Paolo Catena
Quadrimusicali

After two years of silence and thirty-five of (hyper)activity, in 2012 the tireless and ever-prolific musician from Pesaro releases yet another tribute to expressive freedom and sound craftsmanship, "Quadrimusicali", the first release under New Light Records.

There are no more misleading pseudonyms concealing the true identity of the mind behind the project: no more Paul Chain or Translate, just one man, Paolo Catena, a man now mature and finally at peace with himself. A man and his world.

The project, as exemplified by the title, assembles in a single package his long-standing passions: music and painting. Indeed, in the package, besides the CD, there is a booklet featuring a series of paintings created by the artist between 1982 and 2010, each paired with a corresponding musical composition. The paintings in question are often baffling, bizarre, abstract, out of this world like Catena's music.

Speaking of the audio aspect of the release, any nostalgic expecting a return to old doom sounds should refrain from listening, because here there are not even the slightest hints of rock or easy listening music: ample room is given to a desire to experiment and conceive new sounds, of which our subject, as those who know him are aware, will not be satiated even in the grave. The pieces are all rather static, monotonous, always identical to themselves, devoid of any significant evolution. Nothing more than a continuous flow of sound vibrations, recurring cyclically until they fade away. I don't think I'm wrong in saying that each track ends exactly as it began. This perfectly represents the idea of static images transposed into music, "Quadrimusicali," indeed.

Despite the title, however, we often encounter tracks that have very little of the "musical": in the cacophonic "La chitarra di Jabbah" and "Verticolo" it's impossible to identify any hint of melody, while "Bacterial" is the epitome of minimalism: a keyboard loop consisting of a single sound repeated infinitely for ten minutes, challenging the listener's mind. Equally challenging are the kraut experiments in "Ritorno all'inizio", divided into two parts, and "Planet Chat".

Here and there we find just a couple of slightly less inhuman pieces, such as "Lode al creatore Jah", an acoustic introduction with mystical tones, the intricate piano embellishments in "La nostra fragilità" and "Lola Master Controls", rhythmically electronic and even danceable, if it weren't for a dark lament threatening us from nowhere, a product of Lola Sprint's voice, longtime wife and muse of Catena.

The dimensional journey "V.D.M. 1984" transports us to parallel worlds and unexplored cosmic places, surprising us with dark atmospheres that bring us back to the dark-sound that was part of the Paul Chain experience, from which the good Paolo also reprises the use of phonetic singing, here gloomier than ever: a track certainly worthy of the glorious era referenced in the title.

Track number 8, the equally evocative "Visione", is a long and dreamy environmental mirage halfway between Brian Eno and Klaus Schulze, which matches very well with its pictorial counterpart.

Musically, "Quadrimusicali" thus continues to advance the unstoppable path of sound renewal and transformation, that has always distinguished the musician and, while perhaps being inferior to past masterpieces, certainly presents many interesting experiments, proving worthy of residing in the extensive discography of the artist from Pesaro.

An undoubtedly "difficult" and complex album despite being extremely minimalist, requiring certainly more than a distracted listen to be fully understood.

With this work P.C. once again proves to be an artist in continuous evolution, totally devoid of stylistic limits, free to challenge himself and express himself however he pleases, alien to any market logic.

As for the paintings, I would avoid expressing myself too much, not being even remotely an expert.

Assigning a rating to this work is no easy task and perhaps entirely meaningless: the judgment to posterity, if there will ever be any.

Catena looks far ahead but others are shortsighted.