Aparticle - The Glamour Tapes (2021) [Hi-Res]

Ritmo & Blu Records is pleased to present “The Glamor Tapes,” a new work by Aparticle. Produced by Stefano Castagna, “The Glamor Tapes” is an entirely analog reinterpretation of “The Glamor Action,” the quartet’s latest record, recorded and mixed at Studio Ritmo & Blu.

Aparticle is made up by Michele Bonifati, Giulio Stermieri, Cristiano Arcelli and Ermanno Baron, an eclectic quartet that offers a personal synthesis of Jazz, Rock and improvisation. Born in 2017, they debuted with Bulbs in 2018, followed by The Glamor Action in 2020: in concert the songs of the disc are interpreted as a launch for new compositions, testifying to a continuous collective research that is reflected in an increasingly evident identity of group. The re-reading of the 2020 album should therefore not be understood as a moment of fatigue or a break, but as a central stage in the path of dialogue between composition and impromptuness. Both in the writing and in the organization of the interactions, the present tense takes on considerable importance: this characterizes Aparticle as a peculiar and intriguing improvising band.

Revisiting your own record is an important operation, especially if – as happened for “The Glamor Tapes,” reinterpreted according to the “vintage” perspective dear to Ritmo & Blu – governed by a unique production and listening philosophy. As Aparticle points out about the invitation: “Stefano Castagna proposed us to make a new version of the album working completely in analog: we recorded on a tape multitrack and mixed on an analog desk. No computer was used in any production phase and the audio was not processed through any digital device. This was a time for us to rethink how technology can affect music production. In this perspective we have reworked our material, adapting it to this new recording process.”

The reworking of the album stimulated reflection and artistic exploration in the quartet, starting with the role of the production process up to questioning the support as such in an era of liquid music. The questions and ideas that arose in this phase were extended to colleagues, critics, record companies and friends, so much so as to generate a broad and shared reflection process that has become part of the booklet. Above all we quote the opinion of a historical and authoritative signature such as Aldo Gianolio: “A very modern and personal music, in which they have perfectly metabolized sounds and ideas that run in the air of contemporaneity, making them their own and adapting them to their styles, with beautiful architectures played on the juxtapositions of aerial and floating parts and others that are more earthy and solid.“

Cristiano Arcelli, alto saxophone
Michele Bonifati, guitar
Giulio Stermieri, Fender Rhodes, organ, Juno60
Ermanno Baron, drums