autumna - lucciole

Released: February 9

This newest album from autumna is a uniquely structured documentation of it's creator's time in multiple parts of Italy, wandering around and simply taking in the sights, sounds, and atmospheres. The album leans heavily on hazy field recordings from the various locations visited on this trip in combination with the deeply atmospheric synths the autumna gravitates towards. The combination of these elements leaves a sense of foggy memorabilia, as if we get to experience these places second-hand through an old camcorder searing the images onto tape. 

I say the album is uniquely structured because there is a definite and readily apparent pattern that can be heard within just the first several tracks. It starts with "without breathing," a track who's fuzzy recordings are taken from the pebble beaches a small and sleepy port town and is accompanied by airy pads that are somehow imparted with the same qualities of the field recording itself. I have to wonder if this is just ingenious mixing or if autumna has some other bit of magic going on. The next track consists entirely of a field recording alone, made in the La Spezia station as we listen and wait as the trains are announced. But this is where the pattern starts - with a deeply atmospheric work integrating the recordings that lasts several minutes, followed by a pure and unadulterated dive into the actual ambiance of the journey lasting only a minute. 

This pattern works quite well as we go from atmosphere to document in short succession. These tracks play off of one another excellently, making the entire album feel as though it is one long track with short intermissions throughout. But what elevates this pattern so well is the quality of the audio itself. The aforementioned camcorder quality to all of it is deeply intriguing. It makes everything feel as though it was so long ago, as if we're peering back into a personally nostalgic time that is undefined. It induces a strange sensation that is hard to place but feels almost liminal in its effect.