It is always a pleasure to receive contact from áMARXE, one of the finest of modern record labels out there, and this particular message contained an interesting treat.

Luciano Margorani (co-founder of Milanese Avant duo, LA 1919) on bass, guitars, noises, and loops, Dario D'Alessando (of Sicilian Canterbury-influenced Homunculus Res) playing keyboards, vocals, guitars, glockenspiel, premix, & Chris Cutler (founder of classic Canterbury Scene act, Henry Cow) on drums/percussion have joined forces for the appropriately named Triangolazioni (Triangulations), which could either be a series of mathematical measurements based around triangles, or, in psychology, the threat of exclusion or manipulation.

This album is very strongly geared towards those who enjoyed the experimental end of the spectrum from the Canterbury Scene, who love their RIO/Avant. It is not immediately accessible and is not meant to be. It rewards the time taken to appreciate it.

There are seven tracks on an album released last Friday, and you can listen to it and then part with your hard-earned at https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/triangolazioni Should you do so? Well, let’s find out.

Sul Farsi (On Making) opens, immediately the complexity of the percussion and rich vibes hitting you, the vocals enunciating sounds as opposed to words, rather like the type of putting sounds to music Gabriel does in the preparation stage. The guitar solo is top notch on a track which has the desired effect of making you want to hear more. It is embedded below, so see what you think.

Bar Eclisse (Eclipse Bar) has a darker intensity to it, the bass guitar lording it over the drum pattern before we get an assortment of effects and noises which, naturally, put one in mind of a smoky bar, the participants on stage indulging in the type of improvisation you would never hear in a conventional pub or club. This is a fascinating, hypnotic track, which at times bursts into heavier territory, the guitar riffs distinctly threatening and redolent towards the end of the type of experimentation which abounded 70’s music.

Stupidario (Stupidarium, a place where stupidity is cultivated, such as about 98% of the chat rooms and forums you see on the www) follows. It has a gorgeous bass melody, the guitar work leftfield, some complex percussion patterns, but when the voice enters the fray, the whole piece has a chaotic turn, emphasising the rejection of Stupidario by sensible and rational folk, some wild and dystopian noises here, but at others, the spartan notes almost seeking sanctuary. A very interesting piece which has a very clever catchy, almost commercial, attraction where none should exist.

Marcia trionfale (Triumphal March) has the listener in the crowd watching the military procession before him, the sense of grandeur that only a military celebration, perhaps of a conquest, or simply a memory of one, can bring, But this brings with it some superb keyboard work and very intricate patterns of notes, the noise levels increasing as we approach the end point, the triumphal arch, perhaps, the musical scent of victory all around you, the drum beat pounding out the steps.

You Don’t Have the Cards (which our free world’s glorious egotist recently barked at Zelensky) is next, and it takes a dystopian hue from the outset, the bullying of the lead protagonist, and the shocked innocence of the poor victim being played out, the sense of drama portrayed by the world media carried along by the stunning drum and percussion work of Cutler, with the intensity again cleverly rising as the ghastly horror show progresses to its peak, all combatants picking on the lone guest, the noise frightening. It is embedded below, a challenging piece of music for sure.

Nubendi Trabiti (Married Couples) is the penultimate track and is a thirteen-minute-plus epic, so plenty to get involved in. The acoustic guitar is pretty to begin, a sharp and perhaps welcome contrast to the darkness which preceded it, the keyboard sounds accompanying melodic. There are clever changes in mood and intensity, veering between the contently peaceful, the melodically blissful, through to louder discourse, the voices beautifully capturing the musicianship they accompany, conversational without words, sometimes choral, intense guitars in perhaps those moments when the relationship becomes argumentative, or at least, disagreeable, the whole piece telling us the story of that most happy (for this writer, anyway) institution of two loving people joined forever, and the ebbs and flows such a union bring with it, including the repetitive nature of life in the end segment.

We close with Terra Santa (Holy Land), the dissonance and atonality a classic example of RIO/Avant music, Henry brought back to life. Strange, hypnotic, and extremely challenging music, the work of Cutler extraordinarily complex on his kit against the experimentation of his cohorts, the short, bare guitar solo reminding me of Fripp at his improvisational best.

I think that áMARXE are a label whose output every serious music lover should explore. This album, let’s be clear, is not for everyone, but it contains some stunning work, and is precisely the type of music virtually no other label would even contemplate bringing to you, let alone follow through and doing so.

Be glad such music is still being published. These are three musicians at the top of their chosen game, and those of you who worship the more experimental end of the progressive spectrum will lap it up.