Claudio Rocchetti - Labirinto Verticale (LP)

*300 copies limited edition* The latest work, after six years of silence, from Italian berlin-based composer, performer and publisher (Black Letter Press) Claudio Rocchetti, and a welcomed return on the Die Schachtel imprint after the brilliant Another Piece of teenage wildlife (2008), Labirinto verticale (Vertical Maze) takes its origin from the four years long collaboration of Rocchetti with the Parma-based Fondazione Lenz, a contemporary theatre research collective/organization.

Immersed in their very fertile milieu, inspired by the writings of Hölderlin and Calderon de la Barca, and orbiting around the concepts of Memory, Sedimentation, Presence/Absence, Rocchetti produced several hours of music, a selection of which is collected in this album, that marks the n.5 in the internationally acclaimed Die Schachtel’s series “Decay Music”, perfectly fitting its mission, which is to explore the more “intangible”, “decomposing” (in a re-generative sense of the term) borders between experimental sound and “proper” music with a special focus on the more interesting experiences of the contemporary Italian scene.


Damāvand - As Long As You Come To My Garden (LP)

*300 copies limited edition* As long as you come to my garden, the sixth release in the cherished Die Schachtel’s series “Decay Music” as well as the debut of the duo Damāvand (Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli) on the prestigious Italian label, is a tribute to the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, through his lyrics and freely inspired by the cult movie about his life The Color of the Pomegranates (Nřan guynə, 1968, USSR) directed by Sergei Parajanov.

The feature film tells the life of the poet, who lived in the seventeenth century, from childhood in the royal court, to retirement until his death in the monastery of Haghpat, through a series of episodes, static like paintings that do not tell but show, evoke, they suggest through metaphors, analogies, surrealist flair, dreamlike landscapes, liturgical pauses.

The six tracks are inspired by the dreamlike imagery contained in the movie, weaving sound textures ranging from ambient to noise, to references to the musical tradition of the Middle East. Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli alternate, without fixed roles, with analog synths, drones, amplified common objects, generative music, audio samples from the film and acoustic instruments such as the tar, a stringed instrument of Persian origin, the trombone and the cornet. In addition, two of the songs on the album contain Sayat Nova’s poems recited in Persian by Nahid Rezashateri.

The sound materials are revealed gradually like episodes, evoking the visual suggestions staged by Parajanov in the film. As long as you come to my garden is intended as an imaginative journey to distant spaces and indefinite archaic times.