Spiluttini has created classic beauty out of a flawed motif—being human—and the struggle to live as one contiguous with others, not as an isolated atoll.
Composed and arranged slowly by Vienna’s Dino Spiluttini as a reflection upon time spent in a village in Germany called Ruebke. Wrestling with the nature of nature and the nature of the lone soul, recounting it as he rechristens himself Islands of Light on a piano whose notes color the air in pastels for a season when the leaves are busy turning fiery red and rusty.
Island Of Light is not just about the piano; it’s also about its treatment, even when the piano remains mostly recognizable as such. Not just about some vague, moody tone, creating (or suggesting) atmosphere, but about the air the pianist breathed in and out, too, mimicked by the discernable tape hiss. You may hear downs and you may hear ups on Ruebke but mainly you hear the grand ambivalence, tackled with great seriousness. But then, once also jaunty, though a bit confused as to why (“Schlump”), and again, after the most aerosol of tracks, comes “Muemmelmannsberg,” a toytronic symphony, as if the grave novelist unfurrowed his brow for a moment to write a string of playful limericks.
Sometimes your feelings and emotions are the place on the other side of where the road washed out. You can´t get there anymore. Spiluttini has created classic beauty out of a flawed motif—being human—and the struggle to live as one contiguous with others, not as an isolated atoll.
Ruebke is available on Home Normal.
