Dai Primitivi All'elettronica

Futuro Antico were a short-lived trio, formed by Walter Maioli of Aktuala with Riccardo Sinigaglia and Burkina Faso musician Gabin Dabiré. Maoili and crew recorded this material in 1980, but it sat unreleased for another decade; by the early eighties, it seems, the desire for free-floating, drone and raga-based improvisations such as featured on Dai Primitivi All’Elettronica was drying up. That’s a shame, as this is a superior example of the form, which is no surprise given Maioli’s penchant for hypnotic expansion through music. The trio are all packing an impressive armoury of instruments, but the art is in the application, and they are sensitive musicians, using the purr of tambura as grounding force for entangled wind and keys; it’s sensitively played, and sensuous in effect, a music that unspools while drawing and following the straight line.