Product Description
2 Novilunio
3 Mediumship
4 Anemoi
5 Lines in the Sky
6 Advent
Italian electro-acoustic sound sculptor Gino Fioravanti’s Aglaia reveals 86 minutes of peaceful and hypnotic deep ambient meditations on his seventh Projekt release (and 89th album in all). The tracks are currents and flows of sound for exploring different types of “altitudes" and celestial dimensions. In the Shaivite tradition of Hinduism, "khecari" is the term used to indicate both the state that allows us to experience, immerse, and fly in the boundless spaces of consciousness and the "supreme condition," that is, a complete fusion with the Absolute. To capture the infinite, Gino mixed processed acoustic instruments with subtle electronics, Aglaia weaves textural musical fragments into a mysterious mandala.
Gino enlightens:
It is said that ambient music serves to enhance the characteristics and subtle qualities of environmental spaces. I understand meditation music as a continuum, a mass of sound capable of inducing states of mental emptiness, trance, and emotional detachment. Having established these decidedly provisional and arbitrary parameters, I can think of these pieces as contemplation music useful for opening visions and stimulating intuitions and moods. The spaces and heights can be external or internal; they can be seen or intuited, linked to memories or immersed in impressions that are projected into the mind as it projects itself into the future.
1 “Unicorn” is a space diluted by nature, rich in flavors, lights, tastes, white vapors, cloudy lines, fruits left to ripen on trees suspended in the wind. It flows with the rivers, blows with the passing of time, becomes a pondering of natural spaces and ascending heights. “Unicorn" remains naive and ingenuous, flowing for pure delight.
2 “Novilunio” explores other dimensions, blending with a touch of mystery. External heights alternate with internal heights. Something escapes the dimension of atmospheric and natural time; a crack is created through which to observe heights immersed in translucency. An extension of the human is contemplated.
3 “Mediumship” proposes a denser and more boundless rhythm. Forces become evident, magnetic and gravitational fields transmit descending heights, descending boundaries. Sensations of rebirth and dissolution are felt. “Mediumship" is a dissolution, a reversal; it is no longer transmitted, it is simply received. All cavities, sponges, anemones, and particle fields dominate.
4 “Anemoi” takes us back to atmospheric heights, to the settling of the wind. To the awakening of existential heights, warm, intimate. The Anemoi are the spirits and deities of the winds, each associated with a cardinal direction and a specific season. Boreas: the north wind, personification of winter and cold. Zephyr: the west wind, bringer of spring and summer breezes. Noto: the south wind, associated with summer, storms, and humidity. Euro: the east (southeast) wind, often described as dry and hot.
5 “Lines in the Sky” recomposes landscapes, and we glimpse roads and stories. Heights arise through dilation and dissolution; details fade and become rural towns observed from above or through the channels of memory.
6 “Advent” leaves the doors of the journey open. Only traces and impressions remain. The Altitudes are merely echoes that bounce and nourish the resonances and tinkling of suspended metals. Dives tell of limitless happiness.
The sound tells of infinite possibilities, infinite enchantments, finally heights, every kind of joy or bliss shattered. The sound of contemplation that resonates in every possible way.
Reviews Editor –
From Exposé
[Combined review with 2025’s Immortality]
Gino Fioravanti (Aglaia) has been busy the last five years or so releasing some of his finest efforts, though what one sees on the Projekt label only represents about one third of his output, the remainder coming out as private releases. The two releases at hand represent his final Projekt release of 2025, Immortality, and his first Projekt release of 2026, Altitudes, and as far as I can tell both releases are download-only, even though the tracks of Immortality are divided into disc one and disc two on the Bandcamp page — perhaps done so that listeners who burn their own CDRs can use it as a guide. Aglaia’s music is most definitely ambient, though not in the same way as synthesizer practitioners such as Steve Roach and Robert Rich present, instead opting for a rich carpet of acoustic instruments (bells, santoor, strings, zither, and more, plus electronics as well) while eschewing any sort of meter or cadence, the pieces just float freely and beautifully on the solar winds, never quite settling down.
Immortality begins with three very long pieces: “Transcendance Is Blue,” “Immanence Is Yellow,” and “Permeability Is Green,” each around twenty minutes in length, give or take a minute or two, subtle and powerful with gentle waves and sparkles echoing throughout the fabric of each piece, each a perfect dreamlike escape tailor made for meditation, wholly immersive. Perhaps Alio Die might be a good reference point for these works, they just float the listener along like a leaf on a river, sometimes smooth, sometimes restless, but always with a purpose, bristling with imagination, and imminently enjoyable. The second half, or disc two, as it’s labeled, is a collection of eleven shorter vignettes, the longest around four minutes and some quite a bit shorter, that are said to be a synthesis of his repertoire from earlier years, as he says in the notes: sounds that are older but still contain premonitions; fragments of memories perhaps, they tend to be to the point, still quite excellent but certainly not as immersive as the first set, perhaps fine-tuned for those with shorter concentration spans.
With Altitudes, six long tracks are presented, 85 minutes in total, each with enough playing time to be considered immersive. I would add powerful and gentle to that, sparkling bits of tonal color that exist within a strong synth undercurrent, again without any discernible cadence, drifting freely like a soft wind that carries the imagination to new horizons. The fourteen minute opener “Unicorn” exemplifies all of these qualities as well as setting the stage for the rest that follow. Some of the pieces utilize synthesizer to a higher degree, for example the 21-minute “Novilunio” drifts along gently, with occasional outbursts of rich, slow moving tonal beauty, amid a shimmering backdrop that defines immersive. “Anemoi” is a middle meeting, synth based and powerful, yet ornately touched with acoustic sounds, the extreme low end synth sounds demand headphones! Swirling out of the darkness, “Lines in the Sky” unleashes ribbons of scintillating color, bending and swerving with a magical beauty, full of lush radiant soundscapes that reach out in all directions. Set closer “Advent” reaches inward with a shimmering beauty, amorphous and mysterious, full of magical sounds, both acoustic, electronic and unknown. Both Immortality and Altitudes are as essential as they are different from one another. -Peter Thelen