Music is like a waterfall if you think about it. You can explain its working with science but even Stephen Hawking would be hard pushed to explain the paralleled beauty and power that free flowing water possesses. An album like “Ha Ta Ka Pa”, an album of curious fluidity despite its quite deliberate dissonance, by Italian arthouse band Aedi is therefore one that can be considered more than the sum of its dissected parts.
There is adventure in here. On the surface Aedi seems drawn to the ghosts of prog rock past with that ability to extend a song in any direction clearly evident. “Idea”, for example, has the appearance of an extended workout or an indulgence in musicality until Celeste Carboni leaps through the song and decorates it with vocal delirium. Poetry, or at least the poetry of lyrical obscurity, then enlivens “Rabbit On The Road” amidst duelling voices and the kind of attitude that defies conventionality and inspires transient aggression.
In comparison, the delicate “Tomasz”, all piano and wistful Celeste, is a conventional wonder, or at least it would if you consider Lisa Germano or Bjork to be conventional. “Prayer Of The Wing”, on the other hand, is driven forward by near theatrical pomp and is guaranteed to stir the sails on your musical boat.
Perhaps it is just good fortune that brings them to my attention but I am nonetheless continually impressed with both the musical ability and the imagination of Italian bands like Aedi. Long may they continue to defy scientific analysis.