Luca Nieri

Alchemy

Image of Luca Nieri - Alchemy
Record Label
WONDERFULSOUND

About this item

We tend to think of Alchemy as some kind of black magic, but its roots are far more of this world, the origins of it found in medieval times, its aim simply to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects. It’s also the title of Luca Nieri’s brand new album, a spellbinding collection of instrumental music, a skewed homage to Nieri’s favourite film soundtracks of the 60s and 70s, and the follow-up to 2017’s self-titled effort, which was lauded by Rough Trade as a record which “exists in a cosmos, textured and beautifully melancholy.”

Informed by the notion of alchemy, and inspired by the desire to create moods without words, Nieri began to explore the idea of Cymatics, a process in which different patterns are created by the vibration of an object’s surface. Suitably, the resulting album is something both peculiar and indistinct. Once more recorded at home, the twelve tracks on Alechmy bristle with energy and intrigue, old sounds woven together in new ways to create something decidedly unique.

With simple numbers rather than song titles, Nieri’s latest work will take on a unique life of its own for each and every listener; the subtle unraveling of the songs not just tying themselves to the world around us but forging new pathways, new images and landscapes, as they roll subtly forward, beautifully detailed and expansive.

From subtle weaves of guitar, meandering and starkly atmospheric, and fragile piano pieces, to the more brightly-coloured and varied compositions that showcase an assembly of various instruments, including bass, drums, harpsichord, Alchemy utilises intricate production methods, elevating the whole record in to some kind of psychedelic dream-state, a labyrinthine journey of sound.

At once both elegant and complex, Alchemy is as a unique piece of work as we’ve come to expect from Nieri, via his previous work with The Monk’s Kitchen and his subsequent solo work.

TRACK LISTING

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4 (Windmills Of Your Mind)
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10
11. 11
12. 12

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