Tip! **100 numbered copies in black 'disco bag' cover with sticker, 180g audiophile vinyl** Active on the scene for more than two decades, Maath is the moniker of Marco Ramassotto, who briefly came to note during the early 2000s as a member of the ritualistic, musical excursions of Biasthon, as well as working under the pseudonym of Mark Schaub. Despite Maath’s many years of activity, Ramassotto has only produced a tiny number of releases under that guise, most notably “No Survivors for the New World” and “Darkness, Void and Silence”, both released by Eibon Records, a label that, incidentally, was also responsible for most of the output of Andrea Marutti's Amon project. “Vaco”, issued on his own Anomala Soundscapes inprint, is Maath's most recent offering.

Heavily centred around the practice of field recording, Maath’s “Vaco” exists in the nebulous zone between soundscape, ambient and electroacoustic music. Constructed to be deliberately fragmentary - proving the sense of wandering without destination, seeking sensations, unexpected events, and psychic shifts - the album’s two sides meticulously weave a sense of alienation from a sprawling palette of microscopically detailed environmental sounds, played against passages guided by bass guitar and sparse instrumentation, the collective result of which is a deeply engrossing sense of tense restlessness, cast within an arching sense of uncanny calm.

Often mysterious to the extent of an intervening creative hand, “Vaco” is particularly noteworthy for the degree to which it allows its material elements space and the ability to speak for themselves. A substantial amount of both the album’s sides - each feeling fairly distinct from the other - feature long periods where only environmental recordings seem to have been used. This is especially the case with the second side, presenting the constant buzz of insect sounds, only occasionally heightened and pushed toward new dimensions by subtle, instrumental intervention. In contrast, on the first side, Maath slightly inverts this dynamic, allowing the piece to be guided by the low rumble of long tones and a more forward sense of harmonic interplay, with a similar palette of insectile ambience producing a sense of chance and sonorous texture.

Adding a particularly interesting dimension, “Vaco” was conceived as something of a total object, with its graphic / cover elements - featuring signs reproducing the five Platonic solids symbolising the alchemical elements Fire, Earth, Water, Air and Sky - offering access to the intentions and meanings of the sounds, and Ramassotto’s desire for a listening experience that might establish a connection between music, esotericism, natural phenomena and symbolism.

A deeply engaging work at the juncture between field recording, ambient music, and minimalism, Maath’s “Vaco” is issued in a highly limited vinyl edition of 100 numbered copies pressed to 180g wax, housed in a black 'disco bag' cover, adorned with a sticker symbolising one of the five alchemical elements. Absolutely fantastic and not to be missed.