STEFANO GUZZETTI – LETTERS FROM NOWHERE (PIANO BOOK VOL. 3) 
This is the third (obviously) and also the final release in Stefano Guzzetti‘s ‘Piano Book’ trilogy. The first (At Home, 2014) focused strictly on the piano alone, Short Stories (2018) added some subtle electronics. Now on Letters From Nowhere ‘the piano plays along with a range of selected old hardware synthesizers’.
This means there are different moods and atmospheres on this album, thus avoiding the pitfalls of the currently overabundant solo-piano music.
‘“Letters from Nowhere” is a correspondence from imaginary places and states of mind, where the composer took his time to describe the intensity of one moment, the vastness of despair, but also the joy of reuniting again with the people and places we love’.
This release on Home Normal has catalogue number #150 – now that’s a fact worthy of congratulations!
FEDERICO DURAND – TOUR TAPES
Federico Durand is a big fan of the merchandise tables at concerts: ‘For me, fanzines, posters, tapes and limited-edition CDs from independent labels are objects of great beauty. Its modesty tell us about careful craftsmanship and love for music.’
This is why this limited 2CD edition on Home Normal compiles three of the tapes that were previously available at his concert tour in Europe (‘Adormidera’) and two tours he did in Japan (‘Música Para Manuel’ and ‘Pavel‘). “Tour Tapes” now makes the music available to those who were unable to attend one of these concerts.
Most of the (nine) titles are extended tracks ranging from 12 to 20 minutes. The opener, Adormidera, has the hypnotising effect of a Basinski-loop. If you surrender to the 16-minute Niebla, Montaña, Pinos, you will completely lose track of time. There are also a few short tracks, skethes no longer than 2 minutes each.
They may all have a different sound, yet they all fit together very well due to the way Federico Durand uses ‘acoustic and electronic instruments, experiments with tapes, rustic, recorded in my old house in Buenos Aires and in my home in La Cumbre, a mountain town in Argentina’.