Of course, Nosound don’t actually produce no sound, although Scintilla, their fifth album, is a carefully poised and epic work which, in classic post-rock style, utilises dynamics to maximum effect. This means that, having spent, as their biography attests, a decade of crafting a very particular type of widescreen melancholia and wistful imagery’ ‘Scintilla’ sees a shift in their sound.
Much of the album’s focus is inward, the product of a period of personal upheaval and a desire for change for Giancarlo Erra. This manifests in songs which are deliberate, brooding, reflective in tone and largely centred around acoustic instrumentation. There’s a progressive feel to the expansive meanderings which find Erra explore a range of emotions, and while it’s very much a contemporary album, there are definite hints of Pink Floyd present. ‘Last Lunch’ combines mournful cello and jittery drum beats to create a tension beneath the serene, echo-soaked surface. Long instrumental passages stretch out graceful tranquillity and evoke wistful memories of dappled sunlight.
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‘Sogno E Incendio’ features Italian singer Andrea Chimenti, who also co-wrote he track, imbuing it with a richness and understated passion which is subtly powerful. Elsewhere, ‘The Perfect Wife’ is a shimmering nine-minute deluge of emotional anguish, a sustained crescendo of bitterness, which contrasts with the sparse piano-led ‘Love is Forever’.
‘Scintilla’ is by no means an uplifting album, heavy as it is with the pain of loss and longing, frustration and desolation. And yet, there is a purity about it which brings a kind of joy only music drawn from those difficult places can achieve.
Nosound Online
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