Ritual is Solo Andata's third full-length album originally released on Buffalo-based label, Desire Path Recordings.
Ritual, similar to Solo Andata's self-titled album on 12k, is fundamentally made up of organic sounds, such as primitive gongs, bells and bowls, wildlife and environmental recordings, sacred chants, the vibration of human cancerous cells, cleavers, and prepared piano.
These 6 pieces seem to work toward a repetition or 'ritual' between disparate elements so as to transport us, via a magical spell, to dense otherworldly habitats.
Pop Matters - "Ritual, the title of Australian duo Solo Andata’s new album, is more than a guiding concept for the listener to keep in mind when absorbing its four songs. The title “ritual” is also a nod to the album’s deeper purpose. As with any shamanistic ritual, elements of nature are harnessed on Ritual in the form of field recordings for man-made, yet spiritually inclined, ends.
Solo Andata members Paul Fiocco and Kane Ikin worked independently from one another for most of the album’s production, using wholly different compositional approaches and recording on vastly different equipment. Take into consideration that Ritual was designed with the vinyl format in mind, which led to the duo each taking control of a side, and it is rather surprising that the album still manages to radiate with a unified Solo Andata aesthetic.
This is because, in part, both members of Solo Andata have mastered the technique of fluidly integrating field recordings into their aural landscapes. Both Fiocco and Ikin are able to create an environment where the listener is often hard-pressed to discern if he or she is moving along, passing sounds along the way through the landscape, or standing perfectly still within it, listening to the surroundings rush by. There is no way to tell if either perspective is correct. Regardless, the duo unfolds the sound of natural phenomena into its ambient, modern classical creations to great effect.
Field sources utilized by Fiocco and Ikin include distant chanting, the vibration of human cancerous cells (recorded with a microscope that translates nano-mechanical motion data into sound), and recordings from a remote area of Western Australia called Injiidup. These captured pieces are then wedded to sparse but active audio constellations that challenge the listener to hear the recordings as musical components. The latent musicality of field recordings, while a debated subject for some time, must be acknowledged after hearing this work. Solo Andata’s real-world sound capturing is as creative and sonically inclined as the playing of any instrument.
By Louis Battaglia
www.popmatters.com/best-experimental-albums-2010-2496102038.html