Massimo Vivona - Travelling Alone (2021)

Massimo Vivona eschews his usual harder-hitting trance modes for this pillowy, contemplative, ambient space recording, his second for Carpe Sonum. Gone are the fierce ruling deviant beats and knife-edge basslines of his earlier Fax recordings; instead, Vivona lets his synth flag fly, and ascend it does, into the glistening heavens. Perhaps he’s undergone some stylistic epiphany, or an aesthetic electronic intervention, as it were? Maybe he’s simply decided to try out new ideas. Regardless, the net results are absolutely wonderful. Vivona’s drunk deep of early ‘nu-age’ shapeshifters (think the gentle refrains of artists Kevin Braheny or Richard Burmer) and even mid-period Orb or quieter works by the likes of Banco de Gaia and Chuck Wild (let alone the vast phalanx of folks making 90s’ chill-out room extravaganzas) to bequest these sparkling trip-hopped gems of crushed velvet pulses and breathy, meditative slipstreams. “Beautiful Field” is literally just that, like opening your window to gaze upon a sun-dappled, dewy-covered horizon of verdant green, and Vivona’s ability to not only charm but seduce your ears throughout is a cracking success. A totally beguiling, unexpected, psychotropic experience, footloose and fancy free.