Napoli's Walls

A truly eclectic mix of jazz, electronica, classical and Italian folk music. The theme here is the city of Naples, specifically the work of an installation artist (details in the well-designed booklet). Like the city and the art that inspired this album, the music straddles the old world and the new. There are a lot of transitions and juxtapositions of style, from sparse to dense, clarinet solo to techno, vocoder vocals over acoustic guitar, but it’s well put together, not jarring. This is the sort of thing that the Blue Series has been trying to do and rarely have they come up with something this seamless. Fantastic stuff! (Pronunciation tip: it’s LOO ee sklah VEECE)

*1. (10:35) Jagged violin explorations lead to electronic beat under clarinet solo. Lots of changes in dynamics – from smooth electronica to sparseness to wailing free jazz
*2. (7:22) Happy bouncy folk rhythm, gets stranger near the end
3. (3:03) Mournful ballad featuring trumpet
*4. (6:29) Loping electronic reggaeish beat with great guitar work
5. (3:34) Clarinet led ballad
*6. (3:35) Bouncy Italian folk with strange vocals
*7. (8:23) Sparse start leads to twisted techno beat.. weird
8. (4:39) Chamber start followed by guitar solo
9. (5:07) Loping beat with classical sound and vocoder vocals
*10. (7:12) A bit of fanfare to open, a bit of sparseness, then a bit of rock & roll.


Ben Bostwick 6/15/04