Collaborations can be tempestuous in nature. A mindful and apperceptive exchange between participants is essential for an effective outcome. Often, works fall flat or become an exhausting tangle of egos when conscious awareness and understanding of the other player(s) goes unachieved. But any collaboration can result in a genuine test of patience, whether or not the musicians are experienced. On Bellows, however, Giuseppe Ielasi and Nicola Ratti achieve symbiosis within the emotive narratives they explore, and the outcome is stunning.
Bellows is assuredly strongest when engaged as a whole. Each track and progression presents an important detail to the pensive narrative that would be sacrificed by not addressing the work holistically. The delicate, dreamlike state, suffused throughout every palpitation and murmur that Ielasi and Ratti conjure, is easily compromised due to the blanket effect presented within the structuring. The recording plays out as a sleep state, moving from wakefulness to light sleep to paradoxical sleep before awakening, following the fade out of the final sound.
Throughout the seven segments, guitars hum and bleed into horizon, plaintive vibes are ornamented with Cy Twombly-esque scribbles and strokes, bass and static engage in tug and pull, and gauze-like textures gently sigh. Even when electronic feedback punctuates into full-on noise bursts or when guitars are allowed to bray seeking to disquiet the surroundings, the recording defiantly maintains its resolute placidness. Whether this is a curse or a blessing depends solely on the listener's expectations, but in this case I find it to be the latter.
The question of how much of Bellows is improvised and how much is painstakingly composed is anyone's guess. Insight into the actual process between Ielasi and Ratti would be welcome knowledge, especially when considering the strength of this record. It'd add an extra level of appreciation -- like the icing on the cake, and I love icing. But whether composed or improvised or a mixture of both, the knowledge certainly wouldn't affect the undeniable beauty of the work.
More about: Giuseppe Ielasi & Nicola Ratti
