Music doesn’t always have to be about movement progression or intricacies. Eno taught us that sometimes just being there is enough. Of course since then you’ve had people pretending just to be there and subtly altering things or conversely people pretending just to be there and having faith that our shifting perception will make it seem like they are altering things. Regolelettroniche is a little from column a and a lot from column b, the first collaboration between renowned Italian experimental musician Maurizio Bianch and electronic artist Emanuela De Angelis. They’re calling this album electronic rules for reflecting disciplines, yet while process may well have informed this fifty odd minute collection of tunes, the results are purely experiential. They use a series of loops and drones, at times not at all dissimilar to Phillip Jeck’s turntable experiments, these cyclical driving loops upon which various frequencies attach like barnacles. The effect is lulling, hypnotic where ambient seems to suddenly have transformed to noise without any perceived shift that you can understand. There are links to Eluvium in the density of the ambience, however Eluvium is considerably more gentle and low key, whilst there is at times a certain driving quality to the duos approach. Time is also really important here, and the duo play with it, stretching it and slowing it down, the feeling of immobility heightened by the 25 minute highly repetitive Cosmic Norms. Whilst their rules are anyones guess, possibly involving the use of loops and stasis, the duos processed drones are incredibly compelling and atmospheric.
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