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08.03.2009
THE SILENT BALLET
IL PASSATO RIEMERSO
By John Kontos
Rating: 6.5/10
THE SILENT BALLET
IL PASSATO RIEMERSO
By John Kontos
Rating: 6.5/10
Passo Uno is a four-piece, post-rock/experimental band from Milan, Italy that uses a variety of instruments, including guitar, cello, piano and drums to make atmospheric, instrumental music that sounds just right for a film. It's no wonder that they have entered the business of writing music for films, one of which is Il Passato Riemerso, a documentary about the town of Crespi d'Adda in Italy, built in 1878 as a workers' village. With the aid of Matteo Uggeri (aka Hue), who mixed the album and provided field recordings, Passo Uno's music produces emotions not unlike those one would encounter while strolling the streets of a nineteenth-century village in the Italian countryside.The innovative usage of instruments such as acoustic guitar make the music a great companion to images like the one on the album cover, even to someone such as myself who was not fortunate enough to watch the film. In the forty minutes of Il Passato Riemerso, the band creates a world of melancholic evenings and nostalgia for a time that may not have been better, but certainly felt more quiet and peaceful. The instrumentation is more adventurous than the above description would lead one to believe it is. The almost-from-a-horror-film-soundtrack introduction to the otherwise heart-melting "Il Paese Immobile" is followed by more minimal pieces such as the four "Interludios" and others where the field-recordings take center stage and the music is built around them. The closing track, "Declino e Caduta", begins with the sound of a person walking (leaving the village?) and closes with an acoustic guitar that seems to come out of nowhere to give us a lovely melody that makes us wish we could be there too.
Making music for a film is, in my opinion at least, more difficult than making music not intended to accompany images, and requires a certain sense of humility and artistic integrity as well as an understanding of how our experiences shape our perception of what art is, or what sort of art is appropriate for any given moment.Il Passato Riemerso reveals a band that has the ability to be creative without trying too hard, which is indicative of their talent and devotion to their art form. While it would be inaccurate to describe them as a strictly post-rock or ambient outfit, Passo Uno, at least in this album, often reminded me of Hood, especially their more mellow recordings from the late '90s, where the sparse instrumentations painted the saddest picture of rural England since Joy Division (even if the music was much more quiet).
All in all, the album more than serves its purpose, which is to be great background music. Like most background music, it may not always be noticed or draw everyone's attention the moment it is heard, but its quiet beauty makes the time of those who either watch the film, or listen to the album in the comfort of their home, more than enjoyable.