Sound Ohm
Michelle Lombardelli : Broken Guitars -LP- (I,2009)***°
Described by the label as "guitar improvisations between Loren Connors, Derek Bailey and Robbie Basho, with a tinge of sadness that permeates every moment and creates a sense of longing and nostalgia that seems destined for a nameless past", I prefer to find my own description so that people might get more easily into the creative process where a reviewer will try to give a description of the styles and elements used.
You can hear in the first two improvisations strange chords combinations of strings, ear-sensitive, using one to two finger discoveries, stopping, sliding, picking in the rhythm of space, letting the strings speak out with vibrations in space and with equal time intervals, finding melody over the intervals and strange chords and combinations, echoing them out and finding a few combinations with them now and then within them. This isn’t as odd as it seems because the patterns of exploring is stretched over a certain time so that the whole piece becomes its own sort of moody meditation.
The last track (side B) first uses slides and lots of stops but is based upon the same principle, then finds different combinations peeping and stretching, and vibrating the strings with her fingers and full hand, at times with a reserved calmness and minimalism of expression, like a vast object in space with its characteristics. I can imagine how a visual artist goes to a room and discovers objects as if they are instruments, discovering their sounds and textures and role in its sonic environment. I recognise this, because when I followed an evening course of sculpturing I was completely into that, and in that environment I had the wish to record that sonic world of objects. The only thing I could do was to perform instantly with some of the available sounds. Michelle Lombardelli uses her guitar a bit in that sense. She is also a visual artist. She describes her works as that her “works are meant to create a new symmetry and a different, possible, incomprehensible comprehensiveness through distant and discordant elements." It is in fact the expression where melody is stopped only to be reorganised differently : to be restricted in a time rhythm of a limited space.
Limited LP edition to 150 copies.
