1989 - RANDOM SECURITY (unreleased working session)

... something extremely rare from the original
WIND COLLECTOR recording sessions archive 

GIGI MASIN - piano, vocals

ALESSANDRO PIZZIN - keyboards and noises
ALESSANDRO MONTI - bass guitar

very very rare live session in studio recorded while
working on the arrangements of this song still without
what will be the definitive lyrics
recorded Summer 1989
at Bunker Studio (Padova)

2016 - THE WIND COLLECTOR / AS WITNESS OUR HANDS (Othermusic review)

“The last couple of years have seen an explosion of interest in the music that the Italian composer Gigi Masin and his compatriots Alessandro Pizzin and Alessandro Monti were quietly making in Northern Italy in the late '80s and early '90s -- first with Music from Memory's fantastic Masin career retrospective, Talk to the Sea (which made our end of year best list in 2014), and last year's reissue of his impossibly rare ambient debut, Wind. This latest two-CD venture combines my favorite record of his, The Wind Collector, with an additional album's worth of studio demos, rehearsals, ambient sketches, and even covers of songs from the unlikely pairing of Terry Riley and Nick Drake(!). At times wholly ambient, at others led by melodic piano lines, the songs will even occasionally combine ambient soundscapes with the kind of low-key, late-night introspective tune you find on peak John Martyn albums. I don't know if it's a case of synesthesia or what, but it's remarkable how adept these guys are at conjuring the mysterious light of Northern Italy in song. Think of the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio (also from Northern Italy), and it's basically what this music sounds like: a warm, enveloping glow emanating from darkness.” 

(February 18, 2016)

Reviewed by Michael Klausman

http://www.othermusic.com/products/the-wind-collector-as-witness-our-hands

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

Gigi Masin dal 1991 si è imposto all’attenzione delle nuove generazioni di appassionati, inizialmente con un suono vagamente post-elettronico poi successivamente con un più oscuro ambient vaporoso, creando una "musica dell’oggi che merita davvero di essere ascoltata."

Masin, le sue mappe ambientali ed il suo elegante pianoforte sono stati inizialmente resi disponibili al pubblico nel 1991 con l’uscita di "The Wind Collector" (registrato tra il 1989 ed il 1991 e pubblicato da “Divergo”, una minuscola etichetta indipendente Veneziana solo in vinile in edizione limitata al tempo e apparentemente senza un vero e proprio pubblico della "scena ambient" a cui fare riferimento).

Tuttavia, l'enorme quantità di campionamenti ad opera di altri musicisti e le varie cover-version che si sono diffuse in rete negli anni hanno di fatto rivalutato l'intero corpo del lavoro prodotto al momento e hanno finalmente suggerito agli autori originali l'idea di pubblicare su CD le registrazioni integrali dopo 25 anni.

In questo lavoro con Alessandro Monti ed Alessandro Pizzin il morbido suono di pianoforte di Masin è declinato in belle melodie, con profondi pad sintetici si alternano a paesaggi sonori epici e allo stesso tempo tanto spaziosi da ricordare un cielo stellato di ottima musica elettronica, textures nostalgiche ed immaginifiche, uniche e prodotte nel tipico suono digitale della prima generazione con la peculiare tecnologia proprio di quel periodo storico!

In questa nuova ristampa, il disco 1 ("The Wind Collector”) propone registrazioni rimaste fin qui inedite di quanto prodotto al momento delle registrazioni, oltre alle composizioni già contenute nella prima versione in vinile, mentre il disco 2 (“As witness our hands” è una raccolta di demo e registrazioni varie curate da Alessandro Pizzin tra cui anche una versione live ed inedita di “Clouds".

Tutto il materiale contenuto nel doppio CD è stato accuratamente rimasterizzato in digitale dal Brandenburg Mastering in Amstedam.

Davvero un “qualcosa di speciale” !

CalentitoMusic

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

2015 - THE WIND COLLECTOR / AS WITNESS OUR HANDS

AVAILABLE NOW !

Gigi Masin, Alessandro Monti, Alessandro Pizzin

The Wind Collector / As Witness Our Hands

Diplodisc 009 (2015)

CD 1 - The wind collector (the complete 1990 sessions)

01 - Satellite (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (2’34")

02 - Stella Maris (Masin, Monti) (6’42")

03 - Ghosts (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (3’22")

04 - Swallows’ tempest (II) (Masin, Monti) (1’26")

05 - She Wears Shades (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (3’21")

06 - Kingfish (Masin, Pizzin) (5’00")

07 - Almanac (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (2’31")

08 - Blue Weaver (Masin, Monti) (6’01")

09 - Wind Collector (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (5’19")

10 - Snake Theory (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (5’00")

11 - O.A.L. (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (4’45")

12 - Valentine (Masin, Monti) (2’43")

13 - Larsen Perpetual (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (6’51")

14 - Random Security (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (5’27”)

CD 2 - As witness our hands (rehearsals & archive tapes)

01 - Bunker (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (1’21")

02 - Clouds (Masin) (6’31")

03 - Improvisation n.1 (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (4’12")

04 - Consequences of goodbyes (Masin) (5’18")

05 - Medusa’s refrain (T.Riley arranged by Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (8’33")

06 - Know (N.Drake arranged by Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (7’10")

07 - Swallows’ tempest (Masin, Monti) (6’37")

08 - The letter (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (7’12")

09 - She wears shades (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (3’49")

10 - Call me (Masin) (5’11")

11 - The fisherman (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (5’35")

12 - No mistakes (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (4’22")

13 - Don’t you worry, Pixel (Masin, Monti, Pizzin) (29")

14 - La luna (Masin) (7’07")

produced by Alessandro Monti, Alessandro Pizzin & Gigi Masin

recorded as noted between late spring 1989 and summer 1990

at 8-track Bunker Studio, Padova (Italy)

sound recording and mixing engineers Fabio Bernasconi & Pippo Monaro

CD2 compiled from the rehearsal stereo cassette archive by Alessandro Pizzin

original “The Wind Collector” lp release produced by Alessandro Monti in 1991

digital mastering at Brandenburg Mastering, Amsterdam

original drawings by Gigi Masin

cover artwork and layout by Alessandro Pizzin

graphic achievement by Giorgio Finamore  (www.giorgiofinamore.com)

photo courtesy of Luciano Fiori & Rossana Bortolotto

special thanks to

Paolo Boarato, Ilaria Clerici, Fabio Bernasconi, Pippo Monaro, Marco Pandin, Cristina Bossi,

Jamie Tiller, Tako Reyenga, Abel Nagengast, Music From Memory/RedLights Records,

Marco Carcasi/Scatole Sonore, Paola Tura, MusicaContinua