Album Review

Ulises Conti – ‘Los Griegos creían que las estrellas eran pequeños agujeros por donde los dioses escuchaban a los hombres’

• 22nd Jun 2014

I’ve developed something of a soft spot for ambience.

Soundscapes that take me far away from the over-reaching technological world have become my escape, and chattering electronic clicks, burrs and whistles teeter on the brink between that peers over the edge into the realm of inspiring.

Enter Ulises Conti, Argentinean composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and sound artist, presenting ‘Los Griegos creían que las estrellas eran pequeños agujeros por donde los dioses escuchaban a los hombres’, which translates to into the still rather long English language title of ‘The Greeks Believed That The Stars Were Small Holes Where The Gods Listened To Men’.

Conti’s credentials are impeccably and artistically diverse and the albums concept is refreshingly unique, behold, a musical alphabet, 27 independent compositional pieces that poses stimulating questions on how we perceive an album, how many tracks it has, how long it should be, how it should sound?

That is the spiel that heralds a 27 track album, clocking in at one hour and five minutes, and sounds mostly like some nice little piano compositions and not an awful lot else.

This album is frustratingly ambient, promising a lot, but in reality only delivering very little. Repetitive piano phrases seem to make up the bulk of the album, some field recordings and manipulated machinations pull together to complete the ‘by numbers’ approach. Patience and a keen ear may reward the most ardent listener, but I’m afraid this isn’t the ambience I was looking for.

Venue: ‘Los Griegos creían que las estrellas eran pequeños agujeros por donde los dioses escuchaban a los hombres’
Support Band: Flau