Alio Die & Parallel Worlds – The Utopian Blossom (Album – Hic Sunt Leones)
Alio Die & Parallel Worlds – The Utopian Blossom
Genre/Influences: Ambient, experimental, cinematographic.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: This album is a new collaboration between Stefano Musso (Italy) and Bakis Sirros (Greece). It’s the third collaborative work between Alio Die and Parallel Worlds and a new experiment between the electro-acoustic world of the Italian ambient master and the analogue/modular sonic universe of the Greek artist.
Content: Both debut cuts are progressively built up, animated by relaxing passages, but still spiced with field recordings. The tracks are evasive and yet there’s a kind of mysterious and somewhat dark flavor hanging over the composition. The album moves quite progressively into a more cinematic approach, which is more monotonous. The last track moves back into darkness, like an apotheosis or who knows maybe a prelude to a next collaboration. Notice by the way the work features 7 tracks, which each have a duration time over the 7 minutes.
+ + + : If you like ambient music composed with electronics and with an experimental flavor on top, this album will fulfill your expectations. The ambient approach has something serene and peaceful at one side, but also featuring an exciting darker touch at the other. And that’s precisely what I like in both debut tracks and the last cut of the work. There’s a perfect chemistry between both artists.
– – – : This opus has a great debut and start, but some tracks in between are a little bit too monotonous.
Conclusion: This album will for sure catch the attention of both artist’s fan base, but it also is an easy listening piece of music to relax and dream away.
Best songs: “Underwater Fields”, “Ethereal Abyss”, “Introspective Oceans”.
Rate: (7).
Artists: www.facebook.com/Alio-Die-224841924199335 / www.parallel-worlds-music.com / www.facebook.com/parallelworldsmusic
About Alio Die & Parallel Worlds
Alio Die is Stefano Musso, who studied art and electronics in his home town of Milan, Italy, and began performing ambient-electronic music under that name in 1989. His 1992 release “Under An Holy Ritual” on Projekt drew international attention, and he has since released more than 20 albums, collaborating with artists including Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana and Mathias Grassow. Parallel Worlds is the project of Bakis Sirros, a downtempo and dark electronica artist from Athens, Greece, working with vintage analogue modular synths since founding the project in 1994. “The Utopian Blossom” is the pair’s third collaborative album on Hic Sunt Leones.
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