More than three years have passed since a work by Giuseppe Ielasi, who straddles the melodic and the atmospheric, has been featured in the Disquiet Downstream (disquiet.com, July 2005). Fortunately, though, the Italian guitarist has a new release due out in early 2009 on the 12k label, which recently posted a tantalizing track (titled “Untitled #9”) to serve as a teaser preview (MP3).
The four-minute piece opens with lithe, simple finger work on an acoustic guitar. It’s so quiet and subtle, it might be mistaken for a particularly arid slice of cafe folk music, but then the textures begin to make themselves clear. There’s a droning background noise that suggests an accordion, and long held zipper-like tones that could be a bass clarinet, and then the guitar itself begins to transgress, the odd note shooting across the stereo spectrum, a jarring effect when heard in headphones. And soon enough the gap between the guitar and its sonic surroundings has begun to blur, such is Ielasi’s alchemy.
Additional details on the forthcoming full-length at 12kblog.wordpress.com.