Herion

Artist: Herion
P: 2010
"Certain music has a way of defining the space one inhabits as well as permeating through, connecting one’s particular space with its immediate surroundings…
Ambient music, especially, is designed in part to enhance the connection the listener has with the world around them. While pop music is played and directed at the listener, who either rejects the stimuli or embraces it, ambient music envelops the listener, creating a unique relationship that affects his/her whole being. One feels oneself carried away, both internally and externally, at, what I like to call, "the point of departure," which arrives upon immediately pressing play on Out and About. Emanuele Errante, Enrico Coniglio, and Elisa Marzorati have created a wonderful album that moves right to the soul of the listener. While I was familiar with Emanuele Errante, who released the excellent Humus album on Somnia in 2008, the other performers were a mystery to me. Marzorati’s piano motifs, mixed with Coniglio’s multi-faceted contributions involving melodica, harmonica, and treated guitar, all meld beautifully with Errante’s orchestral arrangements. The intermittent viola flourishes courtesy of Gabriele Mancuso also provide the songs with even more nuance and detail. With the sheer number of sounds, the music is never heavy-handed or grandiose, it’s movements are graceful yet subtle and give the listener unexpected shifts in mood and tone. On "lindos," the glistening orchestral movements glide along while interspersed with drifting piano notes, creating an enchanting and beguiling piece. For "two minutes to sunrise," the anticipation is felt by the ebb and flow of sounds building to a crescendo that never arrives and the treated guitar notes that flit around only to disappear while orchestral movements fill the space and signal their arrival again. Each track gently flows into the next creating a very cohesive and rewarding listening experience. Out and About is an excellent work that reveals more of itself on repeated listens."