My first encounter with both Nimh and the Afe Records label. Afe, short for “Another Friendly Edition”, is an Italian cd-r label, releasing varied sorts of electronic music, without being limited to one clearly defined subgenre. Most releases are rather limited and come with special covers/packaging. Afe, erected by Andrea Marutti (Amon, Never Known), is already active since 1995, then as a tape label. Some of the plans for 2003 are releases by De Fabriek, Raffaele Serra, Dronaement and True Colour of Blood 9which will be the label’s first regular cd release, in collaboration with Eibon).
Nimh is the project of Giuseppe Verticchio, who is active in the ambient/electronic fields for about a decade. I have not listened to his music before, but I’ve heard good things about his release on the Taalem label. “Frozen” was already recorded in 2000, but now is re-released in a new version. The cover is nice and appropriate, you see a solitary figure wandering ina blue snowy landscape. This perfectly matches the music, which is rather cold and minimal. The cd-r consists of one long track, lasting for an hour. This cold soundscape is based on slow drones, which sometimes swell a little in intensity and then get more quiet again. Not too much happens in the music, it never get’s very obtrusive. Towards the end the volume of the low machine-like frequencies gets louder, and the effect of the deep drones becomes more ritual. Listening with full attention to this cd-r for an hour is rather intensive, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that there are only gradual changes in sound. But certainly a skilfully sculpted long cold wave of glacial sound. Frozen music indeed.