Stefano Pilia - IN GIRUM IMUS NOCTE ET CONSUMIMUR IGNI (2022)

In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni (We turn round in the night and, behold, we are consumed by fire) is a solo guitar work by the Italian composer Stefano Pilia released by the prestigious Milan based Die Schachtel label. Comprising a corresponding triptych of compositions on each of the album’s two sides, In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni is based on symmetrical harmonic, melodic and narrative properties. Through a wise, peculiar and abstracted use of guitar instrumentation, the sound surface of these compositions reach profound electroacoustic-symphonic dimensions, echoing minimalist works, ambient music and indeterminate contemporary music forms. 


The entirety of In Girum Imus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni – as this eerie palindrome and endecasillabo (a syntactic form in classical Italian verse) from Virgil suggests – moves through a path of alchemical symbolic narratives and poetic abstraction humbly reminiscent and allegorically inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy and by the Nekyia (‘evocation of the dead’) parts found in Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey.