Rosso Polare - Bocca D’ombra

We're informed that high-minded concepts underpin the formation of Bocca D'ombra, the latest collection from Milanese duo, Rosso Polare, a young experimental outfit with a swiftly growing catalogue of intriguing long players. This release on Sagome marks their first time on record. The animal world and the work of ecologists Timothy Morton and Gregory Bateson are cited as influences, the kind of conceptual anchors I'd imagine instructive only for the very well-read among us and certainly new names to this listener. Well, we are here to learn as much as enjoy ourselves, right? Regardless, there's certainly sufficient work to savour here that extends beyond process and intellectual foundation - indeed, Cesare Lopopolo and Anna Vezzosi approaches feel instinctive and supple, a free-flowing of ideas that doesn't feel grounded in any specific tradition, spontaneous as much as it is impressive, what they call 'learning without grammar'. Improvisation is at the heart of their practice as they cycle very proficiently between drone, ambient, collaged field recordings, post-industrial clatter and hum, and free jazz atonality. The results are somewhat implacable, reminding me in parts of fellow Italian experimentalists, Roberto Musci, Giovanni Venosta and Riccardo Sinigaglia, as well as the more earthy sounds of Hassell ala Magic Realism. That it's two young people making this kind of thing in the here and now is welcome as much as it is surprising - this does often feel like the work of more seasoned hands. That's a compliment, of course, evidence of a free-ranging, adventuring duo out there reaching beyond their limits, but somehow working out how to join up their thinking. Whatever the meanings of Bocca D'ombra's inspirations, the results are undeniable, enjoyable with or without comprehension.