L’Ira del Baccano Premiere “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” Video; Cosmic Evoked Potentials out March 3
Italian instrumentalist heavy progressive rockers L’Ira del Baccano will release their new album, Cosmic Evoked Potentials, on March 3, through Subsound Records. Recorded live in 2021, the band count it as their fourth full-length behind 2017’s Paradox Hourglass (review here), 2014’s Terra 42 (review here) and 2013’s Si Non Sedes iS: Live MMVII (reissue review here), though the latter was a live album taken from the first show they played under the L’Ira del Baccano name; they’d previously been known as Loosin’ o’ Frequencies and before that as Dark Awake, the collaboration between guitarist Alessandro Drughito Santori and guitarist/synthesist Roberto Malerba going back to the mid-’90s doom scene in Rome. Completed by bassist Ivan Contini Bacchisio and drummer Gianluca Giannasso, the Roman four-piece reemerge post-pandemic with a 40-minute collection of thoughtfully executed tracks.
They put their two longest pieces, opener “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” (10:44) (video premiering below) and “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” (13:21) on side A while “The Electric Resolution” (6:37), “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” (6:38) and “Eclipse Omega…Old Sun Reprise” (2:50) highlight a more drifting psychedelic approach on side B, not without movement, but balancing its heft against a meditative patience and synth-laced far-out-ism, the title-track rooting its way into a nebular cloud of synth and drum atmospherics that feels broader in reach than the band were even just a few years ago. The general mission of L’Ira del Baccano hasn’t changed, in terms of bringing Santori‘s songs to life in a full, vibrant and engrossing fashion with marked chemistry all the more apparent for their commitment to live recording (which has obviously been there since the start), but as one might expect, they’ve grown firmer in their purposes, more mature, and more solidified even as they explore new avenues of their sound — and not at all just in the two longer tracks at the outset, though “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” and “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” do make for a particularly dive-right-in beginning on the longer first side of the platter.
Strangers neither to fluidity nor heft, L’Ira del Baccano launch Cosmic Evoked Potentials in immediate communion with the titular space. An introductory drone leads to a stretch of methodically building soft guitar before the drums enter, synth or guitar drone coinciding as the bass and the drums lock in the central groove. Over the next few minutes, they solidify around a procession that brings to mind My Sleeping Karma before seeming to find another level of heavy shortly before the five-minute mark. Tied together in some ways by its synth, “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” flows in its transitions and is hypnotic as it plays back and forth, one element rising in the dynamic mix before receding back, be it heavier guitar, the keyboard or some looped effects either from Santori or Malerba. A second (or third, depending on where you hear the divisions) movement to the track begins at around seven minutes, shifting into slower roll, with weightier low end and a distinct sense of punctuation in the snare as the guitars strum harder and the synth moves toward its eventual freakout apex, residual after the crash of the other instruments as a lead-in for “Genziana (Improvisation 42),” the 13 minutes of which were reportedly carved out of a 45-minute jam.
It’s hard to imagine that full session won’t see release at some point in this age of infinite capacity to throw something out there to stream for interested fans, but there’s something to be said as well for the manner in which L’Ira del Baccano construct “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” — one also wonders if they actually keep count, and if so, if they have a hard drive somewhere containing this and the 41 other improv jams leading up to it — working off the spontaneous foundation and overdubbing synth and effects in ways that build out the ambient impression of what becomes a complete idea of a song, growing to some of Cosmic Evoked Potentials‘ heaviest moments rather than simply meandering through space, finding a progressive chug in its second half around which the band seem rally and collectively push forward, and while I know editing is a part of the art here, the musical conversation between players is nonetheless what makes “Genziana (Improvisation 42)” such a highlight, the way the turns are anticipated and fleshed out and all the more cohesive for the keyboard so crucial to its makeup.
“The Electric Resolution” finds itself more quickly directed into a winding but still riffy movement, some fuzz to the tone but a kind of distortion that would work as well for metal as it does for the ultimately still-languid purposes L’Ira del Baccano put it to as the backing for the midpoint lead on their side B leadoff. That solo legitimately soars, and the rhythm that reemerges after seems to carry all the more punch for its having been there, the two guitars finding a harmonized moment before splitting off for dual-channel solos and a stop that brings the keyboard to the forefront ahead of a complex but welcoming ending and direct turn into “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” itself, which is a mellower counterpoint to “The Electric Resolution.” The two feel purposefully paired even before one notes the similarity in runtime, and though the title-track gets plenty heavy and even works in a bit of shove to its ending, the abiding spirit is more subdued, not as hard-edged as the song prior, which is a turn well made in leading to “Eclipse Omega” and its synth/drone communion with “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” back at the start.
If the idea with “Eclipse Omega” was to underscore the journey that’s been unfolding as L’Ira del Baccano convey the ways in which creativity seems ether-born — the potentials evoked from the cosmos, they might say — and to look back and see the place they started as a small dot like the distant Earth as viewed from Saturn’s rocky, icy rings, then fair enough. What that doesn’t necessarily tell you is how well Cosmic Evoked Potentials functions as a distinct entirety in tone and performance. The molten vibes throughout and the manner in which the band create space and then work to fill them are a fitting manifestation of their style and evolution as a group (Giannasso, making his first appearance, fits right in and plays a large role in setting the mood), and they’ve yet to find the end point, it seems, as “Eclipse Omega” calls out to the void in the resonant long fade that caps the album. Considering these recordings are two years old — something not all that uncommon in the era of global wakeup — it’s entirely possible L’Ira del Baccano have already moved forward from where these songs find them, but the accomplishments here in atmosphere and expression aren’t to be ignored. It is a work to be engaged with which it is a pleasure to engage.
The video for “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” premieres below, followed by more info on the record from the PR wire, including some words from Santori on the subject.
Please enjoy:
L’Ira del Baccano, “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun” video premiere
Alessandro Santori on “The Strange Dream of My Old Sun”:
“The Strange Dream.. ” is a roller coaster, a trip about our expectations, on what and where the highs and lows of our lives will bring us.
L’IRA DEL BACCANO “COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS” pre order :
SUBSOUND: https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/l-ira-del-baccano
BANDCAMP: https://liradelbaccanoofficial.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-evoked-potentials
L’IRA DEL BACCANO : New album on March 3rd
Doomdelic Instrumental Space Prog Rockers L’IRA DEL BACCANO are back with their official 4th album on Subsound Records ‘‘COSMIC EVOKED POTENTIALS’’. The album release will be preceded by a video for the single ‘‘The Strange Dream of My Old Sun’’.
Producer and guitarist Alessandro Santori says about the album: Cosmic Evoked Potentials is a rite of passage, the end of a circle and already blooming of another. Surely our most instinctive effort so far. We went back to our roots of live recording, this time instead of a stage we chose an old mansion from late ‘1700 outside Rome. The atmosphere there was so charming and stimulating that 13 minutes of a 45 min long improvisation ended up in the album. We wanted the dynamics and moods of the parts to be the most important thing, taking more time than our usual developing the “story” of the songs.
L’Ira Del Baccano will start promoting “Cosmic Evoked Potentials” live in March 2023:
COSMIC MARCH TOUR 2023
03-03 MANTOVA IT – Arci Tom
04-03 ROSENHEIM DE – Asta Rosenheim
05-03 WURZBURG DE – Immerhin
06-03 NUREMBERG DE – Kunstverein Hintere
07-03 WEIMAR DE – C. Keller
08-03 HILDBURGHAUSEN DE – Molle
09-03 MANNHEIM DE – Altes Volksbad
10-03 ULM DE – Hexenhaus Ulm
11-03 KAUFBEUREN DE- Roundhouse
12-03 TBA
Tracklisting:
1. The Strange Dream of my Old Sun 10:44
2. Genziana (Improvisation 42)* 13:21
3. The Electric Resolution 06:36
4. Cosmic Evoked Potentials 06:37
5. Eclipse Omega…Old Sun Reprise 02:50
(* Genziana is an improvisation extract from a 45 minutes live session with post overdubs)
L’Ira del Baccano:
Alessandro Drughito Santori: Guitars, Loops , Production
Roberto Malerba: Lead Guitar, Guitar FX, Synth, Loops
Gianluca Giannasso: Drums
Ivan Contini: Bass
L’Ira del Baccano on Instagram
Tags: Cosmic Evoked Potentials, Italy, L'Ira del Baccano, L'Ira del Baccano Cosmic Evoked Potentials, Rome, Subsound Records
