Krisalisound (IT)
released January 11, 2020
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Banat banat ban jai is a diary of a journey through sound and listening, as a form of meditation. Listening carefully to every kind of sounds in different places and with several methods gave me a new perception of the world around and inside me. In this work these two worlds melt into each other and became become one. The only subject is sound and its origin, in all its forms. The focus of the research is looking for a common ground between concrete and instrumental music. There is no difference between the sound that comes from a guitar and the sound that comes from wind blowing trough leaves, if we know how to listen.
Credits
Artwork – Francis M. Gri
Composed By, Recorded By, Mixed By – Andrea Laudante
Bansuri, Duduk – Francesco Di Cristofaro (track 9)
Mastered By – Renato Grieco
Reviews
” Pianismo e ricerca di musica concreta sono due elementi non semplici da inserire in un unico contesto. Il giovane pianista Andrea Laudante muove i suoi primi passi discografici con l’album d’esordio edito dall’etichetta Krysali Sound, “Banat Banat Ban Jai”, tentando questa strada impervia che – se percorsa fino in fondo – potrebbe regalare notevoli soddisfazioni.
Convivono elementi della musique concrète francese, del pianismo preparato di John Cage, accoppiato al minimalismo ante litteram dello stesso autore, una certa fascinazione per sonorità vagamente orientali che si uniscono a sonorità sintetiche. A questo si aggiunge una sapiente collocazione di registrazioni ambientali che contribuiscono alla descrizione di vari paesaggi che ci accompagnano in un ipotetico viaggio dove il soggetto principale è la sottrazione, punto di partenza da cui passo dopo passo si può giungere all’obiettivo di consegnare l’ascoltatore alla propria vera essenza, cioè ritrovare se stessi al cospetto della musica, grazie alla musica (in questo caso strumento insostituibile per la meditazione).
Pianismo puramente cageano a tratti, come in “In A Scapeland”, probabilmente una citazione del pionieristico capolavoro del compositore americano, concretismo integralista in purissimo stile Pierre Schaeffer (“Maheshwara”), field recordings bucolici (“Shinrin Yoku”) che sfociano in pianismi romantici che sfociano in una versione minimale della modern classical (“Pratah Smarami”). I momenti più alti si raggiungono nel primo brano “Southern Lights”, perla di equilibrio quasi sublime tra piano, elettronica e rumori di sottofondo. A questo fa da contraltare “From Benares To Yerevan”, momento di misticismo orientale che cela meditazione e inquietudine, con ricordi dei Popol Vuh e sax dilatati al limite dell’ambient, come una versione semplificata del capolavoro di Harold Budd, “Pavilion Of Dreams”.
Chiude “Somewhere Above This Shining Orange”, altro momento di equilibrio tra un piano maliconico ridotto alla sua essenza/assenza che si fa da parte dando spazio, prima a sottofondi elettroacustici, infine a synth sempre più vivi e imperiosi. “
Ondarock
” When they are not re-issuing older øjeRum works the Italy based KrysaliSound label is consistently unearthing new talent or further promoting up and coming talent. With Andrea Laudante they have come across an artist that blends piano pieces with experimentation, field recordings and feelings of out there film soundtracks. I am not sure I quite get the music, I have a feeling a version of me 20 years ago may appreciate this more, but what I can state is that this isn’t just experimental music for the sake of it. You get a strong sense of Laudante having an understanding about composition and sound. There is a real attention to the creation of emotions and moods with an emphasis of establishing a soundscape which is open to explore. A good example for this would be the relatively (in terms of this album) normal piece “Pratah Smarami” which has a mixture of styles and musical sounds without appearing like a cluttered mess. Laudante creates an open ended feeling where the listener is not led in any direction, instead they are invited to explore the places the music takes them. The counterpoint to this is a piece like the percussive, glitchy, swirling vortex of sound that is “So Many Rhodes”. For the majority of the album the pieces will change in shape, sound and texture with the genre “experimental” best fitting them as they constantly change and they are never in one spot for too long. At times piano based, other times percussive or noisy and with some being entwined with field recordings, there is bound to be something for fans of the more abstract and undefinable forms of music. “
Drifting, almost falling
” Mettersi in ascolto ed interagire coi suoni dell’ambiente per costruire un universo risonante in cui interno ed esterno si fondono cancellando la soglia che li divide. Sottende un approccio interessante il lavoro di debutto di Andrea Laudante, un affascinante impulso a coniugare il gesto compositivo al riverbero casuale del mondo circostante.
È un costante ibridare essenziali partiture armoniche con materici echi ambientali a guidare lo sviluppo di questo silente viaggio sonico, un intreccio tra fragile, frammentata narrazione melodica e tattile onomatopea che gradualmente disegna un territorio onirico eppure vividamente percepibile, rappresentato utilizzando pochi tratti sapientemente dosati.
Incorniciate tra elegiache derive pervase da luminosa malinconia (“Southern Light”, “Somewhere above this shining orange sky”), lentamente scorrono reiterazioni che si nutrono del valore della pausa (“Beetween Us”), assonanze illustri (“In a scapeland”) e concreti intermezzi ruvidi (“Shinrin yoku”) che restituiscono una meditabonda complessità che rimarca il valore positivo del vuoto quale elemento capace di esaltare e dare interezza al pieno.”
Sowhat
” ITA – All’esordio sull’etichetta indipendente d’area ambient di Francis M. Gri, il giovane compositore campano Andrea Laudante si rifà a un concept “datato” ma sempre rinnovabile – d’ascendenza orientale e di riflesso cageana -: quello dell’apertura a un ascolto assoluto e senza vincoli, tale da scompaginare e riconfigurare sia la percezione del mondo esterno che quella della propria interiorità. Tale ambizioso riferimento teorico è declinato in una poetica dell’inatteso attraverso una quieta e paziente pratica di giustapposizione sonora.
Tra rugiade di pianoforti, field recordings e manipolazioni sintetiche, effetti di rovesciamento e mélange elettroacustici, Laudante muove sempre dal frammento strumentale e dal campionamento minimo per tramare non visto lo stupore improvviso, in nessun caso reo di facili colpi di scena bensì attento a non turbare l’equilibrio di un paesaggio mentale fragile ed evanescente.
Allineare il fare musica alla propria condotta di vita: alla luce di questo delicato debutto si può leggere anche così l’invito yogi del titolo alla perseveranza nella meditazione, viatico per arrivare a scorgere un disegno più ampio e inconoscibile di quello che la quotidianità ci mostra.
ENG – At his debut on the independent, ambient-oriented label run by Francis M. Gri, young Italian composer Andrea Laudante refers to a “dated” but always renewable concept – of oriental ancestry and, in turn, Cagean too -: that of opening to an absolute form of listening without any constraints, such as to disrupt and reconfigure both the perception of the external world and that of one’s own interiority. This ambitious theoretical reference is declined in a poetics of the unexpected through a quiet and patient practice of sound juxtaposition.
Through piano dewdrops, field recordings and synthetic manipulations, reverse effects and electroacoustic blendings, Laudante always starts from the instrumental fragment and the minimum sampling to concoct – unseen – the sudden wonder, in no case guilty of easy twists but instead extremely careful not to disturb the balance of a fragile and evanescent mental landscape.
Aligning music making to one’s own conduct of life: in light of this delicate debut, you could also read this way the titular yogi invitation to persist in practicing meditation, a way to get sight of a broader and unknowable design than that which everyday life shows us. “
Esoteros
” Membre du trio degoya, Andrea Laudante propose un album à la quiétude bienvenue, construisant des ambiances chargées de pianos aériens et de field recordings flirtant avec la poésie de certaines oeuvres naturalistes.
Chaque titre de Banat Banat ban jai renvoie à une peinture posée en équilibre sur les rebords d’un chevalet à la fragilité boisée, reflétant les effluves du temps, conjuguant la richesse dépouillée du minimalisme et l’approche quasi classique des instruments, la modernité de la production et l’onirisme d’un passé en noir & blanc.
Le travail sur l’espace est minutieux et délicat, avec ses mouvements plongeants et ses panoramiques lumineux, bougeant constamment d’une note à une autre, surprenant l’auditeur avec l’intrusion sporadique d’une contemporanéité sub-bass et la rudesse de sonorités métalliques, histoire de nous ramener à cette réalité que l’artiste retravaille, façonnant un monde plus léger aux contrastes charnels et à la spiritualité métaphorique. Radieux. “
Roland Torres – silence and sound
” Italian sound sculptor and musician Andrea Laudante has been looking into the way that we perceive concrete and instrumental music, and how the two can interact in a natural way. As one part of Degoya, he has already been involved in an album release this year, but this series of ten tracks on Banat Banat Ban Jai acts as a personal journey of sorts that we can appreciate and with which we can become entwined in whichever way that it affects us.
The pieces are held together by delicate piano that drifts, listless and spare, among the background sounds with which most of us will be familiar; wind in the trees, the erratic lull of birdsong, the trudge of tired feet. This half-dreamt movement through hazy landscapes is familiar yet out of context, as if we are used to hearing these sounds but in a different order or with other variations. The stirring of the piano is like a breeze as the creak of wood and the sounds of open fields gently drift down.
The sounds used are not always comfortable. The clanks and hollow noises of “So Many Rhodes” are awkward and feel less about movement, and more about being stuck in one place, hopefully temporarily — but not for sure. It is frustrated and confused and almost insular. There is a sense of containment here that is at odds with other pieces, but is necessary for the different perspectives on offer here. In general there is tranquillity and this is clearly a labour of love. I have spent many contented days walking amongst windswept and lonely landscapes, and the pieces presented on Banat Banat Ban Jai do a great job of conjuring up that sense of being at one with nature. Tranquility and solitude is what is on offer here; yet the deeper you listen to the spaces in between the lingering elements, the more drawn into it you are.
In places, the piano evokes the soft drop of spring rain, but added electronics cause some confusion, although the soft rush of surf once again draws you again towards nature. The juxtaposition of sounds is well chosen and when you can hear what seems to be the buzz of an amplifier, you end up searching beyond it for its natural pairing. The clash and clang of strings brings to mind being stuck I an ancient corrugated iron barn, awaiting the melee outside to subside. The random bashes and scrapes as the wind rocks the structure send things in a slightly darker direction. The sense of peace has fled briefly and the air is a little malevolent, almost portentous. In the doomier sections you are always brought back by the sounds of nature. This constant backdrop of familiarity prevents the album from disappearing down a rabbit-hole of angst and keeps it on the footpath towards a safe haven.
The sound of radio pips appearing to form a slow shot of electronic scurf sonically describes this album in a nutshell. The constant companion of the familiar, be it birdsong or lapping water or the drone of wind, is heartening with its gentle reminder of what we have outside of our windows, interspersed with the less recognisable elements. I tried to guess some of them, but was left wanting. The placid early morning piano of “Pratah Smarami” drifts across the frosty landscape like puffs of frosty breath and then leads into the ghost station lament of “From Benares To Yeraven”; the spectres of steam engines idling by abandoned platforms, sombre and melancholy as the snap of twigs on rusted rails evokes half-seen memories and hidden lives.
This album drifts through our lives like an unexpected but welcome reminder of what the natural world has to offer us. This is then intertwined with the thoughtful and well-considered concrete elements and musical parallels that offer a series of refreshing and delicate vignettes. “
” La formazione classica di Andrea Laudante e la sua presentazione come pianista costituiscono premessa soltanto parziale del suo primo lavoro solista sulla lunga distanza. “Banat Banat Ban Jai” non è infatti l’ennesima prova di minimalismo pianistico contornato da field recordings o effetti elettronici; nonostante la sostanziale identità degli elementi costitutivi, l’artista campano non si limita infatti a fornire una mera cornice inerte alle note stillate dal suo strumento, integrandole invece pienamente in un composito microcosmo costellato da una varietà di frammenti sonori.
Fin dal suo incipit, il lavoro delinea una vera e propria inversione di piani, presentando orizzonti di granuloso soundscaping, spesso attraversato da rumori e dissonanze post-industriali, sui quali quasi all’improvviso fioriscono sequenze armoniche mai scontate, che spaziano da esili filigrane a più vivaci turbinii di note. Il substrato meditativo che sostiene “Banat Banat Ban Jai” si coglie lungo tutti i suoi cinquanta minuti, realizzati con una minuziosa cura dei particolari, che tiene sempre desta l’attenzione, esplorando passo dopo passo intriganti paesaggi fisici e interiori. “
Musicwontsaveyou
” The solo release Laudante calls to be a “diary of a journey through sound and listening, as a form of meditation” and that is certainly clear in the music. Laudante plays the piano with great care and style, melodic and meditative. It’s what happens around this, that makes it different from your average Brian Eno adept. Here, Laudante adds electronics, samples of acoustic sounds, glitches and what I believe to be processed piano sounds. I couldn’t say if these were real-time processes or perhaps something he created a bit later and added to his piano playing. That makes that this record moves out of the world of moody, new agey (oops), piano music and leaps neatly into the world of electro-acoustic music, with these processing sounds going, and at the same time it all stays melodic, friendly and intimate. There is also a touch of exoticness to this, in which the piano is prepared and sounds like gamelan (just as John Cage once intended), along with some field recording (such as in ‘Pratah Smarami’). It’s a weird yet wonderful combination of sounds that don’t meet up easily and yet Laudante knows how to combine these into ten pieces of fine elegance. “