Italian composers and sound artists Antonio Raia and Renato Fiorito share the video for ‘Volatile’, from their collaboration album ‘Thin Reactions’ released last year by Italian label Non sempre nuoce.

Directed by Sara D’Uva, visual artist who previously worked with artists like Zu, MMMD, Jim Jarmusch, Katia & Marielle Labèque, Lee Ranaldo and Mats Gustafsson, ‘Volatile’ is a synaesthetic journey between the elements.

Sara’s cinematography follows the musical piece that starts with Fiorito’s solid, almost immovable electronic drones. Earth tones build in intensity, opening cracks in the song’s surface. Raia’s saxophone wheezes to life, an airy counterbalance to the deepening tones Fiorito develops. Searching the night sky for newly lit torches, Raia’s saxophone transforms into a beacon to guide the simple, effective rhythms rising from the core.

“A petrified and mysterious land welcomes a revived water. Movements arising from sound, exit and enter its substance like an enlivening root-spirit, traveling through the elements, from the most terrestrial to the most volatile” is Sara D’Uva’s apt description.

‘Thin Reactions’, a singular mix between ambient music and post clubbing scenarios, through the use of saxophone, field recordings, drone sounds and tense rhythms, has been composed during several months and at least a lockdown.

‘Thin Reactions’ doesn’t reflect the overall feeling of constriction typical of these days though. It is an escape from a hectic reality instead, a personal way of creating a diversion in order to wander off from a heavy sensation of stillness. As the two musicians put it “’Thin Reactions’ is an album consisting of sounds coming from invisible cities and intimate landscapes. It is a sonic trip you can take through a sensory experience. It is music that allows you to take a deep breath”.

<a href="https://nonsemprenuoce.bandcamp.com/album/thin-reactions">Thin Reactions by Raia | Fiorito</a>

Listening to ‘Thin Reactions’ is like walking on the edge of the world, in a deserted and dreamlike landscape, cradled by muffled sounds that slowly unveil as soothing melodies. A very intimate and visceral experience.

Headline photo: Tommaso Vitiello

Antonio Raia Official Website / Facebook / Instagram
Renato Fiorito Official Website / Facebook / Instagram
Non sempre nuoce Official Website / Facebook / Bandcamp