A heady, bizarre sonic brew in which ego is not a factor and dialogue and interaction are key elements.
Porcupine Tree albums take up a large space on one of my CD shelves, so I’m quite familiar with Colin Edwin’s work, and quite fond of it as well. I also quite like Metallic Taste Of Blood—a self-titled album from 2012 by Eraldo Bernocchi, Jamie Saft, Balazs Pandi and Colin Edwin, which was also released by the adventurous London-based RareNoise label. My first encounter with Lorenzo Feliciati’s work, was when Naked Truth‘s second album for RareNoise, was released in 2012. What I really love about these two talented bass players, among other things, is that their presence, even though highly effective, never overshadows the other instruments. They simply do what’s necessary for the track to shine. Empty technique displays are really not their thing.
Over a short period of time, the two creative minds have managed to concoct a heady, bizarre sonic brew in which ego is not a factor and dialogue and interaction are key elements. Apart from Edwin’s fretless and fretted bass, E-bow and programming work, and Feliciati’s fretted and fretless bass, keyboard and guitar work, Twinscapes also features electrifying contributions by renowned trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer, former Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin percussionist Andi Pupato, saxophonist David Jackson (of Van der Graaf Generator), and drummer Roberto Gualdi. There are certainly sparks and tension throughout the eleven tracks, and chemistry is on display. While spacey progressive rock might be the first thing that comes to mind when Twinscapes‘ first track spins, soon afterwards it becomes clear that the affair is too colorful to be squeezed into one genre box. Edwin and Feliciati are men of eclectic explorations, and so are their co-conspirators. Ambient, jazz, electronica and progressive rock flirt with each other, and even a bit of dub kicks in perfectly on “In Dreamland.” Everything propels with intensity and tightness.
According to the press release, Edwin and Feliciati did not have much time to plan things, and had only a small amount of rehearsal, but as Edwin says: “It certainly felt like we had a natural way of playing together. Without any real discussion we managed to find a way of fitting around each other, despite occupying the same frequency area.” That natural spark between the two is well felt in all of the tracks. If Twinscapes is what they have created over such a short period of time and without any real discussion, I wonder what will happen if they will have more time to do things. Hopefully, Twinscapes is a harbinger of sharper and even more adventurous things to come from this cooperation.
Twinscapes is available on RareNoise.
