Counting the Eyes
I recorded "Counting the Eyes" while visiting my parents in Italy, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. While in my old bedroom, I found a Roland MC-303, an instrument that I had purchased in 1997 with the intention of producing techno and electronic dance music. Despite spending countless hours with it, I was never able to produce the type of music I had originally bought it for. After a 20-year hiatus, I decided to approach the instrument from a different angle, using it not as a groove box but as a mono-timbral synthesizer. A few days went by until I stumbled upon some unexpected beauty by playing intertwined arpeggios, I was immediately mesmerized. I continued this practice for a couple of weeks, producing numerous patterns and capturing my favourite ones with the help of a digital recorder that I travelled with.
The release is available on One Instrument
Counting the Eyes is the soundtrack of Fabiana Filippi’s Spring Summer 2021 collection.
ADSR Collective
Following a journey which led through Italy, France, and Japan, experimental media artist Alessandro Canova has taken up residence in London, at least for the time being. Taking his first major steps as a creator of minimalist and experimental sound, Canova released his first self-produced album just as we entered the 2000s. This was a release that came while Canova was still working under the moniker of ‘Mugen’, cultivating his style and taking on inspiration from sources such as post-modern minimalism, glitch and poetic works on the aesthetics of traditional Japanese Noh theatre.
Now performing at a variety of experimental festivals and venues, Canova has been working to capture a meditative space within his music, an aim furthered by his interest in Eastern belief systems.
By working together with label ‘One Instrument’ in the production of his recently released album ‘Counting the Eyes’, Canova undertook an uncommon challenge, as he attempted to follow the label’s policy of supporting tracks limited to using only one instrument. In this case, it was the Roland MC–303 which was manipulated to build five tracks of finely textured ambient and drone.
In track three, ‘Divination Patterns’, the left-field approach that limitation has fostered shines through.