Sounds like…

Dark ambient for thrillers.

The review

D R Ø M is the moniker for composer Lucio Leonardi whose debut album Piccole Canzomi Sospese launches him firmly into the world of dark ambient. It is a cinematic tale of noise, synth, drone and alien worlds as the album unfolds before you.

Firstly, before I dive into the music, the album has a beautiful alien globe image for a front cover which sets the dark ambient tone for what’s to come. It is a mixture of marbled greys, blues and browns and that marbled texture applies to the way D R Ø M creates ambient.

Throughout the entire album, he merges together metallic drones, minute cups of percussive clicks and knocks and guttural synths. It really feels like you are entering a dystopian world that is trying to disorientate you. Then you’ll hear instruments you recognise trodden in the mess and dirge. Groaning electric buzzes from ‘Debolezza’ is a great example here as halfway through a pipe organ fires up. ‘Entrata’ has hand pan styled sounds throughout. ‘In Apnea’ uses plucked instruments as synths. ‘Racconto di un Uomo Fragile’ uses voice samples for chords. Yet all around these sounds is a vast open chaos. It is really quite clever.

The other thing I appreciated about the album was whole melodic it was. There is a tendency to make drone and ambient albums far too slow and unwieldy but not in this case. Each track has melody and poise whilst allowing the instrumentation to evoke wonder and emotion. ‘Turbomento’ for example sounds like it could be a Soap&Skin instrumental with its tense and taut atmospheric pulses. ‘Distanza dell’Addio’ instead rides the wave of post-rock with soaring guitar leads and organs to give the ultimate sci-fi score sound. The closing track ‘Uscita’ is a delicate piano and pizzicato string arrangement. It led me to view the album as a classical piece redesigned through dark synths and that fits the mood beautifully.

D R Ø M has certainly created a fine album with Piccole Canzoni Sospese. Ambient, synth, sci-fi and drone lovers will enjoy it immensely. This is an album full of sound textures that you can really feel. The way it carries both an epic scale and intimate closeness at the same time is quite special. An excellent addition to the world of sound.

Recommended track: Mangio L’Oscurita

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