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$24.99 CD
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ART
FLEURY
I Luoghi Del Potere
(Die Schachtel)
"E=mc2"
"L'overdose"
This stellar reissue of the first record by Italy's Art Fleury will no doubt remind some listeners of the more abstract moments of Can, the instrumental passages of In the Court of...-era King Crimson, or Henry Cow, with whom they toured with in the late-'70s. Much like the aforementioned groups, Art Fleury cannot safely be labeled a "prog" band, anymore than Renaissance tapestries can be called carpets. Perhaps even more than their esteemed peers, Art Fleury seemed possessed of a deep desire to keep their listeners -- and themselves -- from complacent musical experience, a desire that one senses was as much about radical politics as it was about music. Art Fleury's Augusto Ferrari (analog synthesizers), Maurizio Tomasoni (reeds and woodwinds), and Giangi Frugoni (guitars, bass) are capable of sudden, sometimes shocking virtuosity, to be sure, but there are no empty technical gestures here and this record finds the trio seamlessly blending elements of free improvisation, rock, tape music, and agitprop in a heady, propulsive stew that moves through the six tracks with a cinematic, even revolutionary, sense of purpose. These were the high '70s after all, and the members of Art Fleury were all card-carrying members of the radical activist group, Lotta Continua. Through their deft stop-and-start-on-a-dime instrumental sections, the band weaves urban field recordings, mechanically interrupted records, and expressionistic tape manipulation reminiscent of the work of Turkish Agitprop tape composer Ilhan Mimaroglu. To take the cinematic metaphor further, I Luoghi del Potere (Italian for "Places of Power") might be a movie full of angular architecture, rapid, disorienting inter-cutting, chase scenes, and broad, epic pans, and indeed, the liners have it that the band conceived of the record as a soundtrack to an imaginary film. [CC] |
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