MYSTERY SEA 22 | Sostrah Tinnitus | [A Rain Water Stratum On The Sea]
ARTWORK
front 
back
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
-
"Echoes of buried civilizations in the archaic passages and through
the colonnades of dead submerged cities...
an initiatory journey into the purity and deep water symbols.
Amongst forgotten objects and abysmal depths, sedimentations of our
memory conceal themselves..."
- Mario Costa, March 2005
PRESS RELEASE
Much promising
italian sound artist & painter Mario Costa has
2 different projects under his belt...
one under the name Sostrah Tinnitus offering a psychoactive
& meditative side with natural drones & deep textures...
the other, under the Tvmulvs Seraphim moniker, being
a darker, more hermetic & urban excursion, but equally fascinating...
For Mystery Sea, it's Sostrah Tinnitus who contributed
some singular mesmerizing litany...
Previously, Sostrah Tinnitus had a few self released
CDRs, a couple of discs on Gianluigi Gasparetti/Oöphoi's UMBRA
label ("Favo Di Fiele" & "Nebra") & a pair
of others on another italian label called BEYOND PRODUCTIONS ("Les
débris de l'été" & "L'odore Del Ramo
Spezzato")...
All these works were highly praised by reviewers...
-
The MS opus "A Rain Water Stratum On The Sea"
is a spark,
a cascade of reverberating light on rippling waves,
a telltale mirror...
Along a timeless drip,
mysterious streams irrigate our skin
escorting our submersion within...
-
"A Rain Water Stratum On The Sea" is a pearly
pool of metamorphosis,
the serene dance of elemental forces
blending into a bracing flux,
a crucible of dream concretions,
an organic ballad of reminiscences,
floating signs & providential beacons...
-
Just bathe, breath the Life in
Pick up the scent of the skimming moss,
and drift away in the slow aqueous vibes...
TRACKS
01.
Catherine barometer
02. The Drowned City
03. Emak bakia (rainmirage) > listen !
04. Stop watch (submerged) > listen !
05. Dream with clam-diggers
06. In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust bringing rain
07. Astrolabe
LENGTH
53'55
REVIEWS
VITAL WEEKLY 475|Frans
De Waard
Musician and painter Mario
Costa works under two different aliases, Sostrah Tinnitus
and Tvmvlvs Seraphim, but I heard neither of them. As Sostrah
Tinnitus he had a couple of releases on the Umbra label and
on Beyond Productions, and under this name he now appears on the Mystery
Sea label. Unlike many others on Mystery Sea, Sostrah Tinnitus
works with shorter tracks, well, relatively shorter tracks. Seven in
fifty three minutes, which is more than the usual two or three in the
same length. In each of these pieces, Sostrah Tinnitus
tries to built up a picture of life under water, but he faces a difficult
task: it's not easy to do variations on the same theme and with the
same sounds at hand. The synthesizer washes can only be of interest
once or twice, but seven times is perhaps a little too much, even despite
some percussive rumbling in the back. Still, it's a work that fits Mystery
Sea of course pretty well, making a fine addition, not a new chapter.
vital weekly
CHAIN
D.L.K.|Eugenio Maggi
Rated :
3.5 stars out of 5
First of all, let me
say this is probably my favourite Mystery Sea cover ever... so beautiful
it actually influenced my listening experience, as if the tracks threw
an azure light around. Sostrah Tinnitus is the solo
project of Italian painter and musician Mario Costa,
also one half of Tvmvlvs Seraphim, and this is his nth full length work
is a few months, following releases on his own label, on Umbra and on
Beyond Productions (see archive). ST plays deep ambient drones using
both organic and acoustic sounds and synthesizers - not far from Alio
Die or some Monos, to give you a clue. The seven tracks presented here
are all well done and consistent, but somehow I'm not always drawn in
by the music. In some cases ("Catherine barometer", "Dream
with clam-diggers") it has the force to stop the ordinary flowing
of your thoughts and leave you mesmerized; but sometimes it just becomes
(good, very good) background music. I have no quibbles about the overall
quality, which is quite high, so it must only be a matter of subjective
experience.
chaindlk
[^]