Home Artist links

Venus Tebla - Obliquo

Artist:	Venus Tebla
Title:	Obliquo
Label:	self produced demo cd
Length(s):	28 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	06/1998

Line up

Massimiliano Angelotti - bass, double bass
Alberto Tebaldi - guitars, stick
Simone Angelotti - drums, percussion
Francesco Rossi - piano, keyboards
The singing is by Emanuela Chiricosta.

Tracks

1)	Quiete E Frammenti	2.09
2)	Melopea Di Un Volo Meloe	6.41
3)	Il Regno Delle Ombre	2.33
4)	Gestualita	1.01
5)	Garbuglio 1673	7.34
6)	Nell'incoscienza Della Linea Retta	1.52
7)	Obliquo	5.23

Summary

At the time of reviewing, this band was still looking for a record/distribtutiondeal, so if you own a label or distribute CDs and like what you see below, you can always contact them at the given e-mail address.

The music

Quiete E Frammenti opens with loop-like, minimal stuff, with rather subtle interplay between piano and stick and soundscapes in the back. The same subtlety is also present on Melopea Di Un Volo Meloe: repetitive sequences on guitar and bass, subtle and light drumming, and a rather jazzy sound overall. Il Regno Delle Ombre sounds more like straightforward jazzrock of the mellow kind, but Gestualita is very estranging with probably what is denoted as contrabasso mandolino and sounds like a very low cello. The longest track on the album is Garbuglio 1673 which also features some vocals. After a bass-rich intermezzo, the music becomes more melodic again, but as always with often repeated phrases and quite firmly in the jazzrock direction (but more subtle). It is quite to hard to name references, maybe a combination of the jazziness of Bruford and the meaningful repetition in Fripps music is a nice approximation. One thing someone might have against this music is that it never gets unleashed, so some more "rocking" songs might be added to this mini album to make it complete. After the rather short Nell'Incoscienza Della Linea Retta that contains some surprising and well-recorded sounds, the album closes with the moody, introspective Obliquo, that becomes a bit louder towards the end.

Conclusion

You might have concluded by now that in a way I'm quite satisfied with this short album. The sound quality is very good, the playing and production dito and although the band moves in those regions of music where good compositions are always hard to find, I think they pull it off very well. Although the music is quite repetitive, it is also very subtle and all in all, the repetitiveness in no way makes the music boring. Experimental, playful and appealing musically, I hope this band is picked up by a label.