The Wire (March 2008) --english--
28-02-2008
29 year old Andrea Belfi is one of the more productive element in italy's minimal rock undergorund.
His inventive,dirgerlike drumming and enhanced electronics are a notable ingredients in groups like Christa Pfangen,Rosolina Mar, Medves and other assorted collaborations. Woring alone, his music seems to emanate to somo very private cocoon of improvisation, a bower of retreat wrought in hollow, funereal drumming, haloed by a drifting pollen of percussive effects.
On his previous solo album, Between Neck and Stomach (hapna 2006), he attempted to acustically animated his house, making it "a living creature with its own voice", for example hitting on frequencies that would cause kitchen implements to rattle and hum. That Hypersensitivity to sound and spcace continues in Knots, whose "Parte Primera" engulfs you slowly and tenderly, like the unfurling tentacles of some underwater mollusc. Some of it reminiscent of Steve Jansen's recent work, and the various incarnation of Dean Roberts are another touchstone- Robert's " phrase "uneasy flowers" (the titleof his new Autistic Daughthers cd) apltly describes Belfi's complete communion.
Belfi imagines his piece as wordless songs, and the four "parts" here do seem to divide into repeated sections like verses and choruses, thought more in the way of returning to discrete atmospheres. The drum kit is closely recorded and contacted miked, spreading its mass across and beyond the stereo field, trailing a dead weight of percussive asideds like a thinker's pots and pans. Music such as this is too easily a mere exercise in dexterity and endurance; Belfi manages to combine all the pieces of his puzzle into something with a consistent, downcast mood.
Rob Young
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Andrea Belfi
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