Healing Memories and Other Scattering Times

This album of scintillating guitar music is a largely augmented reissue of a CD-R released by Last Visible Dog in 2003 under the title Healing Memories and Present Tension. Stefano Pilia seems to work with prepared electric guitars and crude electronics to produce calmly drifting drones that are set in motion and then set free. Opening the album, the first untitled piece is a wonderful 15-minute drone, rich and lulling. A hand-held fan or some kind of automated device often grates the guitar strings quietly and repeatedly to create a diffuse pulse or texture. Over this, Pilia adds delicate melodies. These pieces, such as the second untitled track, have an unreal feeling that lies somewhere between a sound installation and one of Frank Pahl or Pierre Bastien's automatons. In other places, the Italian guitarist goes for a no-gimmick approach, simply playing the guitar, as in "Godspeed Gnome," a folk tune for the post-rock generation. Guests Massimo Carozzi (synthesizer and turntable) and Valerio Tricoli (live electronics, synthesizer, and turntable) contribute to a couple of tracks, but their input remains subtle, as the spotlight is kept on Pilia, or more accurately on his unpretentious, surprisingly graceful music. ~ François Couture, Rovi