By Nick Ostrum
Emerging out of a canceled-gig-turned-studio-session, Skin of a Drum is the
quartet of Pavel Aleshin, Serena Pagani, Sascha Stadlmeier, and William
Rossi. (Disclaimer: Rossi is a fellow contributor to FJB.) Pagani,
Stadlmeier and Rossi play guitars, Aleshin electronics, and all four
contribute various other effects, loops, objects, and processing and to
which Pagani also adds her voice. Alexithymiais their first
release and apart from a quick warm-up session, the first meeting of these
four musicians.
Alexithymia is a psychological trait wherein a person has difficulty
comprehending and expressing emotions. Given the fluid and ambiguous nature
of Alexithymia the album, it is a perfect title. The paints a
picture finely hued, but also enigmatic. First, the sounds are often
indeterminate. One hears drone, glitches, whispers, gurgles, bubbles,
fragments of guitar, heavy distorted chords, howls, synthesized (?) natural
sounds, space sounds. This is soundscaping, but with an emphasis on
collaboration – real time and in the production stages – and live,
in-the-moment improvisation, the more human elements of that oft-sterile
practice. That humanity is also embodied in Pagani’s vocals, which range
from the almost unrecognizable to crisp near-operatics (about two-thirds
in) and the array of guitar sounds that periodically pop out of and
intermingle with the less placeable elements.
The overall effect is that of a storm and, given the title, an internal
storm of inarticulable and maybe inexact feelings. In that ambiguity lies
the pull of this release. It is not a perfect expression of love or anger
or contentment. Rather, it is, by design, a confused excavation of some
emotion(s), not quite identifiable, but clearly impactful and, in its
inexact state, disruptive and unnerving. But then, near the end, a series
of strums, then an all-out chordal melody, over which Pagani sings, breaks
out, briefly evoking Fushitsusha’s blackened prom ballads (especially the
stunning track 8 on3/4). The winds still gust until the end,
offering a much welcome passage of reconciliation that confirms just how
well-crafted and thought-out all this cacophony is.
Alexithymiais available as a download and CD from Bandcamp:
