Sonologyst is solo project of Italian sound artist Raffaele Pezzella. Out now via the UK label Cold Spring is the new Sonologyst 2CD album “Sonic documentary” which re-discovers the charm of shortwave transmissions, and more precisely the clandestine shortwave transmissions culled from a span of nearly four decades (1982-2021) via the so-called Number Stations.

These transmissions include repetitive voices, signals, sound pulses and short pieces of music, all of which was collated and edited to compose the tracks of the main album. Originating from covert radio stations engaged in military and espionage endeavours, the tracks unveil a hidden sonic landscape of strategic communication. The whole is a mix of dark ambient, deep drone music and cinematic sound art, providing an auditory exploration “of the ongoing Cold War” as the musician puts it.

The second disc offers unaltered recordings accompanied only by a drone. Raffaele Pezzella adds: “It offers an unfiltered glimpse into the world of clandestine communication, where words are transmitted beneath the radar and in the shadowy confines of the electromagnetic spectrum.”

This double CD comes in a matt-finish gatefold ecopak with graphic design by Abby Helasdottir and is available below.

About the so-called Number Stations on this new Sonologyst LP

Number Stations have been broadcasting short-wave radio transmissions for decades, detectable at various times and durations across numerous frequencies. These enigmatic broadcasts, often featuring voices reciting sequences of numbers or letters using the international phonetic alphabet, Morse code signals, or sound pulses, typically begin with unique transmission start signals, such as musical snippets, letter sequences, or note scales, recurring at scheduled intervals.

Telecommunications experts have extensively researched these transmissions, revealing their use by various secret services for sending brief text messages to undercover agents abroad. Post-1989, following the Berlin Wall’s collapse, there was a notable decline in these broadcasts. However, recent years have witnessed a resurgence, with new broadcasts emerging from global players like China, Korea, and India.

Shortwave radio, an inexpensive and reliable medium, remains largely impervious to interception or blockage, barring nuclear events, making it an ideal clandestine communication tool in an era akin to a new Cold War. Reports of number stations date back to at least World War I, with accounts such as Archduke Anton of Austria, during his youth, intercepting and relaying their messages to Austrian military intelligence.

These high-frequency radio signals, transmitted at lower powers, can traverse the globe under optimal conditions influenced by local RF noise, weather, seasons, and sunspots. Effective reception requires a suitably tuned antenna, which may be noticeably large, and a high-quality receiver.

While the exact locations of many numbers stations remain unknown, their transmission technology is well-documented: standard shortwave transmitters with power outputs ranging from 10 kW to 100 kW.

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, Abstract, Ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Unexplained Sounds Group label owner Raffaele Pezzella moves back to Cold Spring to release the newest work of his Sonologyst music project. It’s a new conceptual work inspired by scientist Michio Kaku exploring the ‘paraphysical dimension of cosmic music.’ 

Content: The work of Sonologyst is a new kind of sonic puzzle or sound collage mixing dark atmospheres with vintage sound treatments and Experimental music reminding me of the early 80s era. The tracks have been progressively built up by an impressive arsenal of noises and manipulated sound treatments.

+ + + : Raffaele Pezzella reveals himself as a true sound scientist. You get the impression the sounds of this work have been composed in a sonic lab instead of a studio. But I like the accessible format of the work which I think is mainly due to the dark atmospheres recovering the work. This album makes me think of an imaginary fusion between Experimental- and Ambient music but even Krautrock.

– – – : Sonologyst remains a true sonic enigma which is not always easy to catch and to endure. You better like Experimental productions when listening to Sonologyst.

Conclusion: I’m always impressed by the sonic complexity of Sonologyst compositions and this new work is not that different but it’s one of the best albums of the Italian artist in history.

Best songs: “Ad Astra”, “Through Memories And Galaxies”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, soundscape.

Format: Digital, CD, Cassette.

Background/Info: “Unexplained Sounds” is an essential work in the discography of Sonologyst. Raffaele Pezzella originally released the album in 2014, the title of the album becoming the name of the label set up by the artist. Later on the album has been re-released on cassette format and now gets a new edit on CD featuring two extra songs.

Content: It’s very important to know the concept of the work, which is indicated by the title. This album appears to be a kind of sonic documentary featuring ‘unexplained sounds’; noises we all can notice when simply listening to the sky, or the depths etc. The work therefore reveals numerous field recordings featuring samplings from the NASA archive.

This is not about music and songs properly speaking, but a collection of noises, which sometimes create a certain atmosphere.

+ + + : More than ever, Sonologyst reveals its truly face at this work. This is an album getting us back to early experiments in music and I especially recommend this work for fans of the defunct Staalplaat and Dorobo labels. If you remember the work of Alan Lamb, Randy Greif, Roel Meelkop ao you for sure gone like this work. It’s a documentary, an assembly of noises creating an obscure soundscape which especially emerges at “Unknown Sound In Finland” and “Andromeda”.

– – – : This work is totally experimental and definitely suited for a very restricted number of fine tasters.

Conclusion: We sometimes forget there are so many genres and sub-genres in music. Sonologyst is hard to label as one particular music style –except experimental or avant-garde, but that’s probably also a style or at least a different approach in dealing with music.

Best songs: “Unknown Sound In Finland”, “Andromeda”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst

Label: www.facebook.com/unexplainedsoundsgroup

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, dark-ambient.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Italian label owner (Unexplained Sounds Group, Eight Tower Records) Raffaele Pezzella is back on track as ‘Sonologyst’. He already collaborated with Cold Spring and both parties renewed the experience for this new work. The concept of the album is clearly indicated in the title. Pezzella explores different ways and rituals old civilizations used to commemorate the dead.

Content: Sonologyst remains driven and inspired by experimental- and abstract sound treatments, but this album also has something more accessible. The artist reveals a more explicit dark-ambient and ritual input. He creates an astounding atmosphere accentuated by drones and glaring sound treatments. You sometimes get the sensation being purchased by giant scissors so in the end this work still has something paranoiac, which in a way became a kind of Sonologyst trademark.

+ + + : I get the impression Sonologyst has enlarged its proper sonic horizon. The tracks remain pretty experimental, but there also is a more explicit dark-ambient side featured. That’s probably the reason why this album also is the one with the strongest visual appeal, which mainly comes through at “Purgatorium” and “Primeval Science”. I also like some elements, which sound like connected with other cultures and continents. It creates this ritual and somewhat tribal aspect. I also like this composition for its global elaboration. You can feel the artist has put a lot of efforts in sound research and –creation.

– – – : The more abstract/experimental passages of the album aren’t my favorite ones. They sometimes sound a bit improvised, losing the effect you might experience at the other tracks.

Conclusion: The concept behind the title of this work has inspired Sonologyst to release a meaningful work, which might be considered as a truly reference in the artist’s work.

Best songs: “Purgatorium”, “Primeval Science”, “Anubis, House Of Dead Prince”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst

Label:  www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Raffaelle Pezzella is an Italian artist (Sonologyst) and label owner. He set up Unexplained Sounds Group in 2015. The goal and concept of the label became a kind of investigation of contemporary world-wide underground music related with experimental-, industrial- and dark-ambient stuff. The compilation series make you discover underground music from very distant and unknown underground scenes. According to me it’s one of the most fascinating compilations I’ve ever heard. I highly support the work of Raffaele Pezzela for the original concept, but also for the efforts he put in it. Respect!

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I think it’s now five years ago you started compiling the “Survey”-compilation series. Can you briefly remind us what it’s all about? What has been the original purpose of this compilation series?

Raffaele:Yes exactly. Everything started in the month of February 2015. The first “Survey” was focused on the Italian experimental music scene. Back in time I had no idea what kind of project I would working on during the following years. This first “Survey” was made just to collect music from my country, made by various musicians I was in contact with. The release got good reactions online (it was a digital release only). Next I decided to continue exploring other music scenes like the ones of France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia, UK etc..

At a certain point, after working on a Russian ritual ambient compilation, I realized that there was much more to do in terms of concept; not just limiting to compile anthologies, but thinking about how the new and experimental music could be rooted and connected to the folk music traditions of the places musicians come from. That was the reason why I began to look at the non-Western countries, where that connection is more evident and meaningful, as on the musical side, as well on the social and political side. Eventually the whole project is under the name “Sound Mapping Project”.

Q: How do you proceed to find and select the artists for your compilations? Do you’ve some specific criteria when it comes to influences, sound & production? And what about the place where the artists stay (I mean do all the artists featured on the compilations reside in their own country or abroad)?

Raffaele: The majority of them lives in the origin country; actually only a few of them live abroad, I’d say less than 20%. Of course Internet is a powerful media to be in touch with people from all over the world, and managing various social pages, I have daily contacts with artists from everywhere, since many years.

Currently the most important criteria I have in mind to produce a new “Anthology”, is the connection of the contemporary music research with the folk music roots of the country the “Anthology” is dedicated to. If you like, it’s in a certain way like the Unexplained Sounds Group label is (or would like to be) a sort of Folkways or Ocora label of the experimental and alternative music.

The most interesting aspect of this research criteria is that the music is not caged in a globalized approach; in every “Anthology” you have to feel and taste the culture of the country in question, and not music that is substantially very similar to the most trendy music coming from US or UK. There is a form of political resistance behind this, even though often it’s not present at a conscious level. Some artists like Ghazi Barakat (Pharoah Chromium) from Palestine, or the Mohammad and Mehdi Mehrabani-Yeganeh brothers (Saint Abdullah) from Iran, are politically involved in an explicit way, while many others aren’t. But all of them have in common the same love for the musical traditions of their birth places.

In terms of sound, that means I won’t ever release a compilation totally focused on the noise scene of a non Western country, simply because noise music is more or less the same everywhere.

Q: I can imagine you must have discovered some interesting artists and eventually unknown scenes? What have been your greatest discoveries and experiences thus far?

Raffaele: No doubt about it, the discovery of the Iranian experimental music scene. The number of musicians playing electronic music, electro-acoustic, dark-ambient and avant-garde is simply impressive there. I wouldn’t ever imagine a such abundance of projects. So I began to study the evolution of new music in Iran and found that in 70’s the government provided a home for the flowering of electronic music and avant-garde arts. An officially sponsored arts festival (the “Shiraz”-festival) featured music, at times commissioned, by musicians such as Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, Gordon Mumma, David Tudor and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Western works were programmed alongside traditional Persian music, dance and drama, and contemporary Iranian cinema. Plans were developed for a significant arts center, which was to include state of the art electronic music and recording studios. A new generation of Iranian composers and artists were inspired by the festivals to integrate contemporary techniques and aesthetics, often including electronics. Further developments within Iran came to a halt with the coming of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Q: I can easily imagine it’s not an easy job compiling such a compilation series so what are the main difficulties you encountered? And what about the artists, which are sometimes living in hostile political regimes (think about Iran, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon etc…)?

Raffaele: Of course artists are extremely happy their music can be highlighted to the Western audiences. The biggest difficulty is when you face a project regarding places where there are still not so many avant-garde musicians. For example Africa is a continent with a great potential, but if you exclude the African musicians living outside their countries, you can’t find hundreds of people to work with. It’s the reason why I still couldn’t find a single African country to focus on (maybe Egypt could be an exception), and preferred to consider the entire continent. Probably in Africa the history was different than in some regions of Middle-East (Iran or Lebanon), but on the other hand that is an exciting aspect too, for I’m sure in the near future we’re going to be very surprised by the African musicians in terms of experimental music. The Unexplained Sounds Group’s radar will be pointed to them for sure.

Q: Referring to label deals, airplay, concerts etc… what’s the impact of such a compilation series and what have been the reactions you and the bands got?

Raffaele: At the moment I’m still not involved with events and the organization of live concerts. I hope to work on that in the future, but at the moment time is barely enough to manage all the things I already do, including my own music project Sonologyst.

The impact was very good thusfar, and the resonance of these projects is spreading more and more by the time passing. Hundreds of people contacted me to tell they had no idea of the existence of such music in places like Iran, Lebanon, Cameroun, Kuwait, Afghanistan and so on, and even though the label is very small and self financed, the exposure is coming to grow. Official magazines are still partially absent, but new media like ‘Bandcamp daily news’ already gave much result to the “Sound Mapping Project”, alongside with many music critics like you. And we all know that digital media are the future.

Q: Are there some countries and/or places on earth you’ll not try to get on board and what are the further compilations we might expect?

Raffaele: Absolutely not. My dream is to publish “Anthologies” covering the most distant and unknown corners of the world, from Alaska to North-Korea. Just I hope to live enough to complete the mission (lol). The next compilation is going to be released while I’m having this interview with you. It’ wil be an anthology focused on experimental music from Indonesia. Stay tuned!!

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, dark-cinematographic, dark-ambient, abstract, industrial.

Background/Info: Unexplained Sounds Group owner Raffaele Pezzella is back under his artist moniker: Sonologyst. He self-released his latest creation wants to be a ‘dreamlike mental landscape of nonsensical memories, a metamorphic passage from the blackness, the shadows of a lost beauty; everything frozen in the stillness of phantom recordings”.

Content: If you’re familiar with the style of this Italian sound alchemist, you for sure expect an experimental recording. And that’s exactly what “Phantoms” is all about although it also explores other-, but related sonic genres. It’s for sure experimental or abstract, but still featuring a cold taste for industrial- and dark-ambient music. Sonologyst creates a sonic mayhem, which comes to an apotheosis at “Fragments Of A Winter With A Few Other Cards To Play”. The tracks have been progressively built up and often getting close to a real climax. 

+ + + : Raffaele Pezzella clearly likes sonic collages, his works being characterized by a wide sonic canvas where the ‘sonic operator’ is mixing field recordings and sonic treatments together. Sometimes spooky and next totally abstract-like, Sonologyst didn’t change the familiar way of working. It makes all the originality of the artist and his project, but more than ever before he clearly reveals to be a truly noise/sound collector.

– – – : The experimental side of the work remains the less accessible one. You sometimes get the impression to face a sonic puzzle without that much cohesion.

Conclusion: Sonologyst moves on exploring the wider fields of experimental/abstract music while also injecting frightening passages.

Best songs: “Orient Out Of Tune”, “Fragments Of A Winter With A Few Other Cards To Play”, “Phantoms”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.facebook.com/sonologyst

Label: www.facebook.com/unexplainedsoundsgroup

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Experimental, minimal-electronics, abstract, soundscape.

Background/Info: Raffaele Pezzella is an Italian artist and the owner of Unexplained Sound Group. He’s active as a musician under the Sonologyst moniker and has already released multiple productions during the past few years. This new work reveals a conceptual approach transposing theories about electrons into music.

Content: If science and research about electrons is a complex, but fascinating subject, it also reflects the sonic exploration of Sonologyst. The work is a constant exploration of experimental noise fields, which often sound like signals emerging from distant and unknown music planets. But is it really ‘music’ properly speaking?

“Electrons: A Scientific Essay” rapidly becomes a kind of abstract soundscape where the composer is manipulating the knobs of his machines to obtain a kind of hostile sound atmosphere. There’s an interesting progression running through the tracks and especially the final cuts are worthy of examination.

+ + + : Raffaele Pezzella is more a sound architect instead of a musician. You feel a fascination for sounds and noises, which have been transformed and adapted into a kind of sonic rarity with a dark and sometimes disturbing touch. This is the right production for lovers of experimental music.

– – – : Sonologyst clearly appeals for a much selected group of music freaks. This is not the most accessible production and clearly an antidote to music with the typical verse – chorus structure.

Conclusion: Sonologyst is a kind of sonic alien composing a paranormal sound, which is impossible to define and hard to catch.

Best songs: “Zeeman Effect”, “Hadronic Telescope”.

Rate: (7).

Band: www.facebook.com/RaSonologyst

Label: www.facebook.com/unexplainedsoundsgroup

Inferno Sound Diaries

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.

www.side-line.com