Giuseppe Ielasi / Domenico Sciajno - Right After (CD)

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A duo improvisation of Giuseppe Ielasi (electronics) and Domenico Sciajno (electronics and programming). Jewel box packaging, four-panel booklet, design by Friederike Paetold.

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TRACK LIST

1. at a greater distance (6:13)
2. honey (to sg) (3:55)
3. two main rooms (11:32)
4. the "still" or moving image (9:42)
5. three main rooms (8:48)
6. bracket (2:55)
7. (painted) wooden base (6:37)

(released November 2, 2001)
CREDITS

Giuseppe Ielasi - electronics
Domenico Sciajno - electronics and programming

design by Friederike Paetold
​Giuseppe Ielasi and Domenico Sciajno are both prominent members of the Italian electroacoustic improv scene, not only as musicians, but also as concert promoters and organizers.

Ielasi started playing guitar in 1988, and began exploring the art of improvised music soon after. In 1998 he founded the well-respected Fringes label, in order to document his own work as well as that of other artists. In addition to his work on Fringes, he has recorded for such labels as Leo and Sonoris. Earlier this year, he released a superb solo CD-R on a small Greek label, Absurd. He has performed live with Taku Sugimoto, Jerome Noetinger, Dean Roberts, Thomas Lehn, Michel Doneda and Brandon Labelle.

Sciajno began his career as an acoustic bassist and composer, studying acoustic and electronic composition with Gilius Van Bergeijk and double bass in the Royal Conservatory of Den Haag in Holland. In 2000, he released a sublime solo bass disc on Fringes entitled Broken Bridge. He has collaborated with such artists as Alvin Curran and Joel Ryan, and sat in briefly with MIMEO when the all-star electronic orchestra performed in Bologna this past May.

Ielasi and Sciajno met in 1997, while searching for similarly minded musicians with which to collaborate. They began working in trio with Ruggero Radaele, later expanding to an acoustic quartet with Christian Alati, as documented on their Leo Lab release. Over the last few years, Ielasi and Sciajno have each moved separately towards a vocabulary of pure electronics. In July of 2001, Ielasi and Sciajno met in Palermo for a few days of intensive working and recording, the results of which are documented here.

Right After compiles a series of perfectly crafted miniatures, featuring jagged shards of melody, slowly advancing crackles rippling with latent energy, and impeccably integrated techniques. The dazzling packaging was entirely created by NYC designer Friederike Paetzold.
REVIEWS

The Wire, Dan Warburton
There's a new aesthetic in improvised music; traditional concerns for pitch (Stravinsky's "jeu de notes") and form (climax / decay / surprise) are gone, and texture and structure (event-density) are the new "parameters", borrowing the term beloved of the Darmstadt generation. Just as their total serialism became the lingua franca of the post-War avant-garde, high register bleeps and white noise screes have become to electroacoustic improv what the crackly Stax samples were to mid 90s triphop; if earlier generations of improvisers were turned on by Ligeti and Penderecki, Fennesz and Rehberg seem more relevant to today's players, who have seized as much upon the sound of the post-Mego laptop world as its jumpcut aesthetic. For several years Giuseppe Ielasi has been exploring this territory both as a performer (on guitar and, here, electronics) and through his aptly-named Fringes label, and this outing with Domenico Sciajno (composer and bassist, but here laptopper) is as finely crafted and diverse as Friederike Paetzold's cover art, a geometrical montage of architectural perspective drawings opening up to reveal a rich, golden honey pot. Similarly, the music is about angles and edges, but also curves and broad brushstrokes. Contrary to what you might think, it's eminently listenable, colourful and highly enjoyable, an exfoliating scrub of an album ­ seemingly unctuous but shot through with tiny abrasive particles to stimulate the inner ear.

All Music Guide, Brian Olewnick
Right After is a remarkably subtle album of duo electronics by two relatively young Italians with roots in avant-garde improvisation. While Giuseppe Ielasi began his career as a guitarist and Domenico Sciajno was an improvising bassist of note, both gradually moved into the area of pure electronics and sound manipulation. A fine balance of pristine, crystalline sounds and earthy scrabbling noises is shown from the first track, ²at a greater distance² which offsets pinging, high pitched tones that oscillate in oneıs ears with rough scratches and rubs, all of which manage to cohere into a satisfying whole. The music is, in a sense, entirely abstract with only the occasional throbbing pulse barely hinting at a regular rhythm and no traditional melody to be found. At the same time, however, there is an odd familiarity to the pieces, as though the duo is evoking an urban nostalgia filled with the cast-off sounds of contemporary, industrial life. There are a couple of relatively violent eruptions but more often the works are on a smoother keel, veering this way and that with the adroit real-time decisions of their creators. In fact, the listener is well advised to remember that these are improvisations, as well formed and ³rounded² as they are. When the final track ends at almost exactly the same territory where the first began, one canıt help but be impressed at not only the distance traveled, but the grace and imagination with which it was crossed. Right After is a valuable contribution to the catalog of electronic improvisation.

Other Music, Dan Hirsch
File under: uneasy listening. The debut CD by this duo sounds like a series of field recordings from the human nervous system. Ielasi and Sciajno are central figures in Italy's under-recognized improvised music scene, playing in various ensembles, organizing festivals, and running labels. Over the years, Ielasi and Sciajno have been augmenting their chosen instruments (prepared guitar and bass, respectively) with electronics. This recording is the first to document their work solely in the digital realm. Listeners familiar with electroacoustic music will be reminded of both Japanese Onkyo (Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura, etc.) and various 'lowercase' sound artists (Lopez, Vainio, Deupree, etc.).The sounds on this album are reminiscent of scientific recordings of the magnetosphere, ion storms, and atomic reactions. Magnified static, whispered sine-tones, cellophane wrinkles, and flickering pulses are introduced and removed in a seamless, ghostly mix. These layers create a discrete architecture, not unlike that pictured in Friederike Paetzold's cover art. Because the recording requires focused attention, it heightens the listener's awareness of his/her surroundings. You hear the hiss of steam pipes, the digital purr of cell phones, and click of power transformers as part of some larger composition. This is one of the most challenging records on a label with a well-deserved reputation for pushing the envelope of its listener's expectations.