Plaster – Obscura (Album – Textvra)
Genre/Influences: IDM, Ambient, Cinematic.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: “Obscura” is the fifth album by Italian project Plaster and the first one released by Textvra. Driven by Gianclaudio Hashem Moniri who remained the single member on board, Plaster released most of their albums by Kvitnu.
Content: “Obscura” sounds as an album in progress; the sounds and influences becoming different although holding on elements from the past. This is a versatile album featuring at one side pure IDM pieces and at the other side a rather Cinematic/Ambient work. The work remains instrumental although you’ll notice spoken samplings.
+ + + : This work features 2 distinguishable sides and I definitely choose for IDM. Plaster has this genius to create sophisticated, danceable music supported with darker atmospheres. The icy sound treatments create this darker and freaky sensation which is mainly emerging at the title track.
– – – : I regret the album isn’t featuring more IDM-orientated cuts; the last part of the opus getting lost in less captivating Ambient music.
Conclusion: I’m missing a bit of cohesion between the different influences but the IDM side is damned great.
Best songs: “Obscura”, “Fiat Lux”, “Gutta Cavat Lapidem”, “Macte Animo”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/plastersound
Label: www.facebook.com/Textvura
About Plaster
Plaster is an electronic music project that emerged from the Rome underground scene in 2008, founded by Gianclaudio Hashem Moniri and Giuseppe Carlini. In 2009 the duo won the Roma Europa Web Factory award and shared the stage with Alva Noto and Ryoji Ikeda at the Dancity Festival, before relocating to Berlin later that year. Ukrainian label Kvitnu released most of Plaster’s early albums, including “Platforms” (2011), and the project also worked with Stroboscopic Artefacts and Touchin’ Bass.
Giuseppe Carlini stepped back from the project in 2014, and Gianclaudio Hashem Moniri continued alone, releasing the album “Mainframe” in 2015. He kept performing solo in Japan, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and across Europe, and worked on the collaborative project “Blends” (Eklero, 2021) with artists including Grischa Lichtenberger, Retina.it, Lakker and Brando Lupi. Carlini and Moniri reunited in 2023 for the EP “Clessidra.” “Obscura,” released on Textvra, is Plaster’s fifth album.
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