Paul Kilgour 231027
Imagine a time, maybe in the not too distant future. What remains of the human race is beginning to emerge from decades sheltering in old underground nuclear bunkers, grain sylos, anything they could find to protect them from the nuclear winter, or the ice age that came suddenly. Finally it is time to surface, but this world, this green and pleasant land that we have been told about, that we have seen in the books about the old world, this is not it. This frozen land, this cold and desolate place. Is this our future? Our destiny? A new beginning, or a new nightmare?
This is the sound of Beyond The Zone, the new release by Conny Olivetti.
Peter Brown 231026
Been working from home and played it 3 times in a row. Loving it. Sounds like it looks. Dark, watery, quiet. I’d like to walk around Lake Baikal with this in my ears.
Jock Steel 231028
Conny Olivetti’s latest. I’ve had it a few days (thanks Conny) but just getting round to listening. As usual, it’s scary. Surely there must be some kind of film maker out there who’d love a soundtrack like this. The first track though, in my opinion, could play over an Attenborough nature film as the animals were coming out of hibernation and the flowers blooming in slow motion.
Michael Lee 231031
New Conny Olivetti cd first play. It is ambient. Very ambient. At times it is like watching the weather turn bad, or sheltering from an oncoming storm in a cave. It surrounds you with sounds and vibrations which evoke cold and fog. It has a touch of Edgar Froese about it. The cheery keyboard motif on the last track does lift the mood, but overall it is a gloomy listen. Certainly atmospheric, but cautious and wary. I have been playing never Give Up a lot, especially in the car, and I have no doubt that this will also be a motorway favourite, even if is isn’t as involving or insightful as Never give up or Lockdown Paradise. Thanks for the disc Conny. Much appreciated.
John Roussety 231102
Here we go with the new waxing from Conny Olivetti
Right off the bat with track one, Setting the Course and this sounds like an alternative soundtrack to Aguirre or something.
It is deeply Herzog-in-the-Jungleish
I’ve heard this described as more ambient than usual but I’m not so sure. It is very Olivetti. Full of eerie, foreboding sounds – half glimpsed and disembodied voices maybe.
ADJusting To A New Environment is just that – seeming to move from Nature to Science? The Path of Danger is full of foreboding – as Olivetti music almost always is – and Lake Baikal By Night continue that theme but we seem to be back outside somewhere once again. The Fallen Trees have fallen for a reason and it is almost certainly not going to be something good. We are once again in Herzog territory here with Kezhemskoye Village. This whole record is so filmic. It seems to take us on a journey and I am not sure I’d want to be doing it away from the safety of my listening post.
We end up in Siberia on the last track – all 15 minutes of it
The insistent melodic motif of which sounds like a slowed down version of the final seconds of Karn Evil 9
Maybe Sibera is a homecoming?
I’m not sure about anything I have heard here
It is, as Olivetti invariably is, unsettling
I wish I still took drugs
Gerard Sands 231103
Beyond the Zone. Other reviewers have described this as bleak or post-apocalyptic and on a cursory first play I might have agreed (yes Conny I did play this before the new Stones album!) But digging deeper, and letting it seep in, I actually find it to be full of life. I’ve mentioned before that there’s a lot of humanity in Conny’s music, what might be cold in other hands always has a pulse with Conny. What I hear on this album is life below the surface, maybe it’s winter but under the snow things are getting ready for spring, and then in the final track spring arrives and the world breaks into bloom. This is different to Conny’s last couple of albums but just as impressive.
Jim McManus 231104
The latest album from Conny. Ambient, yes but no. Foreboding yes, but no. Atmospheric very much so. Another great album. Conny absolutely maintains his high standards with an excellent release.
Garry Brogden 231115
Twilight. Mist rolling off a deserted lake in the icy cold. You’re alone with the nagging feeling that someone is following you. There’s only a few minutes of daylight left to explore this zone, with its secrets that may destroy life for miles around. A roadside picnic, with the artefacts scattered for miles around. There’s a distant pulse, somewhere deep within the forest that you cannot ignore.
Beyond the Zone describes this too well. You know the deep deep cold, you know the problems you have to solve, you know that sooner or later, it will be obvious.
A tremendous album. You should make sure you listen carefully to it.
Simon Hewitt 231115
This new record by Conny Olivetti immediately (within a minute or so) reminded me of Zeit. It has an aura about it, that changes the nature of the room in which it is playing. The first six tracks have a more ambient, spectral vibe. The seventh changes the mood. It’s been out via Bandcamp for just over a week and if you’re remotely interested in electronic music you should check it out. Conny is alarmmingly consistent as well as inhumanly prolific.
Maarten van Valen 231207
Beyond the zone is an ice cold exploration that creates a frozen atmosphere like Tunguskan winter. Layers of sound, only penetrated by voice samples and left wing noise bursts. There are stories told beneath the surface that recreate a doom sphere like something out of the X-Files (try an episode called Dod Kalm and you know what I mean). I found it wonderful to listen to during late night travel – it’s demanding and not like something that gestates simply in the background. Eerie stuff.
Dan Söderqvist 231208
“If there ever was a forgotten soundtrack to a Tarkovsky film, this is it! An ambient journey into mysterious landscapes.”
Bryan Eccleshall 231219
Every month or two (it seems) I get a package from Sweden. In it is a CD from a friend who has the nom de guerre of ‘Conny Olivetti’. He has a page here if you want to follow him: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1960964060938537
I currently have 21 such sets plus another that is the result of a collaboration Marakas / Olivetti aka Modus Operandi.
Conny’s output is prodigious, but he’s recently retired and its getting hard to keep up.
The latest releases showcase two poles of his output. The first – ‘Beyond The Zone’ is atmospheric with samples mixing in with deep-dive acoustics that sound like something terrifying happening underground a long way off, but just within hearing. Almost as if we’re invited to witness something catastrophic but from a distance. Much of Conny’s recent work has addressed climate change and the breakdown of ‘normal’ politics and the idea that we are distant and frustrated spectators with little agency is perhaps significant. In other words, it’s a bit bleak, frankly. I love it. The cover is a perfect visual analogue for the cold, edgy contents. This isn’t about melody or ‘songs’ (Conny is much more Tangerine Dream than Kraftwerk).
What’s interesting about Beyond the Zone is that just as you think that there’s no hope, a jaunty (Well, relatively jaunty – it’s hardly a nursery rhyme), an insistent little riff overlays itself on the soundscape. It’s not exactly hope, but its drive contrasts with the sense of stasis experienced on the recording so far…
…which brings us to ‘Oblique Stroke XR40’ (no, I have no idea what that means, either)…
This is more optimistic. Again, relatively speaking. Cool samples are present but the whole thing has a loping loopy rhythmic feel. Niggling synth riffs – all beautifully set in a deceptively rich soundscape – propel us forward. I’m typing this while bobbing my head. It’s a great ‘neck-dancing’ record.
Again ,the cover is a great match. This is sunnier, with more light and space and yet it’s – what else? – a bit odd.
If you’re interested in listening to Conny’s music, you can find it on Bandcamp if that’s your thing (link in comments). I’m pleased to be part of the lucky few who have somehow ended up in the most exclusive music club there is.
the music of Conny Olivetti 