Audion 73 is where Audion Magazine’s global circuitry really starts to glow. First published on 3 March 2023 as a 48‑page A4 pdf, the issue threads book criticism, deep historical reappraisal and present‑tense scene reports into one restless survey. It opens, fittingly, on the printed word with “A Fistful of Spaghetti” - an extended book‑review section that uses recent titles on Italian cinema, music and counterculture as a prism, talking through how giallo soundtracks, spaghetti western scores and underground Italian scenes keep being reinterpreted in print and reissued on vinyl. Rather than treating books as ancillary merchandise, the feature reads them as active participants in how we hear and value these sounds today.
From there, the focus narrows onto specific artists. “Annapurna Illusion - Life Is an Illusion & Other Stories” shines a light on a project operating in the liminal zone between krautrock drift, cosmic electronics and psych experimentation, unpacking how their long‑form pieces balance trance repetition with sudden harmonic shifts. A substantial feature on Area - International POPular Group revisits the Italian radicals not as a footnote to 1970s prog, but as a fiercely political, stylistically omnivorous force where free jazz, Rock in Opposition, Mediterranean folk and electric fury collided. The article walks through key albums, live tapes and shifting line‑ups, situating Area within both Italy’s turbulent ’70s and a broader international avant‑rock context.
The present day pushes back via “Tara Clerkin Trio – genre defying music from Bristol”, which traces how the group fold dub echo, chamber‑folk, jazz gesture and lo‑fi electronics into music that refuses obvious tags. The prose leans into sound and atmosphere, describing not just influences but the uncanny emotional weather of their records. “Brendan Pollard – 20 questions with” switches the mode to an informal but probing Q&A with the Berlin‑school devotee, teasing out his compositional process, gear obsessions and relationship with the long shadow of Tangerine Dream and their peers.
Geographically, Audion 73 continues the magazine’s South American deep dive with “Prog & Psych from South America: Chile”, mapping a scene where post‑Tropicália energies, Andean folk traditions, political upheaval and studio experimentation interweave. The piece pulls together better‑known names and obscurer outfits, giving equal weight to major‑label anomalies and private‑press ghosts. In parallel, “New Italian Prog & Underground – Part 5” returns to the peninsula to chart current bands and micro‑labels pushing beyond the classic RPI template, showing how Italy’s exploratory streak has morphed in the era of Bandcamp and tiny pressing runs.
Label archaeology surfaces again in “Choice British Label Classics: Mushroom”, which excavates the catalogue of a British imprint whose releases sit at the crossroads of psych, folk, proto‑prog and oddball singer‑songwriter work. The feature doesn’t just list titles; it discusses sleeves, production quirks and the way these records hang together as an accidental aesthetic. A spotlight on Everest Magma zeroes in on one of Italy’s most idiosyncratic contemporary projects, where tape‑loop grit, submerged song forms and industrial‑folk textures create a sound-world equal parts ritual and glitch.
The label section broadens the institutional view, with concise but detailed pieces on Empreintes Digitales (a cornerstone of electroacoustic and acousmatic music), Moonjune (bridge‑building between fusion, avant‑rock and global jazz), and Norske Albumklassikere(dedicated to restoring Norwegian obscurities to circulation). Together they sketch how small, committed imprints can reshape access to both archival and cutting‑edge material.
Framing all this are assorted review features, where new releases, reissues and archival projects are treated with the same curiosity and granularity as the main articles. Edited by Steve Freeman, with writing, research and layout handled by Alan Freeman and additional contributions from Andy Garibaldi, Eric Maden, Mike McLatchey and Adam Naworal, Audion 73 feels like a many‑voiced conversation: argumentative, enthusiastic, occasionally obsessive, but always anchored by close listening and a sense that the story of adventurous music is still very much unfinished.
