Lorenzo Monni is a young Italian musician and "Debris" is only his second album but there is much to commend here. Whilst this Bluesbunny is not known for his fondness for instrumental music, this album proved to be a very pleasant surprise.
The interesting thing about this album was that unlike so many other artists doing things instrumental, the songs were built on variation rather than repetition. By that I mean that the songs were more reminiscent of free form jazz rather than ambient electronica but with a definite structure and progression on show. When you listen to one of Lorenzo Monni's songs, you know that it is going somewhere rather than just being locked in a loop of artistic self indulgence. Instead of self indulgence, there is a sense of invention that pervades the entire album from "Embrace" - a song that echoes the pseudo jazz warbling of Jess Franco - through the neo prog-rock feel of "The Dawn of the Young Dolls" to the menacing yet hypnotic "Gone".
This is certainly a successful instrumental album. The easy route of laying overlaying sample upon sample upon synthetic beats has been avoided here and the end result is far from sterile. The overall feel is of a musician trying to convey emotion rather than create a mood (and that surely is the point of all good music). Enjoyable and interesting, this collection of songs bodes well for the career of Mr Monni and I, for one, will be watching his progression as a musician with interest.
Available from his website.