Featuring Paolo Angeli on prepared Sardinian guitar and Antonello Salis on piano & accordion. This amazing duo disc was recorded at three different concerts in Bologna, Italy in February, March & December of 2002. Nobody plays guitar quite like Paolo Angeli and it helps that nobody has that unique custom-made guitar that Paolo owns and plays. Antonello Salis has a few discs on Splasch and has recorded with Evan Parker, Nana Vasconsuelos and Riccardo Fassi. Starting with “Craul” the duo jump into a twisted, percussive exchange with Paolo banging on his strings while Antonello plays both inside the piano and on the keyboard with intense abandon. This is an extraordinary duo that is constantly changing in the way they attack their respective strings. Since Paolo has a unique system of pick-ups for his guitar, he can select certain strings and manipulate or distort them at will. It as if some scary electric guitar fragments soar in at times when you least expect it. Considering this is just a duo, it is amazing how many different sounds and approaches are used throughout each piece. Antonello seems to be drawing from older classical traditions at times, as well as providing other surprising twists and turns. Their first long piece ends with a delightful broken music box sort of melody. “Carta D’Imbarco” features some haunting accordion and more acoustic sounding guitar, the blend is just right. Paolo uses a bass drum pedal (on his guitar?) that adds even more suspense to this piece. Still, it is Antonello’s bizarre accordion playing that is from another world. Midway through “Vasche,” Antonello starts rubbing the strings of his piano while Paolo also plays some bent melodies along with him. Perfect music to make one’s skin crawl. An unexpected delight is the duo’s version of The Beatles “Mother Nature’s Son,” which gets turned inside out yet retains the charm of that sweet melody. The duo ends with a wonderfully mysterious piece called “MA.RI,” in which the accordion wheezes melodically while we hear some heavy alien breathing. Strange yet truly transformational.
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