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Jarguna — Prospettive Animiche
(Projekt ARC174, 2019, DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2019-10-01

Prospettive Animiche Cover art

Jarguna is the project name of Italian ethno-ambient artist Marco Billi who has been plying his trade and refining his style for at least a dozen years. His explorative, meditative drones create an expansive, panoramic backdrop that will find a space next to artists like Alio Die, Oöphoi, Steve Roach and similarly inclined composers, as a perfect backdrop for listener immersion, meditation, and slumber. Using dense loops of ambient guitars, bells, percussion and above all, synthesizer, Jarguna creates a soundworld that is deep, slowly evolving, repetitive, often moving at a glacial pace, but yet the sounds are full of vibrant color and shimmering beauty. The opening tracks “On Top of The World” and “Quiescence” are essentially connected, for a total of sixteen minutes of continuous flow, the listener won’t notice any point where the tracks change, the drones just get quieter and far more minimalist during the transition period, but the sonic evolution remains active throughout. The third track “Eggregore” is a bit different than most of the others, given a strong loop of textural sound that runs through its almost eight minute entirety, twisting and convoluting over the duration, it stands apart from the more soothing and peaceful cuts that preceeded it. After it faces out, the album’s centerpiece slowly fades in, at 23+ minutes “Reflexes of a Kaleidoscope” introduces some soft ethnic percussive elements amid what seems like the soundtrack to a beautiful dream, eventually morphing into a slow-rolling chord loop interchange seemingly with choirs of angels overhead and bells, gongs, and other percussive elements punctuating the proceedings. There are three more cuts on Prospettive Animiche, “Garden of the Mantras,” “Indaco” and the closing title track, the first offering some subtle field recorded sounds in loops and bells like wind chimes, while the piece breathes beautiful colors and gently grows over its duration. In all, the seven tracks here offer a wonderful respite from the hard edges, giving the listener an open pathway to dream.

Filed under: New releases, 2019 releases

Related artist(s): Jarguna (Marco Billi)

 

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