nosound ~ lightdark

This is the second album by Italian band nosound. Signed to Tim Bowness’s Burning Shed label which is appropriate as the band do inhabit a similar sonic arena as No-man and the reflective side of Porcupine Tree. Infact Tim Bowness is featured on one track . Not that the band are mere copyists as leader Giancarlo Erra, whose project this really is, adds enough other elements (a bit of Harold Budd, Brian Eno etc) to keep it sounding varied and challenging.

This is classy, stylish stuff right down to the beautiful artwork, again by Erra. As a new No-man album doesn’t come along too often (ok, there is a new one next month) anything that fills in the gaps is very welcome. There actually aren’t many artists playing this type of post-rock, dreamy reflective art-pop stuff (apart from No-man and David Sylvian sometimes) and Erra and do it very well. I don’t think they have completely got their own voice yet but they are getting there. Their first album “so29” has also just been re-released in remastered and expanded form and is also worth a look. There is also plenty of downloadable stuff on their web site, including a live version of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”.