Città Impercettibili

UK artist Dylan Henner joins OOH-sounds with a brand new EP 'Città Impercettibili', continuing his sonic explorations of humanity, belonging and purpose with four tracks inspired by Italo Calvino's novel 'Invisible Cities'.

Across these four pieces, Henner sketches a travelogue of places that only exist in the mind, posing an epistemological question in the process: "Can one truly know any place?"

Drawing heavily on field recordings, samples of popular and obscure folklore music and complemented with his trademark digital processing, Dylan Henner created four pieces, each of which represents a new city one is able to visit. Processed, mangled source material entwines with striking choral passages and environmental sounds, while Henner also supplies his trademark ambient pads, marimba passages heavily influenced by minimalist composers and tape textures. The cities – of bells, of factories, of rain puddles and of choirs – each presents an environment characterised by curiosity and wonder. The sense of place and the narrative arc is clear; here more than ever before, Henner's compositions find parallels with literature.

'Città Impercettibili' is a peculiarly poetic, strangely warm collection of pieces. Listening feels like watching the cities go by through a car window; one barely gets a proper look, there's a tangible sense of not having seen enough, but also a deep appreciation for what one was able to catch a glimpse of. A striking, deeply imaginative work by one of contemporary ambient's mysterious figures, echoing and paying homage to Calvino's masterwork.

"Of a city you do not enjoy the seven or seventy-seven wonders, but the answer it gives to your question." – Italo Calvino.

►Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artwork by incepBOY, words by Adam Badi Donoval