Selaxon Lutberg
Cold House of Love

THE REVIEW

Selaxon Lutberg is a project by Andrea Penso, an intimate and profound connoisseur of sound, born in 1985. I specify this because being only thirty-six years old but having already managed to accomplish one excellent work after another is more than remarkable and quite uncommon. In 2006, Selaxon Lutberg whispers its second artistic creation to the world, namely “Cold House Of Love.” The words used in an attempt to describe this work, as well as all the others proposed by Selaxon Lutberg and, in general, every creation by Andrea Penso, prove to be quite unimpactful. Just listening to “Cold House of Love” is enough to feel, within oneself, the sensations that we fail to share through words, because they are part of the pre-verbal universe that articulates our inner world. In an attempt to provide those reading these lines with a foothold, to prevent the belief that Selaxon Lutberg's works fall into that subjective, monadic, and solipsistic realm which is introspective but becomes unfathomable and not open to sharing, I specify that we are in the boundless and evocative territories of ambient (dark ambient) and drone. I did not know who Selaxon Lutberg was, nor Andrea Penso. I had never heard of them before. One day, by chance, I happened to listen to “Remember Or Forget?”, the first sonic step of “Cold House Of Love.” Unexpectedly, “Ecco la Luce, che mi seduce, che si sublima, ultima e prima luce d’amor…” (Francesco Cilea “Adriana Lecouvreur”, Scena Ultima, Atto Quarto). I had an illumination, as if I were one of the characters painted by Caravaggio, enveloped by the ray coming from above. I immediately got myself a copy of “Cold House Of Love” and again wonder, again amazement: “Remember Or Forget?” was just the beginning of the journey, a glimpse of the sonic paradise contained in the ten tracks that make up this work. I would like to highlight, besides the first track, also number eight: “La conseguenza di un addio mancato.” Sublime. I then recognized the same ecstasy when I listened to “Il sole muore e noi con lui” (Subinterior/Selaxon Lutberg “Summer Meeting”, 2006)...but that is another story.

Selaxon Lutberg “Cold House Of Love”

01. Remember Or Forget?

02. A Sadness Free Song

03. Landscape I (The Animal's Eyes)

04. La Prima Neve

05. Landscape II (White Ice Under A Grey Sky)

06. Landscape III

07. Dissolti

08. La Conseguenza Di Un Addio Mancato

09. Dialogue With Earth About Humanity

10. The End Of The Old Man - [Hope]