Product Description
2. Quiescence 08:25
3. Eggregore 07:46
4. Reflexes of a Kaleidoscope 23:33
5. Garden of the Mantras 08:36
6. Indaco 07:04
7. Prospettive Animiche 06:54
Jarguna is Italian ethno-organic-ambient sound-artist Marco Billi. His latest album is intimate and minimalist with deep ambient characteristics. “I made this music,” Jarguna reflects, “by playing the instruments as if I were creating a mantra; what arose is a sound spiral for electronic meditation, drones for an emotional exploration, deep, low, slow, sometimes repetitive with refrains imbued with sacredness.”
“Unlike my usual habit,” Jarguna continues, “I tried to keep these soundtracks minimal, a challenge to myself. My most beautiful meditations happen in front of synths, samplers, ethnic instrument and obviously the splendid savannahs or forests of my usual journeys. Although I work mainly on the African continent collecting spices, my heart remains in the East. This album has numerous influences from my travels in China, Indonesia, India, Nepal. The circularity of the sound structure in Prospettive Animiche symbolically and ritually represents the basis of many Asian disciplines, a style that utilizes circularity, called Bagua.”
Jarguna explains more:
Translated into English “Prospettive Animiche” means “Soul Perspective,” though in reality the word ‘soul’ does not correspond exactly to the Italian term, ’animico.’ A better translation might be “animating vital principle.” We could take this to mean that all beings are endowed with some energy, but the sense of soul is considerably transmuted with the advent of religions.
This word, soul, is used a lot by an Italian ufologist researcher of a certain international fame, Corrado Malanga. A doctor of chemistry, he has taught for almost all his working career at the University of Pisa. Over the years he has combined his research from archeology, UFO sightings, abduction, hypnosis, to reach a very complex interpretation of the vision of the universe and above all of our … essence, so using the soul term means for me to go out from any dogma.
Obviously, in my opinion what transmits Malanga’s theory is a personal journey but adaptable to many functions, hence the inspiration that life and the reality that you build is above all conditioned by the points of view, that is, perspectives. As an example: the kaleidoscope. Facets of a small part of what you see in dozens of other mirror images, transforming “reality” into another dimension.
In these tracks, however, the plot is cadenced by a slow and repetitive drone, such as a Buddhist sutra, bell loops or a guitar turn are an accompaniment for a detached and peaceful meditation. Except in the Eggregore track which represents the thought form, of which it is not always positive.
Hearing this album is like watching the wheel of the famous mantra “Om-Mani-Padme-Hum” in Buddhist temples in Tibet and Nepal, the wheel turns and with it the words written, just like a loop. Or a Sufi dervishes that whirls around to find ecstasy, or like a small unattended boat that is dragged up and down by the backwash of the sea.
jarguna: Pareidolia (Digital)
jarguna: Archetypes (Digital)
Jarguna: Fusion of Soul (Digital)
jarguna: First Decade (Digital)
jarguna and Friends: TRAPPED Vol. 1 (Digital)
padmin –
From Exposé
Jarguna is the project name of Italian ethno-ambient artist Marco Billi who has been plying his trade and refining his style for at least a dozen years. His explorative, meditative drones create an expansive, panoramic backdrop that will find a space next to artists like Alio Die, Oöphoi, Steve Roach and similarly inclined composers, as a perfect backdrop for listener immersion, meditation, and slumber. Using dense loops of ambient guitars, bells, percussion and above all, synthesizer, Jarguna creates a soundworld that is deep, slowly evolving, repetitive, often moving at a glacial pace, but yet the sounds are full of vibrant color and shimmering beauty. The opening tracks “On Top of The World” and “Quiescence” are essentially connected, for a total of sixteen minutes of continuous flow, the listener won’t notice any point where the tracks change, the drones just get quieter and far more minimalist during the transition period, but the sonic evolution remains active throughout.
The third track “Eggregore” is a bit different than most of the others, given a strong loop of textural sound that runs through its almost eight minute entirety, twisting and convoluting over the duration, it stands apart from the more soothing and peaceful cuts that preceded it. After it fades out, the album’s centerpiece slowly fades in, at 23+ minutes “Reflexes of a Kaleidoscope” introduces some soft ethnic percussive elements amid what seems like the soundtrack to a beautiful dream, eventually morphing into a slow-rolling chord loop interchange seemingly with choirs of angels overhead and bells, gongs, and other percussive elements punctuating the proceedings. There are three more cuts on Prospettive Animiche, “Garden of the Mantras,” “Indaco” and the closing title track, the first offering some subtle field recorded sounds in loops and bells like wind chimes, while the piece breathes beautiful colors and gently grows over its duration. In all, the seven tracks here offer a wonderful respite from the hard edges, giving the listener an open pathway to dream. -Peter Thelen