Italian Ambient Artist Emanuele Errante Releases Free EP
Posted by Joseph Sannicandro
Italian ambient artist Emanuele Errante‘s 2008 record Humus, released on the excellent Somnia label, received much critical praise, including a high score over at The Silent Ballet and a spot on their end of year Top 50 list. Errante is an ambient composer, with much emphasis placed on textures and mood, but his compositions are sophisticated and engaging, leaning towards classical structures and modern composition. His latest release is a free download only EP called Gouache, after the painting technique and inspired by his home city of Napoli. More so than on past works, Gouache takes chances rhythmically and harmonically, repeating short phrases in and out of phase, bouncing various instruments off each other while remaining enveloping and stunningly beautiful.
“Gouache” is a French word that derives from the Italian “guazzo” and indicates a particular technique of painting in which colors are dissolved in the murky water and arabic gum. Naples, where this technique was affirmed at the end of the eighteenth century, is a colorful city dissolved into a vortex of problems and wrongdoing. Its colorful streets, its colors sometimes strong and sometimes evanescent, infuse cheerfulness that contrasts with the sad daily reality of a city that seemingly has no future.
These seven songs, which bear the names of seven locations in Naples, were composed to reproduce all the emotional contrasts that rape the soul of those who respect and admire this city and its beauty while aware of its difficulties. The tracks are made with the rhythm defragmentation technique that perfectly interprets the pulse of the asynchronous flow of the everyday life in Naples.
If you are unfamiliar with Errante’s work, the free downloadable Gouache EP is a perfect opportunity to see what you’ve been missing. Expect a new full-length record out later this year.
