It is like a kind of compulsive disorder, feeling obliged to bring the work of
Capricorni Pneumatici back to the public’s attention through reissues of the most important exploits of this group of experimentalists who dabbled in industrial, found sounds, and ambient music.
With a band name plucked from the work of Alaister Crowley and a penchant for PVC pipes and other junk used to create noise that can subsequently be manipulated so that nothing of the original sounds remains, the attentive reader knows that run-of-the-mill music will not be found on albums of this kind.
Vala, Or The Four Zoas was originally released in 1989 (SSS Production) in an edition of fifty copies, with different artwork and handwritten notes for each cassette.
There were four tracks on that original cassette, an exercise in four tableaux based on the work of William Blake . For the present CD reissue, we not only get to hear the four original pieces, but also the bonus track biarmonico .
Capricorni Pneumatici was in a very creative flow while making this cassette. In the span of a few months, they made this one as well as IX Tab and Nibbas (both previously re-released by Eight Tower, along with Al-Azif and Witchcraft ). It is the working method that proved to be consistent throughout. No effects, no messing around with equipment, just recorded directly with a Tascam and done.
That demonstrates a clear vision of what this project wanted to convey. Everything was very well thought out beforehand, so the songs appear to have been heavily reworked after recording, but that is not the case at all. For that reason alone, it is valuable that these recordings are being brought to attention again.
Read the reveiw in Dutch on Luminous Dash