LTD 300 Phase IX is Italian soundcomposer Lorenzo Montanà’s first American release. These electronic, ambient mindscapes form nine phases of a trip of the psyche. Lorenzo focuses on the floating/experimental side of his work as heard on his collaboration with Alio Die, Holographic Codex (Projekt, 2015); it’s a downtempo evolution on his fifteen previous albums, including work on the famed German Fax label where he published his first CD (Black Ivy, 2009) and the 5-CD Labyrinth collaboration series with Pete Namlook. Lorenzo’s sonorities are created by a network of electronica, field recordings, hang drum, cello and piano. A 62-minute surrealistic journey of sound, Phase IX is not so much the product of physical actions as the translations of internal thought currents into autonomous sonic spheres that detail the surroundings with an organic link to nature and its purest interiors. Cold northern forests, fog and ancient ruins, mysterious environments among ornate atmospheres, religious mysticism and minimalism, these nine tracks are the soundtrack for a film that doesn’t yet exist. From within the mist appear two tracks taking a more solid form (“Mirror of Consciousness” in the middle of the release and “Naadmir” one track from the end) with stepped sequencer and 70’s spacerock textures forming crescendos with the album’s constant flow of deep and dark waters. Phase IX is a solitary walk through forgotten paths, an ambient symphony where acoustic and electronic elements weld alchemical joints obtained through complex design. Indulging in a deep haze, darkness and perfumes between sacred and profane, this is dream-infused music traveling the synapses of the mind firing sonic beauty along the way.
