Scuro Chiaro＜Clear Vinyl/限定盤＞

The title of Alessandro Cortinis second solo album for Mute reverses the term chiaroscuro, an artistic term for using light and shadow to create strong contrasts, though its equally a juxtaposition of opposites. His own music similarly balances hope and despair, making both elements inseparable from each other. Like 2019s Volume Massimo and his 2020 collaboration with Daniel Avery, Scuro Chiaro contains some of Cortinis most melodic material, yet its as raw, vulnerable, and in-the-moment as anything else hes done. The albums most impressive pieces are the ones that take longer to build and let all the feelings sink in. Chiaroscuro blooms softly, with synth lines nervously swimming between the left and right speakers, as molten shoegaze guitar gradually douses everything with pathos. Its simply overwhelming by the time it concludes. Sempre becomes increasingly unnerving, with an almost nauseatingly tense atmosphere growing around a consistent rhythmic bump, continually growing until its reached a violent level of distortion. Play this extremely loud in a darkened room and youll undoubtedly feel like the walls are closing in on you. Nessuno isnt quite as scary, but as its hazy arpeggios gradually emerge from a murky fog, it evokes a sense of slow-motion panic. Theres also a sense of mounting tension to shorter, rougher tracks like Corri, but it doesnt always feel resolved at the end. Verde is a definite success, slowly heating up and then bursting into flames at the right moment, and Fiamma intrigues with its flickering effects and creepy, below-the-surface whispering. ~ Paul Simpson