dino sabatini: omonimo

Producer Dino Sabatini, owner of the Outis Music label, has carved out a distinctive musical style that shows a great reverence for both ancient archetypes and future possibilities. With one foot planted in a mysterious past and the other planted in a world yet to arrive, Sabatini's works are carefully realized emotional journeys that intertwine shimmers of optimism with undercurrents of poignancy or nostalgia. Omonimo brings all of this to fruition in a work that demands (and rewards) deep listening, presented as a continuous mix for the CD version (unlike the vinyl and digital versions, on which the tracks are separated). After the pulsating "Foreword" massages the mind and prepares it for Sabatini's story, "Choosing the Right Way" blankets the listener in a rainy-day ambience punctuated with tantalizingly distant vocal refrains and nimble piano. At once solemn and erotic, it sets the pace perfectly for a set of tracks that have a cohesive feel, yet all use their own sonic vocabulary and color palette to tell unique variations on the story. "It's My Forest," for example, sticks to the reliable mid-tempo trip hop framework while introducing quick snatches of tabla and hovering synth arpeggios. "Follow Me" retains the lush synth pads and cycling percussive loops of "It's My Forest," and then things take a turn for the slightly darker with "The Unexpected," a sudden uptick in percussive punch and apprehensive intensity. The album's main recurring motif of cascading note patterns continues on "Just When I Think About You" and "Sometimes Back," with the former benefitting from a fat, insistent bass synth throb and both of these pieces benefitting from the return of tastefully minimal piano accents. And speaking of piano, the album's feeling of grandeur truly hits its stride with the assistance of jazz pianist Antonello Salis; on "If" and closer "And It All Ends Here," Salis's input allows Sabatini's blossoming arrangements to truly breathe while accommodating his partner's contemplative presence, culminating in free-floating, luminous wisps of romanticism. Nestling neatly between a number of contemporary genres and wisely avoiding their fatal clichés, tracks like the collaborations between Sabatini and Salis point listeners forward to a new kind of compositional freedom, and a style that can melt away feelings of pervasive stress without ever silencing the mind's innate curiosity.