Nosound -
Sol29 2010 (Remastered Edition)


(CD/DVD, 77:07/83 min, Kscope KSCOPE159D)

The tracks:
CD Tracks:
  1- In The White Air(6:57)
  2- Wearing Lies On Your Lips(4:20)
  3- The Child's Game(2:46)
  4- The Moment She Knew(9:38)
  5- Waves Of Time(2:07)
  6- Overloaded(6:13)
  7- The Broken Parts(6:24)
  8- Idle End(9:43)
  9- Hope For The Future(5:57)
10- Sol29(10:03)
Bonus tracks:
11- Idea14(3:24)
12- The Red Song(3:57)
13- The World Is Outside(5:11)
DVD Tracks:
  1- Original Sol29 mixes: Entire Album.
Videos:
  2- Sol29 (10:02) (short film)
  3- Contemplating Neptune(3:01)
  4- Contemplating Mars(2:37)
  5- Contemplating Moon(3:23)

Nosound Website        Kscope Records


Many people – including myself – were impressed by the albums Lightdark (2008) and A Sense Of Loss (2009) recorded by the Italian band Nosound. The mellow music performed on those albums brings you in a very relaxing mood. Giancarlo Erra (vocals, guitars, keyboards) and his musical friends are real masters in creating atmospheres of intense tranquility. The many layers of Mellotron-sounds and string synthesizers create a wonderful almost heavenly sound that you can describe best as ambient or new age music. However, just when you reach the edge of falling asleep in a pleasant way, a splendid guitar solo or a slow drum beat is preventing you from doing so. Sure, the musicians have taken their influences from the music Steven Wilson has made with Porcupine Tree and No Man, but in spite of that I think Mr. Erra is an excellent multi-instrumentalist. He already proved that in 2005 on Sol29, the first Nosound-release. On this album he almost played everything himself except the bass guitar which was in the hands of Alesssandro Lucci. Sol29 had been out of print for almost two years. In the meantime, it became a collector’s item and a record frequently asked for. People who bought the abovementioned albums wanted to learn more of this kind of soothing music. So it certainly is a wise decision to release it again.

The new version of Sol29 has been extended to a two-disc set (CD + DVD) and has been packaged in a super jewel case containing a slipcase, new and revised artwork as well as the original booklet. So no cheap reissue as we often see nowadays. The audio-CD has been completely digitally remastered. They also included three bonus tracks containing the same kind of music as the original material on this release. The highlights of the album are without doubt the tracks on which Giancarlo Erra plays his wonderful guitar solos. Above all on The Moment She Knew and Idle End you can experience that his excellent playing has been inspired by Steven Wilson or even Steve Hackett.  

On the DVD we can watch a brand-new ten-minute video for Sol29 which contains a lot of winter images and other bad weather conditions. The disc also features the original three ambient-experimental audio-video tracks that were included on the DVD-R The World Is Outside. Here we can watch the music created by Nosound, the images taken from outer space focused on the moon, Neptune and Mars. The band have included the mix of the original 2005-album as well. This time they come along with many relaxing videos.

I’m not going to give you any further details about this wonderful release, because I’ll put Sol29 in my CD-player again, put my headphones on, lie on the couch, close my eyes and dream away with the restful sounds created by Giancarlo Erra: almost eighty minutes of inner rest. Grazie, Mr. Erra.

*** Henri Strik (edited by Peter Willemsen)

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