GIGALDI - AIRE
out now! Vinyl LP
This is my second collaboration with the musician Gigi Gratt. To mix up music and art is a great pleasure for me and to work on comission always a big challenge. Many thanx to Interstellar records and Thomas Neulinger for the Layout.
The fact that Gigi “Gigaldi” Gratt plays a half dozen different
instruments on his second solo album is impressive but will come as no
surprise to those familiar with the creative range of this musical
jack-of-all-trades and master of many. What is surprising, however, is
the central role of the spoken word on AIRE. The A side of the LP offers
five tracks which could easily be read/heard as experimental poetry set
to music. The musical compositions are as free-spirited as they are
compact, while the lyrics are cryptically analytical. Gigaldi lends his
voice to a pulsating beat, contradicts it with melodious loops, chimes
and floating chants, in order to set it free in a sphere of skillful
tinkering. His delivery oscillates between robotically calm and highly
expressive. Syllables, words, sentences are repeated, dismembered and
regrouped in an electrifying manner – until they reveal new meanings in
the carefully constructed acoustic space.
The vocals add political motifs to Gigaldi’s work. He sounds out the
idea of an unconditional basic income, yelps at the concept of property,
reports from quarantine. The B side could hardly be more different. It
comprises a single Afrobeat number that brings in four guest artists.
Vocals are provided by Magdalenka (Vabrassmas) whose refreshing song in a
fantasy language deepens the gradually developing trance. The groove of
drummer Bernhard Breuer (Tumido, Elektro Guzzi) is smoothly matched by
Georg Schwantner’s (Romanovstra) dynamic sax and Richie Herbst
(Regolith) keeps the upbeat hymn grounded with electro noise.
AIRE forges together off-the-wall deconstruction and motley hypnosis. Two sides of a gold medal. (interstellar records)
Musik: Gigi Gratt
Cover & Labels: Inga Hehn
Layout: Thomas Neulinger