The latest release from Krysalisound is the debut from Paolo Iannantuoni, trading as Nāda Mushin. A doyen of the Italian ambient scene, Paolo uses these meditative soundscapes as a means of exploring the dichotomy between movement and stasis; his guitar, electronics and field recordings conjuring up dreamlike states and the metaphysical act of travelling without moving.
The sense of being stationary within a moving body is evoked perfectly, and the constant flow of rushing drones seems to envelop as in a cocoon. Sometimes the movement is quicker and at times, as on “Ki”, it is more elemental; the clash of earthly fragments exists within the turning of the Earth as we stand motionless upon it, almost feeling the velocity upon our bodies.
According to the nada yoga system, the entire cosmos consists of vibrations, and what Paolo is doing here is offering up a series of sounds that can transport you anywhere within the universe that will suit the listener. The vastness of a cavern, hollowed out over millions of years; that sense of the ancient bearing down upon us, yet there is a comfort here, a sense of wonder, a sense of waiting and watching as worlds form somehow out of time. “Bloom” hints at the sound of enormous engines gradually attaining some sort of escape velocity, but they really can be what you want them to be. Field recordings of birds appear in “Dawn” and are subsumed into the miasma, their song dwarfed by the immensity of the revolving drone which offers different perspectives of the same scene as the album continues. At points it is loud, and you feel the roar of sound upon your face and the sense of revolution upon your skin; whilst elsewhere you could be thousands of miles from the unfolding forms which twist and pull restlessly like the gas clouds around a distant planet.You end up searching the sounds, straining to hear the myriad of ingredients that make up the whole, hundreds of tiny snippets like a flock of birds making up one sweeping statement of gravity-defying immensity. The sound of aircraft on take-off, the rattling squeal of an underground train, a carapace of rock slowly peeled to reveal inner workings of the Earth’s crust; all of this and more can be heard here if you just sit back and allow the pieces to sweep over you. A distant nebula or the blue sky above your head, it is all here if you just let it in.
-Mr Olivetti-
