Riccardo Sinigaglia & Mario De Leo – Lettera Cosmica

Dei prodigi di Riccardo Sinigaglia si è detto più volte (Futuro Antico, Correnti Magnetiche, Doubling Riders, sono solo alcuni dei suoi mondi paralleli), meno noto almeno nel campo musicale è Mario De Leo, pugliese, classe 1944 nonché artista visivo emigrato dalla Puglia in quel di Milano nei primi ’70, in pieno fermento contro culturale. E’ anche cofondatore della cooperativa L’Orchestra con Umberto Fiori, Franco Fabbri degli Stormy Six, Moni Ovadia oltre allo stesso Sinigaglia tra gli altri. In questa “Lettera Cosmica” registrato nel 1981 e rimasto finora inedito, i due si misurano con le consuete macchine analogiche, nastri preparati con corde e piano fatti magari passare per i filtri di un Synthi EMS e di un Teac 3340 a quattro piste. Ne escono quattro pezzi uno per ogni stagione dell’anno, dove spiccano soprattutto i profumi etno-mediterranei di Autunno, e poi i synth, le percussioni e le corde che si avvitano e dilatano di Inverno, perfettamente in sintonia con l’era “Kosmische”.

7.5

Gino Dal Soler (Blow Up) Luglio/Agosto 2023

Lettera Cosmica is particularly interesting since it dates back to the start of Futuro Antico and quite a bit before Sinigaglia‘s deep dive into samplers and digital synthesis of post-Riflessi era. Despite decisively acoustic-bound sonic profile – piano, strings, guitar, De Leo‘s vocal abstractions of Southern Italy’s folklore – this turns out to have much in common with those later works. Of course, there are no samplers here, but Sinigaglia anticipates the process with tape loops and analogue effects. This is most audible on “Estate” and “Autunno“. If you want your fix of FA’s trademark fusion of late 1970s electronica and pan-Mediterranean folk head right to bookending “Primavera” and “Inverno“. If Florian Fricke moved to the farm somewhere in Sicily this is how Popol Vuh might have sounded like eventually. Although there’s a strange moment in the middle of “Primavera” with all the reversed guitar loops where I had to check if I haven’t by accident put Broadcast’s ‘Witch Cults’ record with The Focus Group. In sum this ends up sounding like a very compelling ‘transition’ record. Not to discard Mario De Leo‘s efforts either. I’m not exactly sure about the concept and what this music has to do with seasons. But I do love the artist’s electronic-circuitry styled into a sort of Paleolilthic cave painting meets Futurism artworks. I don’t know about “cosmic spiritualism” promised in the press notes, but it looks interesting. Also, I’m wondering why not splash out on professional translator to render the liner essay a bit more readable in English. Or just leave it be in Italian. It’s clear that the author, Andrea Maria Simoniello has a firm grasp of the subject, but the entire thing feels awkwardly ‘google translated’.

Snows Ov Gethen

Since the 1970s Mario De Leo works as a musician and visual artist. His mechanical paintings are hybrid works that reveal the cosmic spiritualism hidden in the meanders of electronics. With Riccardo Sinigaglia (Futuro Antico, Correnti Magnetiche, Doubling Riders) De Leo consolidates an artistic and human partnership with Lettera Cosmica, a work unpublished to date, produced and recorded in 1981.

The Attic Mag June 15, 2023