Ambient soundscape. High quality track free download: https://alessandrobarbanera.bandcamp.com/track/distances 
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/JZINoToYr-o I dusted off my dear video camera and filmed places around Assisi countryside, collecting a lot of images from the less traveled points of view, (Proust's pages on Martinville steeples are always a great inspiration).

Distances

A track from "Oblio", album released by ROHS! Lontano series.
https://lontanoseries.bandcamp.com/album/oblio

"Oblio" (italian for "oblivion") is a collection of 7 tracks, of which one doesn’t exist. The album is a short study on abandonment, sweetness and melancholy associated with the progressive disintegration of memory, the loss and irreversible modification of the mind: an album about the sense of the end of things, up to the fulfillment of oblivion. Symbolically therefore the last track (the titletrack) is an empty space, it's missing as if it never existed, or as if it was composed in the past who knows by whom ... but forgotten. "Oblio" is based on classical piano music loops (Ravel, Debussy, Bartok), taken, internalized, reimagined and made "other", in an attempt to forget them: an almost Zen testbed for the abandonment of the self.

The opening piece "Nostalgia" explores and expands the space between two notes in a particular passage of "Adagio Religioso" from Béla Bartók's concerto n.3 for piano and orchestra, an almost scientific attempt to vivisect that melodic cell and observe it at microscope, to try to understand "what is there", why it is precisely in that micropassage that all the melancholy of the world seems to be enclosed. Also "Remembrance of things past" has the same intent, inspired by the Proustian novel (in particular by Vinteuil's "petite phrase"), and composed using only one sample elaborated from "La Fille aux cheveux de lin" by Claude Debussy. In "La même vieille chanson" the last fragment of an old melody is repeated stuck in the mind, mixing with the resonances of many day lived. It's based on a loop from Maurice Ravel's "Le Jardin féerique". Also the track three, whose title is a quote from a poem by Montale "Forse un mattino andando in un aria di vetro" ("Maybe one morning walking into an air of glass"), where to the sound of a window creaking in a particularly windy day, an apathetic day between many, a chant joins: in search of an epiphany that illuminates and rip the veil of reality. Finally "The worlds behind you..." is a dark lullaby under a dusty blanket of noise, and is based on a loop from the "Passacaille" of Ravel's Trio in A minor op.67; while "... are fading" still uses a fragment from "Le Jardin féerique" in decay. 

Tracklist:

1) Nostalgia [6.47]
2) La même vieille chanson [4.00]
3) Ricordi quel mattino, quell'aria di vetro? [8.56]
4) Remembrance of things past [6.32]
5) The worlds behind you... [7.12]
6) ...are fading [5.04]
7) oblio [∞]

Credits:
Composed, recorded and mixed by Alessandro Barbanera (April 2020 - February 2022)
Mastered by Andrea Porcu

...Are Fading

The Worlds Behind You...

Ricordi Quel Mattino, Quell'Aria Di Vetro?

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/DmxWV4wS9bI

A track from "Oblio", album released by ROHS! Lontano series.
https://lontanoseries.bandcamp.com/album/oblio

"Oblio" (italian for "oblivion") is a collection of 7 tracks, of which one doesn’t exist. The album is a short study on abandonment, sweetness and melancholy associated with the progressive disintegration of memory, the loss and irreversible modification of the mind: an album about the sense of the end of things, up to the fulfillment of oblivion. Symbolically therefore the last track (the titletrack) is an empty space, it's missing as if it never existed, or as if it was composed in the past who knows by whom ... but forgotten. "Oblio" is based on classical piano music loops (Ravel, Debussy, Bartok), taken, internalized, reimagined and made "other", in an attempt to forget them: an almost Zen testbed for the abandonment of the self.

The opening piece "Nostalgia" explores and expands the space between two notes in a particular passage of "Adagio Religioso" from Béla Bartók's concerto n.3 for piano and orchestra, an almost scientific attempt to vivisect that melodic cell and observe it at microscope, to try to understand "what is there", why it is precisely in that micropassage that all the melancholy of the world seems to be enclosed. Also "Remembrance of things past" has the same intent, inspired by the Proustian novel (in particular by Vinteuil's "petite phrase"), and composed using only one sample elaborated from "La Fille aux cheveux de lin" by Claude Debussy. In "La même vieille chanson" the last fragment of an old melody is repeated stuck in the mind, mixing with the resonances of many day lived. It's based on a loop from Maurice Ravel's "Le Jardin féerique". Also the track three, whose title is a quote from a poem by Montale "Forse un mattino andando in un aria di vetro" ("Maybe one morning walking into an air of glass"), where to the sound of a window creaking in a particularly windy day, an apathetic day between many, a chant joins: in search of an epiphany that illuminates and rip the veil of reality. Finally "The worlds behind you..." is a dark lullaby under a dusty blanket of noise, and is based on a loop from the "Passacaille" of Ravel's Trio in A minor op.67; while "... are fading" still uses a fragment from "Le Jardin féerique" in decay. 

Tracklist:

1) Nostalgia [6.47]
2) La même vieille chanson [4.00]
3) Ricordi quel mattino, quell'aria di vetro? [8.56]
4) Remembrance of things past [6.32]
5) The worlds behind you... [7.12]
6) ...are fading [5.04]
7) oblio [∞]

Credits:
Composed, recorded and mixed by Alessandro Barbanera (April 2020 - February 2022)
Mastered by Andrea Porcu

La Même Vieille Chanson

Nostalgia

Photo: "Sunset in a day at late nineties"

High Hopes Fade Away

Comfortable Winter

A track from forthcoming album "In The Middle Of The Path". More info: https://alessandrobarbanera.bandcamp.com/album/in-the-middle-of-the-path

Dante Alighieri was exactly 35 years old when he got lost in the Selva Oscura (Italian for “Dark Forest”) and started to write the “Divine Comedy”: this is the age marking “the middle of the journey of our life” (in Italian: “nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita”).
“In the Middle of the Path” is a brief travel journal made of five sketch-like tracks, which aims at portraying a point of existential reflection related to inner life experiences.
The path begins with a prelude on “Time (that) Bears Away All Things”, a quote from the verse “Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque” written by the Latin poet Virgil (Dante's guide throughout Hell and Purgatory), and continues by digging into the theme of alienation and annihilation of individuals in contemporary society: a society of capitalistic realism (“A Day into the Planer Machine” is inspired by the writings of essayist Mark Fisher). “Submerged Mirrors” attempts to explore the depths of the unconscious, that is areas of light and shadow. This work is musically influenced by “La cathédrale engloutie” by Claude Debussy. “Ghosts in Front of my Sleepy Eyes” instead tackles few unsolved issues related to some skeletons in the closet. It’s a hypnagogic stream of consciousness, and is based on a sample of “Kyrie” from the “Messe de Notre-Dame”, by the composer Guillaume de Machaut who lived in the 14th century… as to express how ancestral these specters are. At last, the track “Ataraxy” concludes the cycle in an attempt to sum everything up: a viaticum in order to face the second part of the path by adopting new awareness and a renewed inner drive: a melody in the distance resists, unperturbed, while all around is chaos and noise.
Headphones recommended.

Time Bears Away All Things

"Endless" live jam video here: https://youtu.be/fkjKPKbRLvs

A track from "Haunted Houses" album. Released by Laverna label. Digital copy is available for free download here: http://www.laverna.net/releases/Lav85.html

Composed, recorded and mixed by Alessandro Barbanera (march - july 2020)
Mastered by Francis M. Gri

"Haunted Houses" is a collection of seven tracks in slow, melancholy, dreamlike, nocturnal mood. It's a work made of waiting, of grainy sounds and silences full of rustles. It's a work talking about isolation, either in a physical and mental space; which talks about full spaces and empty or restricted spaces, of presences and absences, of memory and hope, of distances, of houses and rooms. Rooms innervated with restlessness and waiting (the opening track "Sleepless"). Houses where memories crowd, layered memories that coexist with the present (the title-track "Haunted Houses" is a short electroacoustic study on perception: indistinct, evanescent sounds, old pianos in the distance, confused and ectoplasmic voices, furniture that moves from the floor above, sighs...). And then there are presences such as those of literary characters, which can come to life in the mind while reading ("The death of Joe Christmas" is inspired by the restless and controversial character narrated by William Faulkner in "Light in August"). 
Even absences find space in the album, manifesting themselves in their impalpable distance (the piece "In Absence"), as memories of a past that has no place in the present. Then the rooms can become places overloaded with pain (the track "Torture Room"), where this suffering and effort can take an expiatory, spiritual, meditative form. And after all this inner torment, even isolation can turn into an opportunity for reflection, "redemption" and sincere change: the final tracks "Pure" and "Endless" try to capture this renewed spirit, following a strongly emotional path. “Endless” closes the circle, but it can also reopen it. 

"Haunted Houses" was made with guitars, contact microphones, an old cassette recorder, field recordings, dusty and grainy lo-fi sounds, found objects, recordings of streets at night, sounds of a carpentry workshop, slowed sounds, manipulation of loops of classical music taken from the radio. Every detail, every sound has been carved and polished day after day, chiseled and positioned with care and devotion, in a work of "sound craftsmanship".

Haunted Houses

Endless

"Pure" video here: https://youtu.be/FC3PD4YeIWo

A track from "Haunted Houses" album. Released by Laverna label. Digital copy is available for free download here: http://www.laverna.net/releases/Lav85.html

Composed, recorded and mixed by Alessandro Barbanera (march - july 2020)
Mastered by Francis M. Gri

"Haunted Houses" is a collection of seven tracks in slow, melancholy, dreamlike, nocturnal mood. It's a work made of waiting, of grainy sounds and silences full of rustles. It's a work talking about isolation, either in a physical and mental space; which talks about full spaces and empty or restricted spaces, of presences and absences, of memory and hope, of distances, of houses and rooms. Rooms innervated with restlessness and waiting (the opening track "Sleepless"). Houses where memories crowd, layered memories that coexist with the present (the title-track "Haunted Houses" is a short electroacoustic study on perception: indistinct, evanescent sounds, old pianos in the distance, confused and ectoplasmic voices, furniture that moves from the floor above, sighs...). And then there are presences such as those of literary characters, which can come to life in the mind while reading ("The death of Joe Christmas" is inspired by the restless and controversial character narrated by William Faulkner in "Light in August"). 
Even absences find space in the album, manifesting themselves in their impalpable distance (the piece "In Absence"), as memories of a past that has no place in the present. Then the rooms can become places overloaded with pain (the track "Torture Room"), where this suffering and effort can take an expiatory, spiritual, meditative form. And after all this inner torment, even isolation can turn into an opportunity for reflection, "redemption" and sincere change: the final tracks "Pure" and "Endless" try to capture this renewed spirit, following a strongly emotional path. “Endless” closes the circle, but it can also reopen it. 

"Haunted Houses" was made with guitars, contact microphones, an old cassette recorder, field recordings, dusty and grainy lo-fi sounds, found objects, recordings of streets at night, sounds of a carpentry workshop, slowed sounds, manipulation of loops of classical music taken from the radio. Every detail, every sound has been carved and polished day after day, chiseled and positioned with care and devotion, in a work of "sound craftsmanship".

Pure

A track from "Haunted Houses" album. Released by Laverna label. Digital copy is available for free download here: http://www.laverna.net/releases/Lav85.html

Composed, recorded and mixed by Alessandro Barbanera (march - july 2020)
Mastered by Francis M. Gri

"Haunted Houses" is a collection of seven tracks in slow, melancholy, dreamlike, nocturnal mood. It's a work made of waiting, of grainy sounds and silences full of rustles. It's a work talking about isolation, either in a physical and mental space; which talks about full spaces and empty or restricted spaces, of presences and absences, of memory and hope, of distances, of houses and rooms. Rooms innervated with restlessness and waiting (the opening track "Sleepless"). Houses where memories crowd, layered memories that coexist with the present (the title-track "Haunted Houses" is a short electroacoustic study on perception: indistinct, evanescent sounds, old pianos in the distance, confused and ectoplasmic voices, furniture that moves from the floor above, sighs...). And then there are presences such as those of literary characters, which can come to life in the mind while reading ("The death of Joe Christmas" is inspired by the restless and controversial character narrated by William Faulkner in "Light in August"). 
Even absences find space in the album, manifesting themselves in their impalpable distance (the piece "In Absence"), as memories of a past that has no place in the present. Then the rooms can become places overloaded with pain (the track "Torture Room"), where this suffering and effort can take an expiatory, spiritual, meditative form. And after all this inner torment, even isolation can turn into an opportunity for reflection, "redemption" and sincere change: the final tracks "Pure" and "Endless" try to capture this renewed spirit, following a strongly emotional path. “Endless” closes the circle, but it can also reopen it. 

"Haunted Houses" was made with guitars, contact microphones, an old cassette recorder, field recordings, dusty and grainy lo-fi sounds, found objects, recordings of streets at night, sounds of a carpentry workshop, slowed sounds, manipulation of loops of classical music taken from the radio. Every detail, every sound has been carved and polished day after day, chiseled and positioned with care and devotion, in a work of "sound craftsmanship".

Torture Room

The Death Of Joe Christmas

In Absence

Sleepless

New album "In Darkness Let Me Dwell" released by Owl Totem Recordings is available here: https://owltotem.bandcamp.com/album/in-darkness-let-me-dwell

Some reviews/interviews:

In Darkness Let Me Dwell [2025]:

- Dronarivm (interview) 
https://dronarivm.com/2025/03/14/interview-with-alessandro-barbanera/

- SoWhat
https://sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2025/03/26/alessandro-barbanera-in-darkness-let-me-dwell

- Rockerilla n°536 (review by Mirco Salvadori)
https://lostinit.substack.com/p/rockerilla-n-536-aprile-2025

- Igloo Magazine
https://igloomag.com/features/alessandro-barbanera-in-darkness-let-me-dwell-owl-totem

- Vital Weekly
https://www.vitalweekly.net/number-1474/

- Chain D.L.K.
https://www.chaindlk.com/reviews/12739

Oblio [2022]:

- collettivoinconscio
collettivoinconscio.blogspot.com/2023/09/alessandro-barbanera-viaggio-al-termine.html

- SoWhat
sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2023/01/05/alessandro-barbanera-oblio/

Haunted Houses [2020]:

- a closer listen
https://acloserlisten.com/2020/10/16/acl-2020-music-for-haunted-houses/

- SoWhat
https://sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2020/09/30/alessandro-barbanera-haunted-houses/

- Rockit 
https://www.rockit.it/recensione/49067/alessandrobarbanera-haunted-houses

-Music Won't Save You
https://musicwontsaveyou.com/2020/12/02/musictosave-009/

- Kathodik
https://www.kathodik.org/2021/02/14/alessandro-barbanera-haunted-houses/

In The Middle Of The Path [2019]:

- Chain D.L.K.
https://www.chaindlk.com/reviews/?id=11424

- Music Won't Save You
musicwontsaveyou.com/2020/01/17/alessandro-barbanera-in-the-middle-of-the-path/

- SoWhat
sowhatmusica.wordpress.com/2019/11/18/alessandro-barbanera-in-the-middle-of-the-path/

- Rockit
www.rockit.it/recensione/45575/alessandrobarbanera-in-the-middle-of-the-path

- Blow Up [#262, 03/2020]
www.blowupmagazine.com/prod/blow-up-262-marzo-2020.asp

- Europa e cultura elettronica
europaeculturaelettronica.blogspot.com/2019/11/alessandro-barbanera-in-middle-of-path.html

- Music Map
www.musicmap.it/recdischi/ordinaperr.asp?id=7397

Bastard Under The Stars [2015]:

- Rockit
https://www.rockit.it/recensione/30766/alessandrobarbanera-bastard-under-the-stars

Alessandro Barbanera

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