*First time on vinyl* Despite all their incredible work, record labels often get the short end of the stick. We rarely place their efforts on the same plane as the music they dedicate themselves to bringing into our lives. Far more than simply a means of production and distribution, great labels are ecosystems unto themselves; free-standing, singular environments that offer the context and understanding that allow their artists to thrive. Two such cases are the imprints, Soave and Cinedelic. Since launching in 2017, Soave has become a crucial force in the reemergence of historic efforts of Italian avant-garde and experimental music, while Cinedelic is among the most important imprints in the field of unconventional soundtracks and library music. In most places in the world, these contexts could naturally be regarded as distinct from one another, but the history of Italian music is different, placing them in direct conversation for many years. 

Belonging to the same period as “Sud e Magia” and “Gangsters '70”, marking its first ever appearance on vinyl, Egisto Macchi’s “Asia” is an absolute marvel that stands slightly apart from the composer’s more well-known works. Recorded in Florence in October 1979, the album is the composer’s sonic, conceptual journey through the East Asia, interweaving a series of musical soundscapes that nod toward and draw upon that region's many cultural traditions, within strikingly individual forms. Set within the broader tradition of Library Music, “Asia” might be best understood as a series of referential and thematic moods, infusing the album’s largely acoustic, instrumental palette - percussion, zithers, celestas, flutes, marimbas, sansas, and violins - with mystical, religious, naturalist, sacred, and adventurous sensibilities, balancing a sense of otherworldliness, outside the limits of space and time, with a deep sense of respect for the cultures toward which Macchi draws.

Comprising an incredible eleven compositions heavily infused with a pastoral sense of calm, Macchi’s “Asia” forms a fascinating counterpoint to the roughly contemporaneous efforts of projects like Gamelan Son of Lion or the work of artists like Daniel Schmidt, sculpting a singular form of acoustic ambient music at the juncture of Minimalism, that draws upon non-Western cultural traditions. Pulsing, restrained, and heavily centered around a percussive sense of tonality, “Asia” is one of those joyous, breezy listens that remains engrossing and rigorous, while subtly playful across its brilliant two sides.

Encountering Soave and Cinedelic furthering their incredible dedication to the work of Egisto Macchi, it’s hard to understand how this incredible body of music by such a seminal composer has remained unreleased for so long. Issued in a beautiful vinyl edition, this one is an absolute stunner and helps to radically expand our understanding of one of the great Italian composers of the 20th Century. Not to be missed!