Mamiffer
Mare Decendrii

Magic, this disc is pure auditory magic, and I could even end it here, this review, but I have to explain why. The name behind these mamifferis is such Faith Coloccia, who sublimely strums piano, synthesizers, and various samples, as well as vocals and a few sparse percussion here and there.

Before this project, known a few years ago with the release of that other wonderful but somewhat immature work "hirror enniffer", I had never heard her mentioned, but that CD was released by Hydrahead rec (a record label highly regarded for the more experimental material that today's music offers us) and I decided to give it a listen; that's how love took hold.

What the girl proposes in this project is quickly said: post-rock, pianistic, electronic, emotional, psychedelic, penetrating to the deepest recesses of the soul. 3 years after the previous work, assisted by well-respected names in the post and related fields such as Aaron Turner (vocals, guitar, and mastermind of the late Isis) and Eyvind Kang (a prodigious violinist who is a highly respected name in the avant-garde field having collaborated with names like Mike Patton, Sunn O))), Beck, John Zorn and many more), she erects an exciting sonic scaffold, with a piano always in the foreground, elements borrowed from classical avant-garde, electronics, even from prog and jazz, from spiritual and almost Tibetan music (that voice at the 15th minute of the second colossal track that bristles with emotion). Avant-garde post-rock, that's how it can be labeled; it takes on stagnations full of pathos, then gradually builds sharp and exciting melodies, as only the best Godspeed You Black Emperor knew how to do, from nothing, from stagnation to overloaded and spiritual ascension, where bursts of viola, violins, piano, effected voices, spiritual vocalizations intersect to bury and then elevate to a better condition the soul of the listener.

Compared to the previous work, the total playtime is tremendously extended, presenting tracks that even surpass the 20-minute mark (the beautiful and cinematic “we speak in the dark” which, in all its majestic duration, displays all the magical essence of this project), but the songwriter benefits significantly, leaving behind some overly pronounced naivety of the previous work to make way for a striking stylistic maturity and personality in both intents and deeds. From the first to the last note, this hour of Music with a capital M excites, without letting any empty passage be felt, nothing at all, one must only let go, because it is in these lands that one feels that warmth that music now too easily overlooks, that emotion, that sincerity: it is among these grooves that it is understood and intuited that music will never die if there exist artists so bold, ingenious, and profound. I said magic, and I repeat it, now I close here, the CD is over, I go back to the beginning, press play, and let myself be captured again, I will not come out, I feel it, and I am happy like this.

Wonderful!