Francesco Messina – Reflex, 12" Vinyl EP

Francesco Messina – Reflex, 12" Vinyl EP

Back in 1979, Messina released his most high-profile album "Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo", a dreamy Harold Budd-esque collaboration with Raul Lovisoni that emerged on the cult Italian imprint Cramps. He was invited to perform in Milan shortly after the album's release, but was worried it might be difficult to reimagine in a live setting. "Due to the limited availability of key technical features, it would have been too complicated to perform Prati Bagnati," he writes in the album's liner notes. "Therefore I opted for these three pieces instead."

Messina had never performed the pieces together before, so he rented a studio the day before the concert and recorded the music to tape. That was the end of the story, until now. "Reflex" is very different from its predecessor, it feels far moreindebted to Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine's fluid, hypnotic minimalism, but the spirit of "Prati Bagnati" is still present in the three pieces' levitational tone and whimsical mood. Eleven-minute title track 'Reflex' is our pick, and delays the piano to create a disorientating ping-pong effect as delirious phrases morph into the stereo field.