Alessandro Filippozzi (Darkroom Magazine) — May 15, 2016
"The voice as centrality and fulcrum of an arduous experimental path devoid of boundaries... A creative compendium of the highest level, destined to become a fixed point..."
RDM Records
5/16/20162 min read
With this mastodontic triple CD, whose sumptuous digipak packaging complete with an extensive booklet recalls the preciousness of certain classical music collections, the artist of Campanian origin resident in Milan makes her awaited return to the record market, after nearly eight years passed since the preceding Aisthànomai, Il Dramma Della Coscienza. If with her debut Diffrazioni Sonore and above all with the aforementioned follow-up, Daniele had widely earned her due recognitions and awards in the fields of vocal research, earning a gratifying reputation at the highest echelons of international vocal experimentation, with this triple effort she pushes even further her own research, finding that unique dimension that a voice like hers deserves to have.
A mole of material so wide (over three hours overall) as to render arduous the complete disemboweling of the contents within the space of a normal review: no fewer than 31 tracks placed at a point between 2009 and 2015, principally from the same Romina for solo voice and electronics, elsewhere with the assistance of trusted guests on bass and guitar, with a congruent dose—above all in the second disc—of covers of the most classic repertoire of blues and rhythm and blues interpreted in the light of infinite potentials of her vocal cords.
Romina, who in recent years has carried forward (in parallel to the other excellent musical project Sheen, of recent birth) also a literary discourse, publishing various books, has developed over time vocal capacities and a theater in the round that by now distance her from any comparison more or less cumbersome—with the whole opera displaying a completely singular mastery—and with her voice she can subvert with extreme courage classics like 'Summertime,' 'I Am A Fool To Want You,' or 'I Put A Spell On You,' to then leave that in the autographed tracks, where a fine and minimal electronics takes root and willingly the moves from para-symphonic structures, her incredible vocal cords permit her anything: a frightened child, an old complaining woman, a reflexive dark lady, a disillusioned dreamer, a witch in her cave or any other figure she wishes to impersonate.
But her voice is made also—and perhaps above all—to go beyond words, recited or sung that they may be, so much so that it becomes often and willingly sound, howl, rattle, vocalization or verse unconstrained by any boundary of us before it goes in vain, to which the official notes refer. The voice as centrality and fulcrum of an arduous experimental path devoid of boundaries that finds its culmination in the third disc, with those nearly 25 minutes of the lugubrious 'Dasein III' as a worthy closure of a work that moves forward the known boundaries of vocal research. A creative compendium of the highest level, destined to become a fixed point in the discography of this extraordinary artist.
Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi with Darkroom-magazine.it
