Motore Immobile
Beautifully static compositions from Giusto Pio, another artist from Franco Battiato’s circle of collaborators. He was initially Battiato’s violin teacher but came to play quite a central role in Battiato’s creative practice, as producer and performer – they would even go on to co-compose a Eurovision Song Contest entry. That’s far away from the world inhabited by Motore Immobile, though. The work here is static, though not placid – there’s a tension at play through this heavenly slice of deep minimalism that keeps the attentive listener close to the edge of their seat. The constant presence of the organ drone is leavened by gentle interjections from violin, voice, and piano, each of whose presence feels fundamental to the composition. There’s no excess, no flourish. The two keyboard players, Danilo Lorenzini and Michele Fedrigotti, would release an album produced by Battiato in the late seventies, too. This little cabal of classical-cum-minimalist-cum-prog-pop artists were onto something heavy in the late seventies; thankfully, we have the recorded evidence.