Stefano Pilia & Valerio Tricoli 'Cantor Park' | Il Pallone

"Cantor Park è una perla rara, un miraggio evocato dalla perfetta intesa fra due anime affini. Ci rammenta che accedere al territorio liminale fra oggetto e sua manifestazione acustica, fra ricordo e rappresentazione, richiede strumenti e abilità non comuni, ma che se è fatto col rispetto dovuto, può dare dei frutti unici." The New Noise

Pilia and Tricoli have been playing together for long enough to instinctively know how to react to each other's improvisation. "Cantor Park" was recorded during lockdown at Bologna's Xing, with Pilia playing live on guitar and modular synth, reacting to Tricoli's expected freeform tape manipulations. Then Tricoli grabbed the material and took it home to his studio in Munich, where he formed it into a balanced album. The duo were initially informed by Cantor's theories of the infinite, and display this by forming modern concréte soundscapes that bristle with kosmische energy. Tricoli's ASMR tape flexes set an initial pace, infusing the piece with magic, and Pilia joins with warbling drones, eventually adding crashing waves of electric guitar.

The key here is the duo's control of each other's intentions. Pilia's love of harmonic romanticism is shown off at times, but is always tempered by Tricoli's keen processes and disruptive tape techniques. Similarly, Tricoli's relatively austere psychedelic sounds - reflected on the mindboggling "Say Goodbye To The Wind" - are lightened somewhat by Pilia's post-rock sensibilities. It's billed as their most spontaneous piece of work, and the lightness and live sensation certainly lends it a quality that sounds as if it's pushing both artists out of their comfort zone. It's refreshing to hear two veterans so comfortable with each other that they're unafraid to keep asking for more.