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  • Cycle

    Soniccuriosity: Cycle
    This release from 2012 features 62 minutes of solemn ambience.
    Acheloo is Italian synthesist Carlo Luzi (on guitar and electronics).
    Cycle
    These tunes offer a darker mode of ambience, with slight emphasis on experimental stylings. Guitar texturals still dominate the compositions, but now those tones harbor a sense of portentous haunting. The chords shimmer in shadow, reaching forth every once in a while to display piercing sustains of dire mien. At first the electronics are generally soft, well hidden, almost subliminal as they establish airy foundations for the guitar expressions. But in subsequent tracks, the electronics emerge as an equal contributor, crafting eerie sounds and cybernetic breezes, enhancing the music's overall murky milieu. Some keyboards are present, their carefully inserted notes punctuating the flow like droplets of light plummeting into the stygian depths. A few tracks integrally utilize tones of a violin nature, lending these pieces a chamber music mood--but a mood tinted with a grave inclinations. Accompanying pulsations foster this grim demeanor. In another track, strings are scraped to generate an edgy flair that bristles with a suppressed tension. Incidental electronics provide the proper embellishment, elevating the song's sense of seething omen. These compositions pursue a more somber temperament, evoking sacred abysses deep in the woods, places where ancient ceremonies inhabit the night. And yet the typical mood created is not a spooky one, but rather a sober reverence for mysterious occasions.

    by: Matt Howarth http://www.soniccuriosity.com

  • Khimaira

    Soniccuriosity: Khimaira
    This release from 2009 features 57 minutes of tender electronic music.
    Acheloo is Italian synthesist Carlo Luzi (on guitar and electronics).
    Khimaira
    The first track begins with shimmering guitar chords rising from a pool of liquid tonalities. Hints of softly caressed chimes reverberate in the distance, soon occluded by more definite chime tones which possess a keyboard timbre. Emergent drones lend an eerie foundation as the guitar returns and conjoins with the various chime-like elements. Subtle beats mark the imminence of the composition's tender conclusion. The next piece features languid guitar sustains that gently waft to and fro, embellished by a softly ticking rhythm and tenuous texturals. More conventional rhythms (in the form of bongo beats) emerge to attribute the sashaying melodics with a mild locomotion. The processed guitar strains achieve a glorious beauty as they sigh and waver amid the mix. In the third track, while guitar textures are utilized, the stringed instrument's more prevalent presence comes in the form of studious plucking. Vaporous electronic tones breathe in the background, surging forth with the exhale and receding with the inhale. Ethereal clicking provides a haunting embellishment. Rhythmic pulsations add a glisten to the song's finale. The last track is a wondrous pastiche of luxurious guitar textures that establish a fluid auralscape of melodic distinction. Electronics interplay with the sighing guitar strains, augmented by ephemeral chimes rattling within the mix. Gradually, the electronics muster the verve to challenge the guitar tones, achieving an ambrosial charm. These compositions are thoroughly beguiling. Luzi's predilection of crafting melodic ambience is breathtaking to behold, leaving heartfelt impressions on the listeners. ADMusic

    by: Matt Howarth http://www.soniccuriosity.com

  • Ishtar

    Soniccuriosity: Ishtar
    This release from 2008 features 59 minutes of engaging electronic music.
    Acheloo is Italian synthesist Carlo Luzi (on guitar and electronics).
    Ishtar
    The guitar's presence is more prominent on this release, providing a plethora of languid tonal expressions, those processed sustains that sound so soulful as they spiral into the sky. But the guitar also offers a variety of conventional chords with periodic strumming and plucking. These flavor the flow with a soft passion, seasoning things with a meticulously aerial smolder. There's some delicious interplay between guitar textures and guitar notes, creating a cosmic milieu of euphoric character. While often secondary in their prominence, the electronics compensate for that subordinate vantage by engaging in the use of a diversity of sounds. Tonalities provide an ample droning backdrop, but addition electronics shine in peripheral roles that often transform the music into wondrous sonic gems. A percentage of percussion is present, but most of the songs flourish nicely as beatless structures. Chimes are employed in several instances. In one track, vocal chorales appear in tandem with reasonably prominent rhythms, resulting in a delightful ascension. These compositions exhibit a trace more oomph than conventional ambient music. While retaining a pleasant gentility, the music communicates a heartfelt yearning compounded with its own emotional payoff. Some of the pieces are quite attractive in their understated vibrancy, delivering far more than auralscapes.

    by: Matt Howarth http://www.soniccuriosity.com

  • Sirens

    Soniccuriosity: Sirens
    This release from 2008 features 69 minutes of celestial electronic music.
    Acheloo is Italian synthesist Carlo Luzi (on guitar and electronics).
    Sirens

    Besides the typical texturals, auxiliary electronics are employed to flesh out this music's substance. Additional atmospheric drones bask the general milieu, generating a lush environment of sparkling vapors. A lot of the guitar contributions manifest as processed waves, sustained notes elongated into infinite drones possessing a cloud-like character. Generally these waves are tender and remote, but on a few occasions the notes achieve a piercing cadence. Meanwhile, more traditional guitarwork (gentle strumming with ambrosial afterglows) appears in a few tracks, lending a sultry beauty to these pieces. The presence of tastefully subtle chorales nicely enhances this astral quality, bestowing the tunes with an warm, organic flavor. There is some percussion, but it is deeply immersed in the flow, so distant that the beats are often more reminiscent of applied electronic glitches than any conventional impacts. These compositions are delicate and airy, designed to instill calm in the listener. But Acheloo achieves a distinct charisma with his sounds which are cleverly crafted to convey a celestial majesty. The melodies float on high. Streamers of ephemeral tones establish a tantalizing serenity that is then teased into mild animation by heavenly guitar, angelic choirs, and softly blooping electronics.

    by: Matt Howarth http://www.soniccuriosity.com

  • OndaRock

    OndaRock
    Acheloo is the project with which the Roman Carlo Luzi pursues his passion for music-ambient electronics, having participated in the eighties of the duo Terra della Sera, along with Paolo De Gregori.
    Self, this "Sirens" returns to us a genuine passion and, of course, well-prepared to accept large emanations of the "cosmic couriers," even if certain sounds more liquid and impalpable directly call into question the Stars Of The Lid, especially for ' Using guitar sounds "processed" (this is the case, for example, the long crossing inside "Raidne" or the beautiful and melancholic "Melody of Dark").
    Divided into seven tracks, this is therefore a work that deserves some attention, even for the care with which Luzi manages to balance the various nuances of sound, still capable of weaving landscapes sound poised between evanescence and transcendence, between wide-open spaces and sense of danger emptiness ( "Ligea"), bringing the murky, mysterious visions of Tangerine Dream with natural dedication, but also with a respectable personalities, managing to implement changes "melodic" that might take us further, to strange, ambiguous galaxies ( "Deianira").
    And if in "Teles" Instead, the tones are discovering claims, so that seems to cross a forest of symbols with the cosmic unknown, the title track song of the sirens disperses between galactic mazes, with synthetic chimes from movies . But perhaps it's in religious abbacinante religious contemplation of "The Bride Of Taar" that is consumed, the better, the desire to embrace a universalistic, with her quiet prayer and his endless desire to go off in the dark.

    by: Francesco Nunziata http://www.ondarock.it

  • Audiodrone

    Audiodrone
    Title inevitable, given the monicker for this first album of self Acheloo, made with electronic instruments and guitar by the head of the project, Carlo Luzi, who in the'80s was also part of a duo called Earth Della Sera, which moved ever as part of electronic music.
    The seven tracks that make up this disc are impalpable ambient music and - logically - liquid, very close to masterpieces like Dreamtime Return of Steve Roach and, going up slightly 'current, the cosmic music. Carlo plays on colors and variations, not forgetting to add details to his landscapes sound, thanks to the sounds of his guitar treated or in some cases to read percussion (even here the mind goes to Roach).
    The listener is left floating in a condition of serenity, with a female voice in the distance in the title-track, which of course is there to convince him to lose the route. Not always, in fact, everything is so soothing, for example, "Deianira" - while retaining a paper that - is not that bright, because it sounds, with moments that recall those of Jarre, leaving see a bottom of anxiety. Even "Melody Of Dark" is different: it seems less soft and its second part sees a guitar very melancholic and very unfiltered machine, so to speak. Work so curate a certainly deserves an alert, but moves in balance on a thin wire: If this wire breaks, then you can fall nell'emulazione or in a sort of new age anonymity.
    by: Fabrizio Garau - http://www.audiodrome.it

    by: Fabrizio Garau http://www.audiodrome.it

  • Chuck van Zyl/STAR’S END - Dream

    Chuck van Zyl/STAR’S END – December 6, 2015:
    Dream (57’32”) is the perfect antidote to all the high-octane sequencer albums coming out these days. Guitarist Carlo Luzi records under the name Acheloo and wants to share a universal story. Evoking a world of the subconscious Dream lights up our neural pathways by offering a range of works and a tight focus. Using sophisticated orchestral-synth textures to flesh out its arrangement Luzi’s assured guitar playing builds slow-burning spacey anthems. Hovering in some new no-space of breathing guitar and swirling electronics Dream bears the mark of a sophisticated artist. Every note is colored and inflected with natural musicianship, but this never gets in the way of line or phrasing. From a deeply affecting melancholy to the distilled energy and rhythms of Prog-Rock Acheloo delivers a sound world so fully realized that inhabiting this realm might move the unaware waking mind into slow wave sleep. Reverberant guitar leads echo across patterns of fluttering synth notes while gentle e-drums provide a slow propulsive element. Chords change keys and the sound fills out. A ribbon of melody unfurls and the story of the song unfolds. Elsewhere on Dream the music is more open – leaving room for hope. Rolling loops provide a lulling pad upon which Luzi plays as if with an inward grace – his solos full of unforced tenderness and warmth. Rigorously composed and realized, these ten tracks attest to Luzi’s tendency to view the world in the image of his fantasies, whether dream or nightmare. Dream is a mind trip on headphones, and believes that the deeper we go within ourselves, the better we may connect with the rest of humanity.
    – Chuck van Zyl/STAR’S END 15 August 2013

  • Sonic Curiosity: Dream

    Matt Howarth Sonic Curiosity – December 6, 2015:
    This CD from 2013 features 57 minutes of tender ambience. Acheloo is Italian synthesist Carlo Luzi.
    Ethereal tonalities and gentle guitar sustains achieve an infectious dream-state. The electronics are placid, pleasant, persistent in their tranquility. Vaporous clouds are generated and induced to establish a foggy backdrop for everything else. Tenuous guitar sustains and chorales augment this ambience, fleshing things out while retaining a remote quality.
    While the majority of guitarwork is restricted to lavishly tender sustains that tremble at the edge of conscious perception, there are instances when strummed chords emerge to flavor the flow with a subtle touch of organics.
    The result of all these attenuated elements is more than a harmonic experience. A melodic definition exists that caresses the listener with soothing enticement. This music is mostly percussionless, but a few tracks do feature gentle rhythms which remain relegated to the background, providing subliminal locomotion. One piece features a trumpet whose notes provide a winsome longing to the delicate flow.
    These compositions are designed to induce the listener to recede into an internal realm of contemplation, and in that they superbly succeed…but the music also possesses the quality of drawing the audience forth into a region of cognitive awareness, one in which the mind can review reality without the necessity of being part of it. The interplay of textural auralscapes and tender guitar achieves a wondrous mood of amiable satisfaction.