Ennio Mazzon’s fascinating Ripples label has been quietly plugging along like its namesake, not flooding the market with microsound releases, but sending them out in ripples. The latest of these recordings comes from Franz Rosati, and is the best release on the label since Mazzon’s own In an undertone at a loose end. One can find no hint of the original source material, which is said to include folk songs from Europe and the Middle East; tones and notes shift, but crumple like sonic paper. The album is filled with particle noise, ranging from quiet crackles to rising whirls to sudden static bursts. Every track contains at least one peak moment in which the elements coalesce. The climactic minutes of “Pressure Oscillation” add a peculiar thrill, as do the steam vent utterings of “Stokes Drift”. The closing piece, “Surface Tension”, is the highlight, a rising tide of sound that starts at an already agitated level before surging to the higher ranges. In this sonic world the real is made to seem unreal ~ the sounds seem more threatening than in real life while simultaneously coming across as more structured and melodic. Rosati’s on to something here, and so is Mazzon; for those living in industrialized nations, this is a more apt soundtrack to the modern world than the “natural” sounds that surround us. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 