2016 - "BLOW-UP" MAGAZINE REVIEW (Christian Zingales)

“ (...) Attesa ristampa della jam veneziana targata 1991, perfetta di secondo CD extra. Con i tre cavalieri atmosferici a dividersi tra tastiere, piano, voci, l’eventuale basse e chitarra elettrica, “The wind Collector” è un viaggio che si apre negli stridenti, celestiali alti di campane in risonanza di ‘Satellite’, e subito lacrima nella classica ‘Stella Maris’ su paterne scansioni basse, sparsi fraseggi di piano, prospettive, in un moto emotivo che esonda nel raggelante ‘Ghosts’, la voce di Monti con i suoi occhi fissi nella caduta del tempo, tutto un disincanto di armonie attorno. ‘She Wears Shades’ stacca, Masin su corde di cetra, luminose panoramiche etniche, ‘Kingfish’ è un bordone minimalistico, ‘Almanac’ è un’altra song sospesa su una moviola wavey, ‘Blue Weaver’ una partitura per piano, acqua e cucù, ‘Wind Collector’, lanciata su organo, accumula e dispere tensioni, in ‘Snake Theory’, ‘Valentine’ e ‘Random Security’ è Gigi a cantare distanze.

Il secondo CD “As Witness Our Hands” è basato su materiale d’archivio, tracce sparse e versioni, tra le iridiscenze fioriture e cristalline note di piano dell’ormai mitologica ‘Clouds’ (campionata ai tempi dai To Rococo Rot e da qui da Bjork e tanti altri), e poi le trame dissonanti e noisey di 'Improvisation 1' e 'No Mistake', la sceneggiatura gabbiani tremolo e drama di ‘Swallows’ Tempest’, una out-song in equilibrio sul vuoto come la strepitosa ‘The Letter’, due brillanti interpretazioni di un pezzo strumentale e una canzone, rispettivamente ‘Medusa’s Refrain’ di Terry Riley e ‘Know’ di Nick Drake, a individuare due perfetti tumi tutelari del viaggio che culmina nel baluginio investigativo de ‘La Luna’ … ”
— Christian Zingales

2015 - THE WIND COLLECTOR / AS WITNESS OUR HANDS (Boomkat review)

A sumptuous 2 hour+ collection of adult contemporary ambient music recorded in Padua, Veneto in Northern Italy between 1989 and 1990, including a lot of material made available for the first time.

As we’re becoming steadily aware, Gigi Masin and his mates made some truly beautiful music in the late ‘80s which is only just properly coming to light in recent years. Blessed with an almost ineffable air of sophistication and a sort of Venetian play-of-light, their music had existed quietly on the fringes, minding its own business until Music From Memory illuminated their work with 2014’s gorgeous Talk To The Sea compilation, and we were subsequently smitten with the reissue of his sublime Wind side from 1986 in recent times.

The Wind Collector / As Witness Our Hands offers an expanded, definitive edition of Masin, Monti and Pizzin’s 1991 release coupled with a whole other disc of demos and rehearsal from the same recording sessions, which were conducted under enviably ideal conditions - “with no time or financial restraints; we were allowed all kinds of facilities including a baby grand piano and excellent recording equipment… to capture ideas in real time”, resulting a bouquet of wistful, romantic ideas for our gratification some quarter century later.

Spanning glistening electro-acoustic minimalism and heart-melting ambient pop along with moonlit solo piano expressions and loosely refined, hypnagogic new age experiments, they cross lines with everything from David Sylvian to Iasos and Brian Eno, and heck, i’ll say it, at times he definitely sounds like Sting, but, don’t let that dissuade you, because there’s a real tenderness and searching sehnsucht to their music that transcends all of the above.
It’s indubitably enchanting music, and a most handsome addition to any contemporary ambient collection. 

Warmest recommendations.


Boomkat Limited