Reviews 201: Il Guardiano del Faro
Several weeks ago I covered Choice Works 1982 - 1985, Time Capsule’s loving, informative, and visually gorgeous Yuji Toriyama retrospective. But Yuji wasn’t the first balearic hero of years past to get this special treatment, as Time Capsule had a few months prior released a deluxe reissue of Il Guardiano del Faro’s Oasis. This cinematic epic was crafted by Federico Monti Arduini and a few friends in 1978 from his seaside paradise of Porto Santo Stefano, and sees Poly and Mini-moogs, string synths, e-pianos, drum machines, echo boxes, and tape recorders uniting for a radiant waltz through mirage-shrouded desert dreamworlds. There are ambient disco burners, swooning Italian film orchestrations, proto-new age and post-classical expanses, exotic jazz fusion adventures, and moody Morricone/Alessandroni-style spaghetti western guitar meditations, all working together to achieve Federico’s goal of helping the listener understand that “inside, they are vulnerable and emotional but stubbornly alive.” Of course, the liner notes are detailed and captivating, tracing Federico’s development from a child piano prodigy through to his early flirtations with and subsequent abandonment of classical music and onto his later professional triumphs and successes as a solo artist. And his transformative meeting with Robert Moog is given special focus, with the essay contextualizing Federico’s pioneering use of Moog synthesizers in Italy and explaining how they allowed him to abandon restrictive and traditional forms of musical expression in favor of wide-eyed experimentation and intuitive solo exploration.
Il Guardiano del Faro - Oasis (Time Capsule, 2018)
“Sinfonia al sole che nasce” is an enchanting lullaby for the birth of the sun, with golden drops of Rhodes piano moving through vibrato waves alongside crystal healing tones. We then transition into aching solo synth-strings…angelic and gleaming, hymn-like and heavenly…until a sunrise piano arp enters and weaves feathery strands of light while futuristic harpsichords skip on sunbeams. All the while, contrabasses and cellos join in as the song works itself into gentle climax of aquatic new age bubbles and pastoral strings that float the soul. Tulio De Piscopo joins Federico for “Miss Springtime (…Mia),” which begins in a humid noir groove. Smoke shrouded Rhodes pianos hover above electro and acoustic cymbals that splash through twilight atmospheres and Tulio subverts his characteristic funk power with a sunset drum stroll along an idyllic stream. Smooth fusion basslines walk up and down the scale and swooning theremin-sounding synths trail the piano melodies, bringing vibes of (The) Ventures in Space as well as Haruomi Hosono’s “Tropical Trilogy” as we find ourselves in a surfy sci-fi waltz on an exo-planetary moon beach. There’s a passage of mediterranean mesmerism where seaside reed melodies evoke romantic gondola rides and classic Italian cinema…the swooning balearica presaging the work of Bonnie & Klein by decades. Elsewhere, tom fills and overlapping string dreamscapes break down into funk jam-outs that feature fragile pianos tearing it up alongside fried fusion leads that approximate interstellar saxophones…everything scatting on galactic currents as waves of synthesized solar light purify the mind.
Tulio appears again for “Non una corda al cuore,” which recalls the melodic sunbirth themes from the opening track on wavering Moog fluids that dance and harmonize in the air. Skittering electro-cymbals move beneath vaporous string orchestrations and paradise bass walks until Tulio crashes in with a pounding and regal beat…the soft echoes and reverbs in the mix giving his massive fills a three-dimension quality. Ethereal brass sections play solar spells overhead as the multi-tracked melodies begin ascending ever higher through realms of rainbow luminescence and Federico continues overloading the mix with aching layers of Moog and lustrous piano squiggles while sometimes allowing searing solos to break free from the euphoric haze, their jaw-dropping leads of slow motion majesty wrapping around the towering beats in a way that looks ahead to the earth-shaking power of early 2000s post-rock. Waves of harmonic wonder and sun-soaked melody unite to carry the spirit to impossible heights…the heavenly power bringing tears and stealing breath from the lungs. And Federico is not content to just blow you away with white light power, rather, he insists on completely obliterating the mind and body, leaving nothing behind but pure alchemical essence, which then floats freely upon the plodding drum smashes as everything else is wrapped around by starshine symphonies and hyperreal colorclouds.
“Lady Moon” is one of my favorite discoveries of recent memory…a gorgeous and heart-breaking meditation for the dust-caked western guitar of Johnny Farina. Federico joins in with subdued e-piano mysticisms and ghost organs swell in the background while cold winds blow over expansive desert vistas. A blood red sun descends below the horizon as immersive washes of synthesized light ascend, at times recalling Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine,” only as if transmuted to faraway lands where cacti reign and lizard and snakes crawl across sun-baked expanses of cracked sand. Johnny’s moody guitar continues holding down a ghost town shuffle while also being nearly overwhelmed by sweltering waves of arid synthesis and overhead, buzzards circle as they await the demise of some tormented soul wandering in desolation. A glowing web of synthesized string beauty initiates “La ragazza che amava il mare e il vento” while soft psychedelic slides and etheric light trails diffuse through swirling phaser clouds. It’s a blissed out ambient utopia of cosmic drama and sea-worn beauty…the title roughly translating to “the girl who loved the wind and sea”…and as the song progresses into a new age fantasia, you can almost feel her deep longing for the salty gales and crashing waves of an ocean of dreams.
Tulio appears one last time in “Disco Divina,” his stoned and spaced out disco groove supported by deep bubbling basslines while hypnotizing washes of cymbal swelling radiance overtake the mix. Outer-dimensional harpsichords bang away and dance through the night with sprightly space leads, while wailing vocal synths evoke a sort of angel opera. Massive tom smashes fly through the air as synths pan and move like intelligent liquids and all the while, the string orchestrations grow increasingly massive and eventually consume the mix with Arabic incantations. As it all comes together, we find ourselves in a faraway mystical land…some sort of camelback adventure on an alien planet where vibed out e-piano fusion solos glide on soul sweeping strings that emanate from the rocks of a mysterious desert palace. We then head further into an Arabic fever dream with “Oasis.” Swinging electro-drums and mystical string melodies waft over wobbling tuba synths that dance through exotic patterns. Splashing toms work around hissing cymbal cascades while the pianos and synths lock together for dueling snake charmer leads…everything eventually giving way to insectoid noises swarming around synth leads that fry the brain. During a jaw-dropping climax, paradise strings grow to epic levels of cosmic wonder…their dreamy exotica and immersive psychedelia evoking Omar Khorshid, only swapping his surf guitars for majestic synthesized symphonies. It’s the sonic equivalent of a sandstorm building in a blood red sky, its gusting winds washing over extra-terrestrial temples while alien druids cast spells against the violent torrents of nature.
“Immenso mare, immenso amore” provides a welcome come down from the ecstatic adventurism of “Oasis” as it allows us to float gently on a swinging Roland TR-77 shuffle. Tropical hand drums and hissing cymbals glide on aquamarine currents while humid tropical nightscapes are evoked by the gorgeous string synth weavings. Sometimes heatwave blasts of wavering magic flow over the body while at other times aching violins and violas sway together in the moonlight alongside golden piano chords that seem to swim through pools of polychromatic light. The vibrant euphoria continues building as brain-piercing feedback synths solo alongside the sad songs of an interstellar seabird flying alone through a world of dreams. And the melodies are so suffused with warmth and blinding spiritual light as everything moves together for a paradisiacal slow dance upon sea-foam clouds, climaxing with an absolutely maddening synth solo that contrasts the pastoral ambiance and gliding beauty beneath it with atonal liquid fire and mind melting runs up and down the scale, all wild skronking clusters of electronic chaos and fusion explosiveness raining down upon a heart-melting submarine drift.
In “Zenith,” Federico’s amorphous string movements float upon skittering electro-drum propulsion. Imagine fast motion beat hypnotics comprised of tribal toms, wood blocks, and static metal blasts that all fly together on comet tails, resulting in the kind of tripped out machine drum magic associated with 70s krautrock or lofi 90s space rock. Everything in the mix is smothered in echoes and hazy reverb and those scorching harpsichords appear once more to solo over it all…moving through thick puddles of phaser liquids that cling to the futurist tones as they climb towards the heavens. There are haunted space whistles that flow like strands of interstellar gas…as if Alessandro Alessandroni was blasted through a galactic vortex and then allowed to let loose his cinematic western melodies from deep within a dense cloud of pink and blue. And through it all, primordial string orchestrations evoke Kubrick’s “The Dawn of Man” while being intercut with mysterious detective film atmospherics. The “Finale” of Oasis sees a return to the melodies and dream spells of opener “Sinfonia al sole che nasce,” this time with nacreous strands of Rhodes piano floating alone while creating gaseous bass bubbles and meditative vibration waves that shimmer and swirl…giving life and movement to Federico’s daydream melodies for an ethereal coda.
(images from my personal copy)
