GIOVANNI LAMI “Opale” C22 (Dinzu Artefacts)




The inaugural Dinzu Artefacts batch – the label an extension of the Spring Break Tapes brand (but of course its own thing) – is a monument to sound sculpture. Let those words sink in for a second. Giovanni Lami, whose Opale consists of two sides, “Primo Solco” and “Secondo Solco,” has concocted, for his part, a piece of experimental music that defies the traditional boundaries of concept and execution, of the physical and audible. It’s like he’s placed a theoretical audio mirror in the same room as all the source material he’s drawn from for Opale, and in doing so the monument becomes a monument to the monument, a sound sculpture chiseled in ProTools (or whatever) that acts as a sound sculpture to his sound sculpture. The mirror becomes itself, reflecting whatever it’s defining into infinity, and therefore ends up becoming defined by it.

Lami, a Ravenna-born artist (that’s in Italy, you lazy map truthers), literally builds Opale, his sonic carpentry coalescing itself into one structure or another before moving on to the next level. Field recordings mix with ambient texture, resulting in combinations that are almost tangible. Lami’s experimental processes are never less than interesting, as each moment escapes pure sound and becomes physically tactile, a magic trick that my imagination completes as the willing participant. Each side stretches over ten minutes, and getting lost in the pieces is the easy part – reacclimating yourself to the world as you remember it is the tricky bit. Opale is perfect for museum earbud accompaniment as you stroll through corridors of modern art.



--Ryan Masteller