The London-based (or Rome-based, depending on which website you’re peeping at) tape label My Dance the Skull has been around for over ten years, a forum for the imprint’s founder Marco Cazzella to showcase his fondness for sound art and surrealism. Cazzella has featured artists as diverse as Thurston Moore, Alan Sondheim, Maurizio Bianchi, and Bananafish founder Seymour Glass (under his This is Yvonne Lovejoy alias) on the label’s Voice Studies series. The label is a slow-burning affair that appears to have experienced a burst of activity this year, with a handful of issuances appearing.
One of the newer artifacts that has shown up recently is this thirty-plus minute electroacoustic epic from Ezio Piermattei. Hailing from the Abruzzo region of Italy, Piermattei runs the Tutore Burlato label, which appears to have paused operations in the last few years. If a Fencer Now Learns to Row has been described by the artist as being composed of voices, places, objects, and instruments. One can discern various dialogues – both sensical and otherwise – taking place, as well as field recordings of the seaside, church choirs, and other locations.
All of these sonic elements are woven into a semi-conscious narrative that is graced by a hallucinatory score. The proceedings are evocative and tug at various emotional centers as the music unfolds. At times incredibly intimate, and at others enigmatically oblique, If a Fencer Now Learns to Row is a powerful piece to take in. Every millisecond is full of audible wonders to behold.
This affecting work of sound art is available in digital form via the My Dance the Skull Bandcamp, for those of you who need some respite from the real world. Dive in and enjoy!
