Nimh – Iron And Ice (Album – St.An.Da)
Genre/Influences: Ritual, Ambient, Experimental.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Italian musician Giuseppe Verticchio has been releasing productions under the Nimh moniker for more than twenty years. He collaborated with numerous artists and was involved with side-projects as well. He’s now back on track unleashing six new songs.
Content: “Iron And Ice” sounds like a sonic meeting between different influences and also different cultures. Verticchio composes his songs with a mix of authentic, acoustic, instruments on one side and electronic gear plus field recordings on the other. The songs reflect Eastern atmospheres injecting a mysterious touch to the work. The tracks are elaborate and progressively evolving.
+ + + : Giuseppe Verticchio is a respected musician who deserves wider recognition for his art. This new opus confirms the impressive skills of the musician who’s playing next to his familiar guitar and numerous ethnical instruments. He created an impressive and styled sonic canvas accentuated by overwhelming, Eastern, sound atmospheres. The music has a strong visual appeal which will make you dream away and visit perfumed and colorful distant countries of the Middle East. It’s an intimate journey built up with delicacy and ending into an uplifting effect. I especially recommend the opening song “Following The Circle” and “Grey Zone” although there’s something to say about each track.
– – – : The last cut (title song) which also is the longest one unfortunately appears to be the less convincing one.
Conclusion: Nimh is a project in constant evolution and improving most aspects and details of the production on every new work. “Iron And Ice” is a sublime musical journey.
Best songs: “Following The Circle”, “Grey Zone”, “Mojo’s Prophecy”, “Four Lands”
Rate: 8½.
Artist: www.oltreilsuono.com/nimh / www.facebook.com/giuseppe.verticchio.31
Label: http://store.silentes.it / www.facebook.com/standadischi
About Nimh
Nimh is the main moniker of Italian musician Giuseppe Verticchio, active under that name since 2001. He works with ambient, industrial and ritual material and has released on labels including Amplexus, Silentes, St.An.Da and Winter-Light.
Verticchio’s first two glass-mastered CDs, “The Impossible Days” and “Whispers From The Ashes” with Nefelheim, appeared on Amplexus in 2004. He worked with Maurizio Bianchi on the four-CD box “Together’s Symphony” in 2005 and with Pierpaolo Zoppo of Mauthausen Orchestra on “From Unhealthy Places” in 2009. With Andrea Marutti he records as Hall Of Mirrors, a duo that has produced “Reflections On Black”, “Forgotten Realm”, “Altered Nights” and “When Only Shades Remain”. Travels to Thailand since 1987 shaped his use of Oriental instruments and scales.
Winter-Light Records re-released the CD version of “Beyond This Crying Era” in 2019, adding four tracks to the six that had appeared on the 2012 vinyl edition on Synästhesie Schallplatten. Verticchio discussed that record with Side-Line in ‘Click Interview’ With Nimh: ‘I Have No ‘Rules’ Or A ‘Public Face’ To ‘Build’ And Promote’.
“Iron and Ice” was released on 22 April 2022 through St.An.Da and holds six tracks running about 61 minutes. Verticchio composed, performed and recorded the album in 2020 and 2021, playing all electronics, ethnic instruments and guitars, with field recordings and voices by him except a sampled choir on track 6. It followed “Circles of the Vain Prayers”, his previous solo CD of new material, by about six years.
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
