Mutant Sounds reborn. The Italian posts of Mutant sounds vol. 10 (Giusto Pio/Hydrus/Illachime Quartet)

Giusto Pio

Indice generale/General index

Giusto Pio - Motore immobile (1978). Italian violinist Giusto Pio, completed a classical musical training in Venice and was hired as a violinist in the RAI Milan orchestra, following aspects of traditional classical music but without losing an eye on current experiments.

It has become known to the general public for having cooperated with various songwriters Italians, including Franco Battiato, Alice and Milva. Often in the 80s and 90s he had collaborated with experimental artists, working and contributing, as arranger, violinist director or conductor, especially for Battiato, which Pio's gave violin lessons in the seventies.

This is an excellent release on the Cramps label, blending his love for abstract experimental music.

Hydrus - In space (1978). Wonderful space electronic LP released by PDU label (same label as Electriktus, posted about 10 month ago here). Forget that kitch disco label. What we have here is space electronics in the traition of Ohr and Kosmische Kuriere albums, that were released in Italy by PDU label too. Not much more infos available though.

Illachime Quartet - Illachime Quartet (2003). Thanks to blog friend Vincenzo for this amazing piece, the highly ambitious and challenging privately released debut from an Italian outfit who'd latterly go on to work with such luminaries as Rhys Chatham, Graham Lewis and Mark Stewart on their 2007 follow-up “I'm Normal, My Heart Still Works”. Fronted by the duo of Fabrizio Elevtico and Gianluca Paladino, the former with ivory tower credentials, the latter coming from a rock background, the alloy of their combined instincts resulting in something vast, sprawling and fused by a through-line in melancholia. The end product is something pretty unique, though to my ears it seems to take a page from both the strain of Italian improv rock that comes in off the R.I.O. tip ala La 1919 and the terse high drama of This Heat, but with an added overlay of both desiccated and purgatorial Hwyl Nofio atmospherics and spectral threadings of modern classical composition.