painting petals on planet ghost

painting petals on planet ghost - fallen camellias (a silent place 2008)

"Second full-lenght album from Italy's Painting Petals On Planet Ghost, aka Maurizio & Roberto Opalio (My Cat Is An Alien) and vocalist Ramona Ponzini. 'Fallen Camellias' is a tribute to one of the greatest poetess ever, Japanese Yosano Akiko, whose work in literature in the early 1900's is considered as manifesto of the Japanese Romanticism. Imagine a Vashti Bunyan or a early Marianne Faithful singing sweet melodies in Japanese language, and you can have an idea of the musical and poetical universe of Painting Petals On Planet Ghost...The songs of 'Fallen Camellias' are built on acoustic guitar melodies and are made of the same pure, melancholic essentiality of the legendary Nick Drake... In the heart of winter covered by snow, let 'Fallen Camellias' be your warm blanket, as well as the promise of a new future spring. Here's a special Painting Petals On Planet Ghost's dedication: 'For those who drink the wine of love springtime is forever'." a silent place

foto: smarsham

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tom carter & vanessa arn

tom carter & vanessa arn - what is here for (a silent place 2007)

"Soundscapers Tom Carter and Vanessa Arn collaborate here on two tracks, the first a rather straight on ambient, the latter a moody, soupy mix of 50's sci-fi soundtrack drone and atmospherics taking their cue from interludes on the Paranoid album. Set side by side on What Is Here For it is the second tune that is the more effective and powerful.

This is essentially, though, a conversation between Carter's lap steel guitar and Arn's electro-acoustic drones. Recorded live, these two tracks of course utilize the sounds of the space itself as another instrument. The environment speaks through its silence as well as its absorption of the duo's sounds. If you listen closely, you can even here sounds from outside the studio drifting into the mix.

While the first track simmers and throbs at its own pace, clearly there is more meat to the second piece, and was probably the more fun out the two to play. Adding warped, droning colors taken from genre archetypes to Carter and Arn's already confident and emotional collaboration, makes for a dense, surprising listen. It is perhaps also a cool taste of where further explorations could take them." foxy digitalis

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