Davide Ficco, Asymmetric Thought, Italian Music for Guitar and Electronics

 

There are some musical releases that are so rich in content that it takes some time to absorb. That is certainly true of guitarist Davide Ficco's Asymmetric Thought: Italian Music for Guitar and Electronics (Davinci Classics C00318 2-cds 1-dvd). It is a set of two CDs and one DVD, covering the music of some 18 Italian Contemporary composers, names you might not recognize unless you are very well versed in the Italian New Music scene today.

The names unfamiliar (to me) do not mean uninteresting, surely. And as you think about it, the asymmetric is a stylistic center-periphery in Modernism music and art, so an important consideration. The music decenters in all kinds of ways. That is a good thing of course. Davide Ficco is an impressive artist in the Modern mode, coming through with articulate and virtuoso insights on the many shifting stylistic nuances, from High Modernist expression to the many tone color and melodic brilliances that are to be had in the set.

The electronics range from a full electronics sound color orchestration  to a transformation of guitar sounds to various possibilities and things in between. It is a rather astonishing wealth of state-of-the-art New Music stylistic niches and in the end a tribute to Davide's open facility and flexibility as well as some pretty remarkable composer contributions taken as a whole. A few add additional instruments--percussion, trumpet, and there are some that have a Jazz-stylistic element.

Note: The DVD gives you multichannel versions of selected tracks from the CDs.

Anyone who loves Modern Classical guitar and/or electronic and acoustic transformations will have a great deal to explore and appreciate. Recommended highly to those who think they might like it from my description.