CATERINA BARBIERI レコード& CD

Review: Italian composer Caterina Barbieri has enjoyed a walloping career so far as a contemporary experimental electronic music composer and producer, in part thanks to her rather mind-melting explorations in computational and generative methods, which have aided her creation of icy, god-playing deconstructed 'scapes. It was hardly expected she'd stop at her Mego debut Ecstatic Computation or the more recent Spirit Exit, though, and now comes the curt six-track statement Myuthafoo. A new effort via Barbieri's own label light-years, this one was actually written at the same time as her debut, and contains an array of modular-modelled sequences in similar fashion, backed up by intensely spiritual augmentations (such as ultra-deep reverb and clever portamentos) on the production end.

Review: Caterina Barbieri has rightly earned her position as one of the leading lights in modern minimal synthesis, following the legacy of the great composers of the 20th Century and presenting stark, compelling ideas revolving around spare, purposeful compositions. Her 2019 album Ecstatic Computation was her calling card to the world, and many high profile performances have followed since. Now we're being invited back into the thinking behind that first record with an expressly-framed sister piece recorded at the same time called Myuthafoo. Hey algorithmic approach to composition yields powerful effects as she ruminates on time, space, memory and emotion, presented across six additional pieces which add wonderfully to the narrative from her debut album.

Review: .Caterina Barbieri is up there with Italy's greatest contributors to experimental, avant garde, artistic electronic music. Given her homeland has provided so much in that realm, such a statement is really saying something. Inform by pop, dance, classical, ambient, industrial and more, her work oozes sophistication and thoughtfulness, and - based on several first hand experiences - is very much capable of hypnotising and rendering audiences speechless. Ecstatic Computation is a prime example of her capabilities. Released in 2019, here repressed due to popular demand, it positions her as commander of space and time, utilising arpeggios and oscillations to distort our perception of where notes are and arrangements might be going. Sounds seem to swirl around the listener, engulfing us in a glorious sonic storm, or lulling into a trancelike, meditative state.

Review: Italian composer and modular synth wizard Caterina Barbieri makes a debut on the Light-Years label here with a profound work of ambient beauty. Known for her musical vortexes, she warps space and time with her compositions and has done ever since breaking through with 2017's double-album Patterns Of Consciousness. Spirit Exit again finds her start up her modal rug and get to work in her home studio amidst Milan's two-month pandemic lockdown in 2020. It's a personal work that "takes inspiration from female philosophers, mystics and poets spread across time." The transportational sounds are as complex as they are emotive from front to back.

Review: Caterina Barbieri is an Italian modular goddess. Her 2019 album Ecstatic Computation was opened up by the majestic 'Fantas' and now it gets a whole new lease of life with this bumper package of variations. Each artist was personally chosen by Caterina and told to do whatever they wanted with the source material. The results are beguiling from the off with Evelyn Saylor, Lyra Pramuk, Annie Garlid & Stine Janvin going for a loopy, multi-layered vocal version that is constantly ascending to heaven. There is more calm from Kali Malon who keeps it strictly ambient and Carlo Maria approximates peak time melodic techno but from a much more artistic rather than narcotic point of view.