[Reviewed by Peter Marks]
I have a lot of appreciation for the concept of restraint. Just because you can make an album drag on for hours doesn’t mean you have to. The pair who executed these two pieces understand this perfectly and waste no time getting us out into the wilderness. We drift like dandelion seeds on the wind through an intricately designed maze of echoes, sustained notes, reverb and delicious emptiness. Sequences rise up out of the murk and sometimes even blossom into individual notes which move back and forth between the vapors.
This will go far quicker than you imagine and if you’re wondering why I think I might have an answer for you: precision. Each layer of what appears to be randomly placed noise is in fact an anchor point which moves the narrative forward and cannot be used gratuitously. ‘Egg’ is a soundtrack, most definitely, one which takes cues from the surrounding terrain and changes along with them through the deployment of contrasting and evolving, sustained atmospherics. Not once did I play through this pair of pieces and think to myself ‘they’re just padding things out’.
A lot more work went into this than they’ve let on, such humility is a rare commodity in times such as these. If I might, allow me to state that not just anybody can make this kind of work. Technically savvy types will disagree but you have to put yourself on the line to step this far out into the ether; to impart a feeling or tone in what you’re doing is even more difficult, so many opt to just give vent to their own personal vendettas.
To rise above all of that is commendable, to encapsulate so many different auditory environments in the short span of time Nino utilize is just phenomenal.
Nino – Egg
Bloxham Tapes, BT03
MC/Digital 2016
Santa Sangre 