Gigi D'Amico - Together

Released: February 9

In the first release of the year on See Blue Audio, Gigi D'Amico brings a new album with a very particular kind of energy that is difficult to explain. It is not chaotic, but is not comforting or calming either. It feels quite purposeful and deliberate in its tone and structure, alternating between repetitive swirls of sound and darker pieces with pitched and twisted synthetic percussion. This stylistic decision is in part the result of recording the album live and it being a derivative of D'Amico's multimedia installation created in 2023 as a message about the plight of those making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in hopes of a better life in Europe. While the album is not a one to one copy of the project, it borrows very heavily on the sounds and themes. 

The album opens up with "Isolated Heart," which consists of a repeating oscillation of sound that varies only slightly as it progresses until breaking apart midway though only to reconstitute jarringly. This moves nearly seamlessly into "Harmonic Dreamscape" in which the first bits of the percussive elements make their way in, starting out sounding much like a heartbeat. This simple start quickly moves into much stranger territory a staccato acid-style sounds and additional pitch-shifted drums make their way in slowly. From here on, these raw synthetic percussion sounds guide and drive the album forward. The intensity and complexity of these rhythms grows and regresses periodically throughout the runtime of the album, with a notable complexity in "Time for Things." While a close listen with reveal a certain level of design, on the surface it can seems overwhelming and constantly shifting, all while carrying a mysterious aura around it. 

As the end of the album approaches, the tone seems to become lighter and less complex, starting with  "PInk Tears in a Joyful Sunshine." The track starts with just a bit of soft percussive noise that is joined by soft and slightly glitched pads that add a certain layer of softness to the atmosphere. It creates a nice contrast from the squelches of the percussion and invites the first bit of a calming tone on the album. This calming is slightly undercut by the heavier sounds of the next track, "Forget About Your Climax," but quickly returns in the slightly deceptively named "Nature of Capitalism." The track's name led me to believe it would be something of a noisy nightmare, the actual song is much more reserved but with a still unnerving undertone. The soft synth plinks and plunks mix well with slowly wavering pads and something resembling a human voice to create an ever so slightly haunting atmosphere.  And this is how the album ends, with reminder of the world we live in and have to bear.