The first release on Ricerca Sonora is a new album by the important American Avant-Garde figure Philip Corner. A contemporary of John Cage, Corner studied composition with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening and musical analysis with Oliver Messaiaen. He was a founding member of the Fluxus movement, founder (with James Tenney and Malcolm Goldstein) of the Tone Roads Ensemble, the resident musician and composer for the Judson dance theatre, and co-founder of Gamelan Son of Lion with Barbara Benary and Daniel Goode. 'Italian Air: Wind Water & Metal' presents three previously unpublished compositions by Philip Corner recorded in various locations. "On side 1 "Ear Wave" (Venice, October 1994) is a long piece for Korean cymbal in water: an ecstatic composition recorded and played outdoor by Phil Corner; acousmatic interjections of metallic resonances and subtle water sounds; you can listen [to] the distant sound of the midnight bell of San Marco in Venice. On the second side the track "Gong/Ear" recorded in June 1990 (S. Andreadi Rovereto, Italy) Phil Corner plays gong together with rain and thunder for an abstracted and strongly emotional track. Followed by "I Respiri/ The Breaths" an avant-garde composition for alphorn and gong recorded in 1992 (at Teatro Scandicci)." (Boomkat)