Christopher Clarino – Parlando
Virtuoso percussionist Christopher Clarino’s Parlando is an uncompromising work of contemporary percussion, featuring compositions by Igor Santos, Anthony Donofrio, Barbara Monk Feldman, Thomas DeLio, and Michael Pisaro-Liu. This album immediately signals its academic and experimental intentions by redefining the boundaries of conventional listening. The opening title track by Igor Santos sets a highly cerebral tone, utilizing vibes and synth to create a microtonal “plink-plonk” sound organized via a staggered, non-linear rhythm that demands the kind of close attention that few outside the academy can muster. Clarino, as the sole performer, navigates this challenging repertoire with precision, establishing an aesthetic rooted in both the meticulous placement of sound and the profound use of negative space. This is music that rewards an engaged, patient ear, pushing far beyond conventional melody and beat toward the abstract.
The listening experience is defined by the album’s dedication to extreme sparseness, stretching moments of sound with lengthy bouts of near-silence. Tracks like Anthony Donofrio’s “Meditation” (toms, cymbals, gongs) and Barbara Monk Feldman’s similar “Glockenspiel” are so spacious that they verge on functional sound art, providing an atmosphere so serene it could be a cure for insomnia. This hyper-controlled minimalism continues with Thomas DeLio’s “Jeu de Timbres,” which employs a larger array of instruments—orchestra bells, bamboo wind chimes, snares, bongos, and maracas—yet uses them only as punctuation. The album culminates with Michael Pisaro-Liu’s “The Narrow Path,” which strips the experience back to only vibes and silence. Parlando is ultimately a work of profound focus, appealing directly to a specialized audience interested in the boundaries of composition, minimal instrumentation, and the dramatic architecture of silence.
Label: Neuma Catalog Number: 221 Format: CD-R Packaging: Mini-LP tri-fold jacket Tracks: 7 Total Time: 54:12 Country: United States Released: 2025 More: Bandcamp
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