Product Description
2) Bloom Rain
3) Inland
4) Prisma
5) Vertical Corridors
6) Behind The Stone Wall
7) Corde Del Vento
8) Unknown Passage
A slow ritualistic descent towards electronic atmospheres of introspection. Within Italian composer Montanà’s eight tracks, underground corridors meet immense rooms closed for centuries where echoes of ancient instruments resound as if crystallized over time. His mysterious shimmering electronics, acoustic strings and sound textures softly tumble into a solemn flow abandoned to mists, darkness and nocturnal emotional melodies.
Conceived with a theatrical flourish, Descent is a constant of obscured colors, a symphony of slow movements where hauntingly expressive piano, somber cello, understated guitar and hidden chants mesh to reveal a contemporary classical environment. Instruments of antiquity — such as the Kithara, the Marxophone, and the Egyptian Oud — are resampled in an environment of rich meditative atmospheres; it’s an expressive mindscape of stately proportions, a blurred world ever so slightly beyond reach.
The album’s passionate electro-acoustic miniatures present a mosaic of inexhaustible electronic microcosms for deep listening, gently descending into complex dreamlike realms and rooms.
“This musician has a gift, perhaps even a genius, for translating thought and emotion into sonic form. Each piece feels infused with a measure of mystery and secrecy.” – Chuck Van Zyl, Star’s End
ARTIST BIO:
Lorenzo Montanà is an Italian soundtrack composer, sound engineer and producer. His 2019 The Threshold of Beauty collaboration with Alio Die is Projekt’s most successful release of 2021, thanks to curated digital playlist placement. Montanà started in the 90s producing & arranging more than 40 albums across the electronic, ambient, IDM, jazz, classical and rock genres. He released his first solo album (Black Ivy, 2009) and the 5-CD Labyrinth collaboration series with Pete Namlook on the label FAX +49-69/450464. His work as soundtrack composer landed in the trailer of The Hunger Games 1 & 2, Blade Runner 2049, Coriolanus and more. There is a cinematic aspect to Lorenzo’s works where the cinema, of course, is often in your mind.
reviews editor –
A review from Expose
Montanà works in a number of different styles, both as a solo artist as well as with others; his main gig is producing music for soundtracks, and there is no doubt that informs all of the work he does to one degree or another. With over twenty albums to his credit (solo and collaboration) and at least another twenty producing and arranging the work of other artists from ambient, electronic dance music, jazz, classical, and rock, he has worked in and mastered many different genres. From his 2015 Holographic Codex collaboration with Alio Die (which was my introduction to his work) right up to last years’ solo endeavor Tex-True, it’s his intensely creative floating ambient work that does the most for this listener, and it’s unusual in that it takes in much from the soundworlds of acoustic instrumentation (often heavily processed), electronics and synthesizers, found sounds, and brilliant studio production techniques all together into one working whole. Descent is among his finest works of the last seven years or so. Most of the eight tracks here are relatively succinct, with the notable exception of the eleven-plus minute closer “Unknown Passage,” as well as the splendid nine-minute “Inland,” but the dark and moody opener “Between Worlds” exemplifies this, it’s over and done in less than four minutes, yet it has all of the traits that one will find in each of these ambient soundworlds — muted and heavily processed instrumentation, a rich network of meditative soundscapes, a veil of mysterious fog that seems to cloud everything in its path as the piece proceeds, and rich melodies that surface, swirl and decay into the vapor. “Vertical Corridors” seems to be constructed over a gently muted guitar figure that occasionally devolves into beautiful shimmer. With “Corde del Vento,” Montanà descends into a mysterious sonic cavern only to have the melody delivered via gentle spanish guitar with cello supporting. The eight pieces on Descent are at once powerful, emotional, mystifying, and dreamy. – Peter Thelen
Reviews Editor –
From Audion
An Italian synthesist and soundtrack composer, so it is widely stated on the web, I was convinced I’d never heard of him before but seeing as he’s been around making music for over a decade, made a number of albums with Peter Namlook and two with Alio Die, I must have come across him before!
Anyway, what’s Descent like? Basically, it’s atmospheric dark and spatial music with much in the way of long notes and thick layers of sound. As such, the eight tracks all contain deep, evocative, synth and keyboard based music with some use of percussive elements and melodic hooks. It does all this without the need to be particularly tuneful, nor be too sweet, often adding a mysterious aura, thus steering clear of the new age. I guess there’s a vague element of Michael Stearns or some Robert Rich in ti, but that’s about it as comparisons go. Descent doesn’t get deeper as it goes along though, so I would guess that each track is a different descent, with the final track “Unknown Passage” amounting to a resurfacing during its final minutes. -Alan Freeman
Reviews Editor –
From Ambient Blog
Italian composer Lorenzo Montanà offers an eight-track “slow ritualistic descent towards electronic atmospheres of introspection”. If that makes you wonder how such a descent may sound, nothing stops you from finding out, because Projekt Records offers this release on a Name Your Price basis. Of course anything you can “chip in” is still appreciated and will be a royalty paid to Lorenzo.
Lorenzo Montanà is a musician and a producer and sound engineer with experience starting in the early 90s. He has published a 5-CD series (Labyrinth) with Peter Namlook, and worked as a soundtrack composer whose work “landed in the trailer of The Hunger Games 1 & 2, Blade Runner 2049” and more. This may indicate that his work can be described as ‘cinematic’ – and this is definitely also the case on Descent.
The music on Descent feels as if it is mostly created with electronic means, even though the liner notes speaks of “expressive piano, somber cello, understated guitar” and (resampled) use of “instruments of antiquity – such ad the Kithara, The Marxophone, and the Egyptian Oud.” If you listen carefully, these acoustic instrument sounds will present themselves from within the soft electro-acoustic environment. And help you “descend into complex dreamlike realms and rooms.”
Reviews Editor –
From Rockerilla
Lorenzo Montanà continues to release beautiful ambient music records at a dizzying rhythm. Descent is just the latest in the series, published like the previous ones by Sam Rosenthal’s Projekt. Timbres of acoustic instruments and layers of electronics create eight symphonies of darkness, slow movements with details that shine in constant fluctuations. The sounds of a kithara and an oud weave ancient melodies lost in the mists of time, while the electronics fly high among passing comets that illuminate unexplored constellations. Each track seems to merge seamlessly into the next. Ideal for overnight listening in INFINITE REPEAT. – Roberto Mandolini
Lorenzo Montanà continua a pubblicare bellissimi dischi di ambient music a ritmi veriginosi. Descent e solo l’ultimo della serie, pubblicato come i precedenti dalla Projekt di Sam Rosenthal. Timbri di strumenti acustici e strati di elettronica formano otto sinfonie dell’oscurità, lenti movimenti che fanno risplendere dettagli in continuo movimento. I suoni di una kithara e di un oud tessono melodie antiche che si perdono nella notte dei tempi, mentre l’elettronica fa volare in alto tra comete di passaggio che illuminano costellazioni inesplorate. Ogni brano sembra fondersi nel successivo senza soluzione di continuità. Da ascoltare tutta la notte in INFINITE REPEAT. -Roberto Mandolini