Fabio Orsi / Valerio Cosi - Thoughts Melt in the Air (Preservation CD)

Another from Foxy Digitalis:

Italian dream team Fabio Orsi and Valerio Cosi reconvene here for their second duo album, combining their significant talents on four extended excursions into drone/kraut/free form followings that reach toward the horizon with a similar tendency as many droners. The difference here lies in the compositional aspect of the structures laid out here, as the duo exhibit an understanding that no matter how far one look, the horizon is always further down the road.

The disc opens with the first part of the two-part “The Frozen Seasons of Lysergia,” whose glistening drone opening is soon met with Cosi’s loping drums and vocal utterances. The production keeps everything clear and contained, maintaining a politeness in the material that is far removed from the more addled take of many similarly minded musicians. Same goes for “Thoughts,” whose dense and ceaselessly shifting opening drone gains momentum with soft cymbal taps before disrupting itself entirely and slipping into the rapids themselves, wherever they may lead.

“Melt in the Air” has a similar slant, with hints of a chorus bent out of order blissfully bellowing beneath a breathy melody line whose intangible processes sway just out of focus. The whole thing moves on for quite some time before building itself into quite the toe-tapper for a minute, like some acid-drenched polka jig before receding back into its translucent origins.

The closer is the second part of “The Frozen Seasons of Lysergia,” and its radio sample beginnings soon drift apart into hums of glass house floor layers. Though everything’s right in front of you, it’s never easy to locate or grasp, ceaselessly evolving into piano tinklings, sax anti-melodies and a trance-like vibe more in line with Gas than Eno. Beautiful stuff, though almost too much to ingest in one bite.