“[…] I couldn't hear any evidence of a generative system in play – the rules of the game, so to speak, were not immediately audible, nor did I feel that the music's aim was to make them so. Rather, this is the sound of an experienced master of ambient music at work: refined and well developed, meditative and enveloping, the piece nonetheless sounds fresh, inventive, even surprising. Those who have accuse ambient music of having run out of new ideas would do well to give 333 Loops a listen.”

Emiliano Romanelli is well-known among the Italian ambient electronic scene as a founding member of multimedia collective Tu m’, with whom he worked from 1998 to 2011. Following on from this, and building on his interest in generative processes as a means of creation, he developed an artwork based on 333 sound loops, capable of generating 110889 (3332) discrete musical events. His new release “333 Loops (Volume 1)” is a snapshot of this autopoietic system in action, recorded live at the cloister of Ex Convento dei Cappuccini, Colli del Tronto, Italy.
The piece opens very quietly, gradually developing into a soft synthetic soundscape. So far, so ambient electronic. But then a hollow, wheezy sound is introduced, something like a mouth organ or harmonica, and it transforms the work. The micro-interactions between this timbre and other sounds within the soundscape are a delight to listen to: sometimes melding together, sometimes rubbing against one another with friction or bouncing off one another in syncopated rhythms or pulses. Towards the end a gentle hiss, resembling wind in the trees or waves running across sand, becomes a bath into which the other sounds dissolve.
While I could imagine others feeling that it takes a little while to get going, for me the structure and pacing of “333 Loops (Volume 1)” was just right. I couldn’t hear any evidence of a generative system in play — the rules of the game, so to speak, were not immediately audible, nor did I feel that the music’s aim was to make them so. Rather, this is the sound of an experienced master of ambient music at work: refined and well developed, meditative and enveloping, the piece nonetheless sounds fresh, inventive, even surprising. Those who have accuse ambient music of having run out of new ideas would do well to give “333 Loops” a listen.
— Nathan Thomas, Fluid Radio

“[…] Emiliano Romanelli's work is similarly an exploration through perception, and like Newman's painting 333 Loops requires an active engagement on behalf of the audience.  Many works make demands,  but works of subtly are merely open to use, take it or leave it. It's all too easy to casually encounter a work of art and presume to know it. It's another thing to slow down and give it the time to reveal itself.”

Emiliano Romanelli (b. 1979) is well-known amongst the Italian scene for his work in the multimedia duo  Tu m’.  Back at The Site Before  we were pretty fond of their record Monochromes, which made our Best of 2009 list.  Released on the 12k imprint LINE, the four numbered tracks were stark yet immersive.   Tu m’ took their name from Marcel Duchamp’s final oil painting, but Monochromes found inspiration for its minimalist approach in  a Jean Cocteau quote.  (“A poet always has too many words in his vocabulary, a painter too many colours on his palette, a musician too many notes on his keyboard.”)  For his solo debut Romanelli looks to Francis Picabia’s pronouncement that “The future is a monotonous instrument,” producing a monotonous instrument of his own that succeeds in transforming simple raw material into a beautiful work of surprising depth.
Not unlike Tu m’, Romanelli’s solo excursions prove to be tranquil and soothing.  Once you become accustomed to the restricted sound palette, the subtle differences begin to seem more significant, encouraging a kind of meditative listening that draws you in.
Romanelli created the 333 loops that make up the raw material for this project between 2008 and 2011 using a sound synthesis software, recording each in varying acoustic spaces to further augment their color.  333 Loops (Volume 1)  was recorded live in the cloister of Ex Convento dei Cappuccini in the small comune of Colli del Tronto in Italy, where it was performed quadraphonically as part of the Within 01 festival  on Friday 13th September 2013 at 10:45 PM.  This level of detail is indicative of Romanelli’s approach, a kind of transparency that encourages close listening to the sound itself without being distracted by thoughts of process of representation.  As such, he fully explains the method of composition by which he combines the loops: using “a custom software (2 loop players, 2 EQs, 4 delays, 1 digital room reverb, 4 LFOs), the loops are used as modules in a random process of juxtapositions (A//B) and multiplications (333²)  resulting in 110889  (333^2) possible “events,” interactions between the ‘raw’ loops.” The end result is one very slowly evolving 35 minute composition.
333 Loops begins rather quietly, with little perceptible until about 30 seconds into the piece.  The gentle drone gradually begins to pulse.  Encounters between the shifting loops do indeed create various events, though these come and go so imperceptibly that it’s easy to lose focus.  The cloisters become increasingly resonant as the performance progresses, the textures building in intensity.   Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi relatively quietly, at first I can’t decide if I’m meant to strain to listen or if I should turn up the volume.  After the first few minutes, however, I’m lulled into placidity, a frog in the frying pan.  The abstract nature of the work of course lends itself to interpretation, though I suspect Romanelli may have a particular mood in mind, and his hand can be felt guiding the results of his random process.  The pulsing tones become hypnotic by mid-piece, and the spiritual setting couldn’t be more apt.
Last month I found myself killing time at the Museum of Modern Art, waiting for my partner to finish exploring the Lygia Clark exhibit.  I was listening to 333 Loops and found myself drawn to the abstract expressionists, intuiting that both the music and the paintings required sustained attention and would be an appropriate complement to sitting on a bench for 30 minutes.   Passing works by Rothko, of whom I’m a great fan, I sat directly in front of Barnett Newman’s “Vir Heroicus Sublimis,” a mostly monochrome painting on a huge canvas.  Newman would hate to see his work displayed as it is here on this site, a small image that can’t come close to conveying the splendor of the original.  The painting wasn’t meant to be seen from a distance.  It’s not representational and so seeing “all of it” doesn’t allow the work to communicate much.  As I sat taking it in, inevitably other spectators would approach and block my view, and so I began to catalog their reactions.   Most seemed to assess the painting, assume they’d “understood” it, and walk on.  A work of art must be experience, however, and grasping the mechanics of a thing is never a substitute for actually experiencing it.  A mostly flat red, the nearly 18′ long color field is interrupted only by Newman’s ‘zips,’ two a lighter shades of red, a brilliant white, a solid black, and lastly a pinkish hue.  Though they do seem to subdivide the painting, and in fact the middle ‘section’ is nearly a perfect square, they aren’t intended to compartmentalize the painting.  Rather they suggest a kind of rhythm, they create a pulse.  This is a painting that plays with our perception, finding a way to activate our perception of red to give it further meaning.  As my eyes move around the canvas, I start to see afterimages,  the white zip most intensely. Where there is only the same red I begin to see hues and shades that aren’t there. The others too have impact, keeping me from lingering too long in any one place, creating new phantom proportions.  After long minutes staring at this painting, I’ve come to see it is far more active than those bustling spectators had assumed.  Emiliano Romanelli’s work is similarly an exploration through perception, and like Newman’s painting 333 Loops requires an active engagement on behalf of the audience.  Many works make demands,  but works of subtly are merely open to use, take it or leave it.  It’s all too easy to casually encounter a work of art and presume to know it.  It’s another thing to slow down and give it the time to reveal itself.
— Joseph Sannicandro, A Closer Listen

“[…] A pulse is occasionally felt, though more a kind of rotational recursion, like a musicized Calder mobile. A kind of glassine dream mesmerism emerges, as Romanelli holds back on sending in the ambient clouds in favor of a more thinly diffused vaporousness, sustaining a more lowercase minimalism of means redolent of earlier Tu m' work (cf. Monochromes Vol. 1). There's something strangely eerie about it, a feeling further cemented by a Picabia quote, ‘the future is a monotonous instrument’, whose sinister resonance tells of possible dystopian traces beneath a deceptively serene skin.”

Emiliano Romanelli, co-founder of now defunct duo Tu m’, who released significantly on Line and Dekorder among others, launched an ongoing project in 2012 focused on generative systems and the perceptual relationships between sound, light and space. 333 Loops (Volume 1) is the first part of a CD/DL live series documenting the eponymous sound events generated by the modular system the Italian electronicist designed; this involved an archive of 333 pre-recorded sound loops produced between 2008-2011 by a sound synthesis software played in different acoustic environments, captured largely with the internal mics of digital and analog recorders. Subsequently, via a custom software (2 loop players, 2 EQs, 4 delays, 1 digital room reverb, 4 LFOs), the loops are used as modules in a random process of juxtapositions (A//B) and multiplications (333²), able to generate live 110,889 sound events to be diffused in the room via a multichannel sound system. So far, so hermetic. Beyond detailing the minutiae of experimental process and gear set-up for process-buffs and tech-heads, will it ring my ambient chimes, you may be thinking.
Organ-y wisps waft through an evacuated space with little linear development or dynamic structure evident. The depth of field is notable in that it seems formed without contrastive stratification, rather overlapping layers within a relatively narrow band of ungrained frequencies. A pulse is occasionally felt, though more a kind of rotational recursion, like a musicized Calder mobile. A kind of glassine dream mesmerism emerges, as Romanelli holds back on sending in the ambient clouds in favor of a more thinly diffused vaporousness, sustaining a more lowercase minimalism of means redolent of earlier Tu m’ work (cf. Monochromes Vol. 1). There’s something strangely eerie about it, a feeling further cemented by a Picabia quote, ‘the future is a monotonous instrument,’ whose sinister resonance tells of possible dystopian traces beneath a deceptively serene skin.
333 Loops is a field of inquiry with a potential duration of between 110,889 seconds and 110,889 years, of which this volume, constituting numbers 148, 149 and 150, fortunately, comprises just 35 minutes—not that more would be unwelcome, but this listening lifetime is all too limited, and other records are available. Less facetiously, this document of Romanelli’s performance at the medieval cloister of Ex Convento dei Cappuccini, Colli del Tronto, as part of Within 01 festival, September 2013, feels well judged—and not just in duration; representing as it does Romanelli’s live and discographic debut after a hiatus, following 13 years with Tu m’, a  110,889 year-long set would have been pushing it a bit. Archness aside, this is a fine release, in several respects—expertly mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and housed in design finery.
— Alan Lockett, Igloo Magazine

“[…] It's like the flow of water filmed in slow motion, a chaos of intricacy rendered elegant, generating life through surges of deliberate, unforeseeable movements. There is no root from which the sound originates, and 333 Loops levitates above all notions of ‘correct’ orientation and fixed beginnings.”

Technically this is Romanelli’s debut since his work with Tu m’ ceased back in 2011, but the connotations of debut feel somehow wrong; implying an opening statement, or the gateway into a path of re-evaluation and redevelopment. 333 Loops is already fully realised – it exists as every eventuality all at once, even if my senses are only exposed to one at a time – and given that Romanelli’s modular system works by juxtaposing a bank of 333 loops against eachother (creating a possible 11089 different live sound events), what I am hearing here is the finished sculpture under partial illumination, with each subsequent performance placing a different fragment under the light.
I hear bell tones of several pitches, melted down and swirled gently into one another; overtones poke above the syrup of nuzzling mid frequencies, as the piece tilts and reshapes, inflates and wilts. Later, noise thickens like vapour over hums that snake through the crust beneath my feet, as indistinct clangs suggest a construction project taking place somewhere within the trees. It’s like the flow of water filmed in slow motion – a chaos of intricacy rendered elegant, generating life through surges of deliberate, unforeseeable movements. There is no root from which the sound originates, and 333 Loops levitates above all notions of “correct” orientation and fixed beginnings. Appropriately for a piece that enters my sensory spectrum by permeating the wall of potential, I feel I’m entering something that has already begun, already finished; it is a becoming and a become, spinning me in the stasis of eternal motion, dissolving me into the shapeless unknown of transience.
— Jack Chuter, ATTN:Magazine

“[…] tranquil and open sound fluids able to take perception into sublime fields, submerging the ears into an atmosphere that you don't get to remember because it remains floating in a place between the silent ghosts of the past and ‘the monotonous sound of the future’. An endless listening.”

Sound is not in space; sound is space. For the listener, space is just echo, and echo is sound. The acoustic dimension is 100% full of sonic matter able to build the illusion of space depending on its transformation, malleability, resonance, multiplication; elements that, when explored correctly, lead to immersive experiences where the listener is challenged to be sound and not just to hear it. A great example of that is “333 loops” by Emiliano Romanelli, who recorded and multiplied loops live at the cloister of Ex Convento dei Cappuccini in Italy, in order to construct a tonal network of echoes that creates a journey over time; tranquil and open sound fluids able to take perception into sublime fields, submerging the ears into an atmosphere that you don’t get to remember because it remains floating in a place between the silent ghosts of the past and “the monotonous sound of the future”. An endless listening.
— Miguel Isaza, Infinite Grain

“[…] once in a while, I'm just as immediately captivated, as is the case here. I'm pretty certain it has something to do with perceived depth of field which, in this instance, is interesting as the layers seem to be composed of elements without very high degrees of contrast (no rough rumblings under smooth surfaces, for example) but instead there seem to be multiple strands that are constricted into a reasonably narrow spectrum. Yet it works.”

An ongoing question I've raised, here and to myself, is with regard to the evaluation of field recordings, specifically why I enjoy this one but not that one. It's perplexing and difficult, for me, to quantify. A similar quandary can arise with the area of music produced here by Romanelli, which I enjoy quite a bit: dreamy, electronic clouds carrying something of an organ-y quality that waft along with no rhythmic reference or apparent structure. There will be many cases where I'm almost immediately bored but once in a while, I'm just as immediately captivated, as is the case here. I'm pretty certain it has something to do with perceived depth of field which, in this instance, is interesting as the layers seem to be composed of elements without very high degrees of contrast (no rough rumblings under smooth surfaces, for example) but instead there seem to be multiple strands that are constricted into a reasonably narrow spectrum. Yet it works.
Three pieces that segue imperceptibly into one another, performed live in September 2013, apparently Romanelli's initial venture into live performance after having been a part of the duo Tu m' since 1998. The music is the result of a computer program he designed which is "able to generate live 110889 sound events" of which we hear numbers 148, 149 and 150. A pulse of sorts manifests on occasion, more a circular kind of sound, as though you're hearing a reduced recording of a ball bearing rotating around the interior of a metal bowl. Somehow, the kind of fluff you expect never appears; the music manages to attain a kind of hard edge despite the diffusion and "glow". There's something oddly ruthless about it. Romanelli quotes Picabia, "The future is a monotonous instrument." and something about that quotation resonates strongly. Perhaps it's that, beneath all the seeming lushness there's also a sense of bleakness. Whatever the case, it's very much worth your while. Excellently mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi and contained in a finely designed package by Ben Owen.
— Brian Olewnick, Just Outside

“[…] Despite being so hot-wired, generative music never sounded less artificial. It is a sublime ambience more absorbed than heard, the sound of all of us dissolving into our yearned-for innate amity.”

The longing for eternal concord is written into our DNA and is the outcome of our most optimistic philosophies, from the Torah to Kant´s still much-discussed perpetual peace. Thirteen years after co-founding T um´, Emiliano Romanelli has begun issuing documents of “sound events generated by the homonymous modular system” he designed in 2011.
As he explains, the system he constructed contains “an archive of 333 pre-recorded sound loops produced…by a sound synthesis software played in different acoustic environments… the loops are used as modules in a random process of juxtapositions.” Depending on how it is programmed, 333 Loops could run between 110,889 seconds and 110,889 years, according to Romanelli´s calculations.
This first volume, featuring three extracts running a mere thirty-five minutes combined, was recorded at a festival held on the grounds of a medieval Capuchin monastery in Italy. Despite being so hot-wired, generative music never sounded less artificial. It is a sublime ambience more absorbed than heard, the sound of all of us dissolving into our yearned-for innate amity.
— Stephen Fruitman, Avant Music News

“[…] Not forcing it upon the listener, but rather filing up spaces. It's surely excellent music and I enjoyed it”

There is quite some text for this release, which I copy in full, so you have an idea and I don't make mistakes… "The system is composed by an archive of 333 pre-recorded sound loops, produced between 2008 and 2011 by a sound synthesis software played in different acoustic environments, and documented mainly with internal microphones of several digital and analog portable recorders. Subsequently, by custom software (2 loop players, 2 EQs, 4 delays, 1 digital room reverb, 4 LFOs), the loops are used as modules in a random process of juxtapositions (A//B) and multiplications (333²), able to generate live 110889 sound events to be diffused in the room via a multichannel sound system. 333 Loops as a possible field of investigation, lasting between 110889 seconds and 110889 years. The Volume 1 is the stereo documentation of the quadraphonic live performance at the medieval cloister of Ex Convento dei Cappuccini, Colli del Tronto, Italy as part of Within 01 festival, on Friday 13th September 2013, 10:45 PM." This is the first solo record of Emiliano Romanelli, who was once half of Tu'm. I wasn't sure what to expect here, based on this text. Maybe 333 loops, which seemed rather naive from me, or maybe something very chaotic that would culminate in some random order in something that would last that long. In stead we have three pieces here, '000148 Of 110889', '000149 Of 110889' and '000150 of 110889', which last in total thirty minutes. A very low ambient sound that seems to be very synthetic in nature, and all three pieces seem to flow right into each other. While I was doing some e-mailing this music worked very nice as a backdrop, in a very much Eno-esque state. Not forcing it upon the listener, but rather filing up spaces. It's surely excellent music and I enjoyed it well - just as I have some ten hours of very quiet Eno music on my ipod - but I must say, at the same time, that this seems to lack originality. If there are so many loops, why do they sound the same, I wondered. But perhaps none such deliberations are what you are looking for in music and you care about a beautiful ambient release: here's most certainly a very fine example.
— Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

“[…] an immersive, persuasive and spiritual work that is easy to dive into.”

“The future is a monotonous instrument”, said Francis Picabia, imagining an instrument that nearly always preserves the same tone, repeating it at regular intervals. In 333 Loops Emiliano Romanelli has explored the motto of the surrealist painter and poet, recording a series of sound events using a modular system homonymous with the title of this album. The result is an immersive, persuasive and spiritual work that is easy to dive into. The Città Sant’Angelo (Abruzzo, Italy) native developed the system from 333 pre-recorded sound loops, taken from an archive created between 2008 and 2011. The archive contains sounds produced by software synthesizers that were played in different acoustic environments and recaptured by a variety of microphones and digital recorders. This is the second release by the Terziruolo label and Romanelli’s first solo album. It documents a live quadraphonic performance that took place in the medieval courtyard of the Ex Convento dei Cappuccini (a former monastery) of Colli del Tronto, as part of the Within 01 Festival (Sept 2013). Romanelli, who was once an active member of Tu M’ with Rossano Polidoro, has experience working with environmental implanting and loop-based editing (see for example Monochromes Vol.1 for LINE). The emotional and ethereal passages of the work are even cleaner here, thanks to meticulous mastering by Giuseppe Ielasi, another composer and sound manipulator very much appreciated in the international scenes. We should also mention Fabio Perletta, who joined the project as photographer and shot an interesting photo for the cover in the botanical garden of the Ex Convento.
— Aurelio Cianciotta, Neural

“[…] Un très très bel album, à conseiller à tout amateur d’ambient minimale.”

Si 333 Loops (Volume 1) est son premier album, Emilano Romanelli ne nous est pas totalement inconnu puisqu’il œuvrait auparavant au sein de Tu’M. C’est sur son propre label qu’il a produit ce premier essai qui connaitra une suite en avril 2016 grâce au label Cassauna (une division de Important Records).
Le duo Tu’M (Emilano Romanelli et Rossano Polidoro) produisait déjà une musique ambient, entre l’expérimental et le minimalisme avec des albums publiés notamment par Cut, CONV, Dekorder ou encore Line. C’est logiquement dans cette veine que l’on retrouve l’italien avec cette unique pièce de 35mn enregistrée live dans le cadre du Within 01 Festival en septembre 2013, dans un cloitre de la petite commune de Colli del Tronto, à une quinzaine de kilomètres de la côte adriatique.
Comme le suggère le titre, cet album est le premier d’une série de concerts utilisant "333 Loops", un système sonore créé par l’artiste, comprenant notamment une base de 333 boucles, 2 players, 2 equaliseurs, 4 delay, 1 reverb. les boucles sont superposées, combinées, le système pouvant ainsi produire 110889 combinaisons, dont trois d’entre elles seulement sont utilisées dans cette pièce. On à de la peine a imaginer le travail qu’il y a derrière ce procédé quand on lit dans la pochette que la combinaison 000148 est utilisée pendant 15mn, puis la 000149 pour 11mn, et enfin la 000150 sur les 9 dernières minutes...
Cette pièce est donc divisée en trois parties qui, certainement par soucis pratique, se retrouvent sur disque en trois pistes distinctes. Mais c’est bien dans toute sa longueur que l’album doit être écouté afin d’apprécier pleinement son apparente linéarité. Le niveau sonore monte progressivement et on passe de l’inaudible à une nappe à la fois timide et limpide, que l’on pourrait parfois comparer à un orgue. Musique discrète, apparemment statique mais en réalité pleine de mouvements subtils entre les lentes oscillations de tonalités graves et les espèces de scintillements provoqués par les sonorités les plus aiguës.
Tous les éléments conviés ne semblent faire qu’un, fusionnant sans cesse, jusqu’à effacer complètement la frontière entre les trois pistes annoncées. Cette musique a tendance à nous laisser aller, pour ne pas dire nous emporter, mais l’auditeur attentif remarquera l’arrivée de nouvelles sonorités, des oscillations qui sortent du lot, des boucles qui sont mises en avant, et surtout l’arrivée vers la 28eme minute d’un souffle créant une texture légèrement grésillante pour un final encore plus feutré.
Un très très bel album, à conseiller à tout amateur d’ambient minimale.
— Fabrice Allard, Ether Real

“[…] Et c'est ce lien fort entre l'architecture et le son qui fait que l'on se laisse facilement envouter par ce disque. Car même s'il est proche d'un album d'ambient chiant, il y a quand même quelque chose de beaucoup plus fort et de beaucoup plus pertinent, quelque chose d'imperceptible qui réside dans ce lien fort qui unit un son et l'espace dans lequel il vit. Emiliano Romanelli utilise ainsi des techniques de compositions aussi bien que des samples simples, mais avec une finesse et une sensibilité à la matière sonore qui permettent de se laisser vraiment absorber par ce qui se passe, par toute la vie sonore et architecturale qu'il nous présente.”

Emiliano Romanelli est un artiste sonore italien qui travaille depuis 1998 en collaboration avec Rossano Polidoro au sein de Tu M’. Depuis quelques années également, il a produit et enregistré une multitude de boucles sonores à l’aide d’un software qu’il a lui-même créé. Cette bibliothèque de boucles qu’il s’est constitué au fil des ans lui sert maintenant de base musicale à chacune de ses performances en solo. Lorsqu’on multiplie toutes les possibilités ainsi offerte par cette gigantesque banque de son, on peut ainsi obtenir une piste qui peut à l'heure actuelle durer 110889 ans…Autant de manières donc d’investir des lieux de façon sonique.
Le premier volume de cette série qu’il publie est justement une investigation d’un cloître italien, enregistrée l’année dernière. Les boucles de Romanelli sont assez simples en définitive: deux, trois fréquences filtrées par un équaliseur avec un peu de delay et de réverb, qui produisent comme une sorte de bourdon en forme de vague dont la texture ressemble un peu à celle d'un orgue. Romanelli superpose deux sons et les laissent alors se déployer là où il se trouve. Je pense tout de même que la sélection des échantillons et des boucles est minutieuse. C’est ce que laisse en tout cas paraître ce premier volume. Quelques douces vagues de sons se déploient dans le cloître, ce n’est pas fort, ce n’est pas très dynamique, et c’est redondant bien sûr, comme une boucle de plusieurs minutes. La dynamique de ces boucles est proche de celle d’un léger bruissement de feuilles, d’un vent discret mais présent qui traverse le cloître, un vent ténue mais qui se laisse ressentir.
Et c’est là que j’aime beaucoup cette manière de faire de la musique. Romanelli propose des boucles qui ont quelque chose de froid et de neutre. De plus, il ne joue pas fort du tout. Aucune puissance sonore, aucun changement de dynamique hormis de légers crescendos, aucune variation d’intensité. Et pourtant, c’est cette redondance qui permet de mieux prendre conscience je crois des liens entre l’espace et le son. Cette simplicité et cette discrétion permettant de vraiment ressentir comment le son se déploie dans l’espace, comment il l’immerge petit à petit, et comment chacun de ces deux éléments interagissent.
Et c’est ce lien fort entre l’architecture et le son qui fait que l’on se laisse facilement envouter par ce disque. Car même s’il est proche d’un album d’ambient chiant, il y a quand même quelque chose de beaucoup plus fort et de beaucoup plus pertinent, quelque chose d’imperceptible qui réside dans ce lien fort qui unit un son et l’espace dans lequel il vit. Emiliano Romanelli utilise ainsi des techniques de compositions aussi bien que des samples simples, mais avec une finesse et une sensibilité à la matière sonore qui permettent de se laisser vraiment absorber par ce qui se passe, par toute la vie sonore et architecturale qu’il nous présente.
— Julien Héraud, dMute

“[…] Un documento de cómo el sonido creado a partir de fragmentos del mismo produce una obra de arte superior desde un sistema autónomo. Con este trabajo Emiliano Romanelli desarrolla una música en desplazamiento permanente y donde es posible apreciar la desintegración del ruido en medio de las fisuras de su melodía infinita. 333 Loops (Volume 1), un campo de búsqueda aural en la luz de tonalidades espectrales.”

Eventos audibles generados al interior de un sistema autónomo que determina de manera independiente las formas y las superficies de una obra que se separa de las extremidades que dieron cuerpo a esa entidad artificial. Eventos audibles que desarrollan un ruido único e irrepetible surgido dentro de una estructura organizativa separada, creando una red de belleza translúcida donde antes solo existían datos inconexos. Arte generativo, piezas creadas a partir de reglas establecidas traspasadas a un ente que luego hace suyos esos parámetros, apartándose hasta un lugar imprevisible. El italiano Emiliano Romanelli, nacido en 1979, es un artista que desarrolla lienzos visuales, sonoros y gráficos desde fines del siglo anterior. Música electrónica y diseño gráfico que viene exponiendo en diversas plataformas, la principal de ellas Tu M’, dúo multimedia que compartió junto a Rossano Polidoro por trece años, entre 1998 y 2011. Múltiples formas de arte desplegadas en diversas imprentas –LINE, HEADZ, Fallt, Dekorder, CONV, ERS– y espacios –Castello di Rivoli, Arnolfini, Oboro– que tuvieron su fin que también fue un comienzo. Este es su primer trabajo publicado en aislamiento compositivo, aunque acompañado de colaboraciones laterales.
Desde Città Sant’Angelo, en la localidad de Pescara, en el centro de Italia, nos llega este trabajo publicado recientemente por Terziruolo, ‘un espacio para documentos sonoros y visuales’ y cuya primera edición fue “#778CAD (Postcard)”, postal en A6 diseñada precisamente por Romanelli. Ahora, lo que corresponde al Terziruolo # 02 es, precisamente, el otro borde de Emiliano Romanelli concerniente a la generación de sonidos digitales en dimensiones físicas. En el año 2012 comenzó un proyecto en curso enfocado en sistemas generativos y las relaciones perceptuales entre sonido, luz y espacio, uno de cuyos resultados son “333 Loops (Volume 1)”, trabajo elegantemente exteriorizado en una edición limitada de 200 copias. Además de la versión digital, CD serigrafiado en el interior de una funda no tejida, dentro de un tríptico en papel Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Ultrawhite de 270 gm² con la información grabada en color negro en impresión tipográfica por Ben Owen para Middle Press, información detallada empleando como fuente Minion Pro, tipofaz diseñada por Robert Slimbach en 1990 para Adobe. En la cubierta, una hermosa fotografía de Fabio Perletta capturada en el jardín botánico de Ex Convento. Una impecable presentación para una obra igualmente impecable que condensa infinidad de sonidos en un trabajo cohesionado donde converge un ruido de electrónica delgada dentro de un ambiente en expansión horizontal. Millones de partículas despedazadas plegadas en un universo de capas invisibles que forman una superficie con fragmentos táctiles. “333 Loops (Volume 1)” fue registrado en vivo en el claustro medieval del Ex Convento dei Cappuccini, Colli del Tronto, Italia, como parte del festival Within 01, el viernes 13 de septiembre de 2013 a las 10:45 pm., una extensión del proyecto ‘333 Loops’ que nace hace unos tres años y que tiene en esta una de sus versiones. “‘333 Loops (Volume 1)’ es el primer capítulo de una serie de CD/descargas en vivo que documentan los acontecimientos sonoros generados por el sistema modular del mismo nombre, diseñado en 2011 por el músico italiano Emiliano Romanelli”. Secciones breves de rastros producidas con el fin de ser repetidas infinitamente, o hasta que los límites de la matemática lo permitan. Segmentos limitados de audio diseñados para su reiteración continua que se trenzan uno sobre otro en un plano interminable de ruido fraccionado. “El sistema está compuesto por un archivo de 333 loops de sonido pre-grabados producidos entre 2008 y 2011 por un software de síntesis de sonido reproducido en diferentes entornos acústicos, y documentado principalmente con micrófonos internos de varias grabadoras portátiles digitales y análogas. Posteriormente, mediante un software personalizado (2 reproductores de loop, 2 ecualizadores, 4 delays, 1 sala digital de reverberación, 4 LFOs), los loops se utilizan como módulos en un proceso aleatorio de yuxtaposiciones (A//B) y multiplicaciones (333²), capaces de generar 110.889 eventos de sonido en vivo para ser difundidos en la sala a través de un sistema de sonido multicanal. ‘333 Loops’ como un posible campo de investigación, con una duración entre 110.889 segundos y 110.889 años”. Un terreno para crear armonías indeterminadas de posibilidades incalculables, este trabajo del músico italiano se plantea como un programa abierto que se genera a sí mismo, capaz de concebir diversas variantes a partir de múltiples variables. A pesar de la confusión que pudiera resultar en el papel, sobre el escenario resulta en un paisaje tangente, próximo a una extensión lineal. El capítulo primero de este esquema deriva en una pieza amplia dividida en tres partes unidas entre sí. Treinta y cinco minutos donde se puede ver a modo de postal el complejo entramado, un mapeado del caos en repetición permanente dentro de un dibujo aleatorio de la espuma en la superficie. Silencio estridente, estruendo quieto, silencio estridente, una estructura maleable que se desliza levemente a través de la cartografía cartesiana. Los incontables eventos de sonido parecen desaparecer en medio de su forma recta, y solo en la precisión auditiva es posible atender a cada uno de esos puntos que se asientan en su sitio reducido. Emiliano Romanelli –333 loops, computador con software personalizado, interfaz de audio USB, mezcladora de sonidos, difusión sonora cuadrafónica– va enlazando en tiempo real las porciones de una música mayor para, justamente, crear una música de las mismas características. Los quince minutos iniciales corresponden a “Part I – 000148 Of 110889”, evento que es una fracción mínima de las probabilidades que yacen en este sistema. Aunque, en realidad, es imposible de distinguir el momento que separa un instante del siguiente. Este, como “Part II – 000149 Of 110889” y “Part III – 000150 Of 110889”, forman una entidad unitaria con movimientos perceptibles desde una distancia moderada o desde la proximidad más cercana. El silencio, otra vez él, antecede a un rumor prudente que se desplaza con una impasibilidad pasmante, mitigando los efectos colaterales del sonido y, a la vez, creando un estado de inmersión en su vorágine suspendida. Las tres partes de esta obra forman una configuración lumínica extensa y variable, una estructura inestable de luz que se modifica en sus propiedades visibles: valor, saturación y matiz, aspectos que se trasladan al campo audible, campo de investigación alterado generando un espectro de ruido cromático movible y que extiende su red a todo el espacio físico perceptible. “333 Loops (Volume 1)” es una composición que transforma el entorno desde su inmovilidad estática, y que además en esa traslación produce una maravillosa y hermosa melodía irrepetible dentro de esta pieza de ruido somático.
Un documento de cómo el sonido creado a partir de fragmentos del mismo produce una obra de arte superior desde un sistema autónomo. Con este trabajo Emiliano Romanelli desarrolla una música en desplazamiento permanente y donde es posible apreciar la desintegración del ruido en medio de las fisuras de su melodía infinita. “333 Loops (Volume 1)”, un campo de búsqueda aural en la luz de tonalidades espectrales.
— Patricio Badaracco, Hawái.