, the previous static discharges have a pronounced electrical buzz to them, their pulses stuttering as if a circuit's been tripped, an elliptical drone sunrising over the gossamer surface; Ielasi disrupts the narrative by allowing that sultry figure to attain gargantuan dimensions, the volume ratcheting up, the good vibrations becoming a thing of intense, tactile beauty.
Thereafter, moods shift and coalesce like solar radiation splintering dioxides. Is that a trumpet mournfully soaking up the available chromatic airspace on the third piece or is Ielasi initiating aural illusions? Meditational, nearly trance-like in its single-minded progression, it's the most beguiling work on the disc. Tracks four and five alternate whispery glitches with plucked strings thick as rubber tree vines; the hushed reveries of the fifth and final piece suggests interstellar probes tiptoeing amongst alien flora, strange (organ-derived?) filips vy with tinted guitars and cooing phrases in an alchemical opiate of gorgeous creation. August, indeed, defined as "inspiring reverence or admiration" - any month or season, Ielasi's now sitting astride the summit, at the height of his powers.
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