Tarsia

Giulio Aldinucci is a composer based in Siena (Tuscany), who also releases under the name Obsil. I had already heard his work under this moniker, through the excellent Psychonavigation label, with his ‘Vicino’ release. I sort of felt like I knew what to expect with his work, but ‘Tarsia’ was one of those rare moments, when music just takes you over, stops you in your busy tracks, and makes you just go ‘wow’. Now I am aware that the term ‘composer’ isn’t so often used for artists these days, nor should it really as it sounds far too grand, and rather classical. However, Giulio Aldinucci is a composer in the truest sense, with his classical structures and yes, very grand sound indeed. I am rather given to gushing about music I like, I know. And whilst I swore I would try to restrain myself as I try to write this at 1:30am, I am foolishly listening, once again, to ‘Tarsia’. It is an amazing, imaginative piece of work, so broad in vision, detailed and yet so easy on the ear. It is textured, wonderfully melodic and marks Giulio out as one of the finest producers / composers around today. Anyway, before I go off on one, here is what Giulio recently said about the name of the album in an interview with Fluid Radio: ‘The term Tarsia (or Intarsia) denotes an ancient technique of wood inlaying. The first examples of this practice date back to the XIV century and come from the Siena region. I have chosen this title because I consider this technique similar to the that of a lot of contemporary electro-acoustic music. To make these wood inlays they used rare and carefully selected natural elements, which were then treated, and sometimes individually coloured, and subsequently placed next to each other in order to create complex patterns, which is what many musicians within this field tend to do.’ The terms in play here; ‘natural’, ‘treated’, ‘individually coloured’, ‘complex’ pretty much cover the work perfectly. The only word missing here would be ‘wow’. Thank you.