Product Description
2 April pt. 2
3 April pt. 3
Genres: Ambient, Drone, Minimal
RIYL: William Basinski, H.U.V.A Network, TheAdelaidean, Stelladrone
A new beginning fortifies beneath winter’s muffled silence, resonating in anticipation. Italian sound artist Pietro Zollo captures the elegant, seemingly effortless struggle underlying spring’s beautiful miracle, as a renewed energy prepares to thrive. April is elusive yet filled with awe and expectation, a sweet but determined battle against cold and darkness.
This 3-track, 90-minute album of electronic ambient dronescapes is brilliantly nostalgic and mysterious. The looping long-form compositions plunge into a state of stillness and contemplation, light and dark, loss and hope. It’s hypnotizing, soothing, and engulfing in its awaiting rejuvenation.
The melancholic yet incurably optimistic crescendo of part 1 is counteracted by the gentle spiritual turmoil in part 2, like a fleeting look back as doubt creeps in. Victory and survival are no certainty. Nonetheless, part 3 is triumphant in its powerful, delicate reaffirmation.
April is for Pietro, “an adventurous companion that returns every year but, nonetheless, never fails to amaze with the energy and potential it brings. April has always been in my life a source of eagerness and inspiration towards new projects, a benevolent friend with whom I shared many strong and positive emotions over the years.”
ARTIST BIO:
Italian sound artist Pietro Zollo began creating music in 1995, though his first ambient work waited until December 2020 for release. Since then, in total he has released 11 full-length albums.
Reviews Editor –
From Exposé
[multi-album review]
Pietro Zollo is a composer of ambient / electronic / drone / minimalist music from Italy with nearly a dozen albums to his credit, though the three under review here represent releases from 2023 to 2025 on the Projekt Archive label. April from 2025 contains exactly three cuts of exactly thirty minutes each, titled “Part 1,” Part 2,” and “Part 3,” though the three longform looping sections seem to come from very different spaces, related only by their concept, the first full of sparkly percussives and resonant beauty that might indicate the final end of the long winter season with its rain and regeneration of life, a cycle we can reliably count on every year. The second part opens to a gentle and dreamy passage of time, where the listener can imagine seeds germinating and the life sprouting up from the earth, where one can almost hear angelic voices from on high guiding the process forward, while the third part is a bit less pastoral and more direct, even muscular in parts, driving home a more overt melodic abstraction. Beautiful, gentle, mercurial, and dreamlike are all adjectives that faithfully describe what Zollo is putting forward as a composer, although the exact 30-minute time limit of each section comes off as artificial with no apparent reason, some parts seem too long, while part three could last a full 90 minutes by itself and I wouldn’t mind at all. Since they are all exactly the same duration, one has to wonder how it might sound if you played all three parts at the same time?
So what does Zollo have in his toolbox to create all these magnificent sounds? The secrets are not given, though I suspect we might be hearing loops and samples of various sounds, piano going forwards and backwards, perhaps synthesizers and software instruments as well, although most of what is heard resembles nothing that’s easily identifiable, all of which brings us to Zollo’s 2024 offering, Fragmented Patterns. Here, he presents eight tracks of varying lengths, again seemingly built up from loops of sound of mysterious origin, creating a woven tapestry of beautiful textures that grow and blossom, though the overall feeling tends to be introspective and shimmeringly gentle, following soft structures that could suggest otherworldly moods and patterns, each piece bearing something wholly unique — a soft rhythmic element, colorful melodic elements, perhaps pure light and darkness swirled together into a blitz of starlight, one just needs to flow with it and go. In comparison to April, Fragmented Patterns seems more ambient and less of a minimalist exercise, though the deep reflections that capture the inward facing beauty and emotion of each of the eight pieces don’t need to be fully understood to be fully appreciated by the listener. Most of these just flow freely in any unexpected direction, although one piece in particular, “Imagination,” flows forward with a gentle cadence that’s subtle yet powerful.
Abstraction is Zollo’s entry for 2025 released on February 18th, and not to be confused with his earlier 2022 album titled Geometric Abstractions. This time out we get ten tracks total with sounds that are occasionally recognizable, like an accordion sample on the second track, “Essential Transcendence,” mixed in with a plethora of other interesting sonic samples, though the spirit and feeling throughout is still very much the same: ambient. Again, much of what is here is rooted in repeating patterns and loops, created under a general veil of mystery, although in a general sense I find Abstraction much easier to like than the earlier two, and especially April. Perhaps it’s because emotion tends to flow more freely and visibly, and some of the cuts here, like “Mindful State” for example, have a bit of cadence from an endless repeating loop) while still remaining true to the ambient ideal. Something seeming to be processed church bells seem to be ringing through a mysterious sonic cloud (more looped fragments, of course) on the near-eight minute “Spaceless,” while the wandering loops of “Timeless” seem to be an aural kaleidoscope, following circular pathways around an imaginary galaxy. Again, April, Fragmented Patterns, and Abstraction are three creations that encompass many powerful ideas, and enthusiasts of the ambient-minimalist sound would do well to investigate them. -Peter Thelen
Reviews Editor –
Some fan reviews from Bandcamp
mario1984:
Pietro Zollo is one of the finest musicians in the modern ambient genre. Music to listen to when the mind is quiet and silent, and there’s no past nor future: just the eternal present moment. Another gem in the gorgeous Projekt Records catalogue.
d york:
This is beautiful and melancholic ambient. I think this is Pietro’s best album to date. Wonderful! Favorite track: April — part 3.
Dave Aftandilian:
Long-format ambience that evolves subtly and gradually, like the changes in the seasons. In the first part I especially appreciate the percussive, almost steel drum-like sounds to the keyboards, which lighten and brighten the track, like watching wispy white clouds drifting across a bright blue sky. The second part gives me a feeling of tense anticipation and muted yearning, while the third offers hope, release, and a blossoming of new possibilities.
Reviews Editor –
From Progressive Rock Central
Pietro Zollo, an Italian sound designer, skillfully and elegantly captures the seemingly effortless struggle that lies beneath the surface of spring’s beautiful miracle. A renewed energy is poised to thrive, making April a month both elusive and filled with awe and expectation; a sweet but determined battle against the lingering cold and darkness.
April is a mesmerizing 3-track, 90-minute album of ambient electronic dronescapes that exudes brilliance, nostalgia, and mystery. The looping long-form compositions delve into a realm of stillness and contemplation, navigating the delicate balance between light and dark, loss and hope. This musical wonderscape is hypnotic, soothing, and all-encompassing in its anticipation of rejuvenation.
Part 1 unfolds with a melancholic yet incurably optimistic crescendo, countered by the gentle spiritual turmoil of part 2, an introspective glance back as doubt subtly creeps in. Victory and survival are uncertain, but the triumphant power and delicate reaffirmation of part 3 bring a sense of resolution.
Pietro Zollo’s musical journey began in 1995, although his first ambient album did not come out until December 2020 for release. Since then, he has unveiled a total of 11 full-length albums, presenting his evolution as a prominent figure in the ambient electronic music scene.
April is for Pietro, “an adventurous companion that returns every year but, nonetheless, never fails to amaze with the energy and potential it brings. April has always been in my life a source of eagerness and inspiration towards new projects, a benevolent friend with whom I shared many strong and positive emotions over the years.” -Stefan Bruno