Gianni Cresci – Il Terzo Canto Della Noce
Gianni Cresci – Il Terzo Canto Della Noce – Album Review
It’s amazing to me just how often you can ask people what they listen to and they’ll tell you a whole slew of genres and not include instrumental or classical music. You can even ask them specifically about whether they listen to these wordless compositions to follow-up and dig deeper…and quite often you’ll hear ‘no’ as the answer. It almost makes me wonder what people do/don’t hear in our busy, busy lives…classical & instrumental music are around us each and every single day of our lives through soundtracks, bank line-ups, television shows and drifting straight into your windows through nature itself. We hear it every single day…but that notion escapes a lot of people – and really, if you think about it…the sheer amount of contributions that instrumental compositions make to our viewing could easily be construed as ESSENTIAL music. They add it to those ‘moving pictures’ on your TV-screens all the time – and even if you don’t always notice it, that music is always there to bring out the emotions onscreen, whichever emotions those might be.
Gianni Cresci, composer out of Florence, Italy, has found a way to create, write & record some of those magical moments in atmospherically-beautiful music found all over his album Il Terzo Canto Della Noce. As the opening tune and melody of the music unfolds with “Nel Chiarore, L’eco Della Notte” you can’t help but notice that this has all the right suspense, melody and dramatics of similar incredible music that has filled the soundtrack of your very life. Wonderful way to start the experience with Cresci’s music and he takes that strong start into one of my absolute favourite pieces on the album, “La Gonna Dalle Mille Foglie.” Stunningly gorgeous piano drives this sweet song from moment one to the end as beautiful strings and flutes make their way into the mix of a captivating atmosphere that commands your full attention…I gave it mine, for the record…
Though we DO find this music in our everyday lives it’s still even more rare that we DO truly hear it. To be able to listen to twinkling, sparkling melodies like you’ll hear in “Attesa All’imbrunire” with its isolated and delicate sounds & song-ending burst brightly into triumphant, uplifting songs like “Primo Canto. La Peripezia” with that full-span of your attention will be REWARDING FOR YOUR SOUL. So take a moment…Gianni and I aren’t asking for a month of your time or anything crazy like that…we’re just saying take a moment, put your iphones down and listen to something beautiful and unique in your day.
Largely I’d imagine it’s up to Gianni what he’d like to do with his music and his career in the future to come. When you hear a song like “Stelle Vaghe” that truly sounds like the compliment to onscreen visuals (or Gianni’s endless imagination!) you get a real sense that these theatrical and dynamic songs belong in entertainment. I hear moments like the beautiful ones spread out all throughout “Il Chiasso E Le Due Strade” and can’t help but hear a million moments in my own life, the things I watch, the places I might go…where music like Gianni’s would completely compliment and inspire the day to be better than it was just moments before. “Il Chiasso E Le Due Strade” is one of the finest songs on this extremely well-written & stunningly composed album…the emotion and passion come through sweetly, shining & crystal-clear.
The level of skill involved is definitely an experienced one; Gianni’s professional approach makes short songs like “Gli Spettri Al Ponte Rotto” stand out even at just over a minute’s length of song. The piano-playing is an absolute highlight within the tones, texture and atmosphere of Il Terzo Canto Della Noce…beautiful stuff. Cresci KNOWS about beautiful…he could teach an entire course on the subject and songs like “Secondo Canto. La Meraviglia” with its sparkling and innocently-sweet melodies will absolutely convince you of that. Hand him a teacher’s certificate, diploma or license…whatever it is he needs to effectively spread these beautiful musical-tapestries and ideas into the rest of the world, give him one!
“Secondo Canto. La Meraviglia” is the longest cut on this album and one of Gianni’s most expanded ideas. It works incredibly well and really helps to establish and define this album…HOWEVER…in my humble opinion, as much as I enjoyed it…upon repeat listens I found that it was “Luna Piena All’orrido,” the track to follow, that truly captivated my mind each time around through this album. A somewhat haunting, forlorn, melancholy and mysterious melody…these are the dramatics I absolutely love to hear in music – and the strings/piano combination is at an all-time high throughout this darker melody.
At times in the short, less than ninety-seconds of “Musici E Guerrieri” I found myself wishing there was a little more going on…it’s a hard thing to wish for on the inside of an minute-and-a-half. But yeah…I suppose this was the first moment and perhaps only moment throughout the album that I thought maybe needed a little bit more to it. That being said, “Musici E Guerrieri” also sends out some of the more ‘traditional’ tones & sounds you might associate with classical & instrumental compositions…it very well could be more sparse in sound at times to reflect the honest nakedness of this style of music made at its roots once, long ago and far away.
The combination of short & sweet tracks all back-to-back-to-back like this really puts the entire music on display as a whole entity; the switches between tracks, sounds, styles and moods occurs in smooth, natural ways that make all this music feel like it truly belongs together as it is. In the late stages of Il Terzo Canto Della Noce, songs “Il Dono Dei Tre Mercanti” and “Il Custode Del Tempo” display entirely different atmospheres, rhythms and structures…but somehow Gianni Cresci has pulled off the ability to combine all of these extraordinary atmospheres in such clever ways that it all feels so comfortable, subtle and inviting. Even as the drama increases throughout “Il Custode Del Tempo,” his music beckons you in to listen closely…and no matter what sounds you hear in any emotion he’s presented in his music, he’s found a way to make them stunningly beautiful. “Terzo Canto. Il Ritorno” is a perfect example – the dramatics range from emboldened to tender and delicate…all in harmony, together.
As a massive fan of all-things-melodic…I personally couldn’t get enough of how Gianni chose to end Il Terzo Canto Della Noce. “Il Grande Albero Ritrovato” is a diamond-gem of an ending to this album, providing us all with one last tender, gentle melody and stunning composition. The amount of heart, skill and passion on display throughout this album is mesmerizing and these songs really do feel like they belong upon the soundtrack of our lives. Gianni should be incredibly proud – he’s got an amazingly bright future in whichever direction he wants to take his song-writing and music; he’s a natural.
Find out more from his official page at: http://www.giannicresci.com/
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