Vital Weekly, Frans de Waard

Let’s assume Rutger Zuydervelt needs no introduction. His work, either under his Christian name or as Machinefabriek, has been reviewed many times since 2006, easily more than 100 times. He recorded much of his work with others, even though that seems to have become much less in recent years. For this LP, he works with Giovanni di Domenico, born in Rome in 1977 and living in Brussels. According to the information “he shares with many of the musicians he has crossed paths with recently, of which we could enumerate Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, Arve Henriksen, Jim O’Rourke, Akira Sakata, Alexandra Grimal, Tetuzi Akiyama, Manuel Mota, David Maranha, Norberto Lobo, Helena Espvall, Okkuyng Lee or Toshimaru Nakamura.” (bit of an odd sentence, I think). He plays the piano and Fender Rhodes and sent Zuydervelt some of his recordings. They know each other from a short live improvisation they did in 2019 and Di Domenico joining the Hydra Ensemble (of which Zuydervelt is a part) in 2022.

With the recordings came the note that Di Domenico thinks there is a similar approach to creating music, and would Zuydervelt be interested in working with these sounds? Zuydervelt was and also reversed the roles, with Di Domenico receiving some sounds. Hence, the title, ‘Painting a Picture / Picture a painting’, is a mirror.

This release has two long pieces, one by each composer, but it’s unclear who did what. In ‘Painting A Picture’, the piano has a central position and electronic shimmer in the best Brian Eno/Harold Budd tradition. Zuydervelt works sparsely with electronics, only later on bowing strings on his guitar. On ‘Picture A Painting’, the balance is more fifty-fifty, the piano taking a slightly sparser role, and the electronics being more on par. Overall, this is also a more abstract piece, with piano notes played sparsely, while on the other more repeating and melodic.

It’s pretty different pieces, excellently completing each other. From the stylish ambient music on the first side to the more modern composition approach on the second. This is an excellent album.

Ambient Blog, Peter van Cooten

Giovanni Di Domenico and Rutger Zuydervelt first met in 2019 for a short live improv set. Later, in 2022, Di Domenico also performed live with the Hydra Ensemble. As things go, the two decided to work on a collaboration project

Paint A Picture – Picture A Painting are the titles of the two tracks on this album. With their relatively short length (13:10 and 17:46) they are perfectly fitted for a vinyl release (there is no CD version this time).
On the first track, Zuydervelt reacts to Di Domenico’s improvised piano. On the second, it’s the other way around but also a continuation: Rutger manipulates sounds from the first piece, laying the foundation for Giovanni to improvise over.

With some 225 releases as Machinefabriek and 70+ under his own name, I’ll simply skip the introduction and assume his work is familiar. It shóuld be, anyway!
Giovanni Di Domenico is also quite a prolific artist himself: his discography also boasts no less than 70 albums released since 2010. By far, most of them are collaboration projects or appearances in groups: he has previously worked with artists like Arve Henriksen, Nate Wooley, Jim O’Rourke, Okkyung Lee, Toshimaru Nakamura – and many others.
Both artists are eager to experiment, cross borders, and defy expectations. But without their music becoming incomprehensible elitist ‘avant-garde’.

The album (vinyl and digital) will be released on June 13 but can already be pre-ordered. During the pre-order period, a t-shirt with a stripped-down version of Christiaan Kuitwaard‘s cover art is also available.

Recent Musical Heroes, Kert Semm (Translated with Google)

The value of the four-track release by the Italian and Dutch experimental music legend lies in its conceptual and playful expression — the first two tracks bear the same name, and the same has been done with the third and fourth compositions. The only difference is that the tracks are outlined and refined one after the other ((in fact, it is a great pity that such a format concept is used extremely rarely — a track in itself can contain much more than the artist’s conventional (and anemic) attempt to create one track after another, etc.)).

A modern classic that is truly convincing in its own beauty, but at the same time does not remain narcissistically self-indulgent or numbly clinging to itself; but moves forward, inspired by minimalist tracks. Piano and electric piano chords — which are even enhanced by clever presentation, still-life progression and spatial spaciousness — are expanded with moderate ambience, concrete sounds, drone music reminiscent of foghorns, film-like sci-fi and fantasy, and experimental and space rock feedback and distortion (when the guitar sound is controlled and amplified to the limits of resonance).

Everyone will find the most beautiful drawing here for themselves — although pursuing it may turn out to be a tautological way of splitting hairs (instead of enjoying the fantastic overall picture). Indeed, the compositions are long enough to dazzle the listeners with depth, texture and hypnotic touch (while the latter surpasses the former).
The masterpiece will be officially released on June 13th under the Dutch experimental music label Moving Furniture Records.
9.0 (8.5-9.5)