Null

In the 2000s, Luigi Archetti made big waves with his collaboration with cellist Bo Wiget. This solo album breaks out from the style of short, experimental, electro-acoustic duets established with Wiget and re-establishes the guitarist as a cunning soundsmith. Null is a set of 13 short pieces (between two and eight minutes) of multilayered drones and noises, all self-contained but forming a unified whole. The music is too rich and eventful to be labeled as "drone music," too paced and organized to be called "noise music," too visceral and free-thinking to be called "musique concrète." Null is not a guitar album, but the guitar plays a key role as a sound generator (feedback, ebow playing, textures). However, extraneous sounds abound, in transformed forms, their origins mysterious and unimportant (field recordings? other electronic/electrical devices?). The sources don't matter, their arrangements do. And Null displays a commanding grasp on what makes an abstract sound composition thrilling. Archetti does not go overboard with wild gestures and such, but his music cannot be called static either. Each track develops a small set of different ideas, exploring endless shades of grey in ways that keep the ears attentive while letting you drift inside the soundworld created, immersed. The album loses some of its momentum in the second third, but ends on a flurry of short tracks (two to three minutes) that tighten things up. An impressive release. ~ François Couture