[LBN005] – Ballpen – The dreams trilogy – (11 October 2010)
Ballpen - The scaffolding dream
Ballpen - The sea dream
Ballpen - The hometown dream
Ballpen - Pass the ball sail the days
Ballpen - The tap water dream
Ballpen - Serene nightmare
Ballpen - Dream episodes
Ballpen - The magazine dream
Ballpen - Wonderland cowboys
Ballpen - Anna Lisa goes to bed
Ballpen - The bus stop dream
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Ballpen
“I’ve been playing drumsets since the age of 12. After some years of furious drumming.
I found I liked music mostly. Expecially creating sonic little stories.
I started writing music with my long time friend Enrico Serra. I still own all our stuff on tapes.
I first composed a song called “see you later” and I still clearly remember where I was that day.
I went to the conservatory but I quitted 1 year and a half before the diploma cos I’ve had enough.
Then many years have passed. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7….8…9….etc..
Now I like to play my stuff, play in a creepy dub trio with F.S. Blumm and Luca Fadda and play with MuccaMacca.
Plus other stuff that I have to keep secret.”If everything goes nicely I’ll play some Ballpen songs outdoor. But I’m not sure yet.”
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REVIEW:
Forward Music
22/04/2011
The Dreams Trilogy is a collection of lush soundscapes. It features a myriad of different instruments, with soft vocals, guitars and percussion sounds. Ballpen also uses many field recordings warped into sounds you’ve never heard of (computer keyboard chitter chatter beats being a particular highlight for me). I try not to just put this into the ambient genre, there are great drum beats throughout the album, but the whole thing has this very soft feel, like there is no rush to get the end, so you can just live in the moment. It’s a real thing of beauty and it’s a shame that so few people have listened to the album, which seems to have been made with such intense care and love. Download the entire album here.
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Kathodik
23/02/2011
Interessante esperimento dei Ballpen, quinta release per la net label “La bèl”, liberamente scaricabile dal sito dell’etichetta. Si tratta di dream pop nel senso stretto del termine, ovvero di un lavoro musicale completamente costruito intorno ai sogni del factotum Alessandro Coronas, che ci consiglia caldamente di ascoltare la musica in dormiveglia.
Non so dirvi dei risultati di quest’esperimento, ma come colorate pasticche sonore pienamente fedeli a un sogno e alle sue slabbrate logiche, la musica dei Ballpen funziona in maniera davvero egregia. Un misto di arpa, metallofono, piano, chitarre, rumori ambientali, con minimi vocalizzi qui e lì, non lontani da quanto sentito in gruppi simil-elettronici tipo Seefeel.
La cosa è oltremodo intrigante, soprattutto data la fruibilità generale dell’opera e delle gradevoli melodie che Coronas ha realizzato, con l’aiuto di qualche collega. Godibili anche i momenti meno onirici e quasi più puramente pop come Pass the ball & sail the days. Potrebbero fare da perfetta colonna sonora per molti di quei giochi sperimentali che ultimamente spopolano, come ‘Every Day the Same Dream’ di Molleindustria.
Concludendo, una release assolutamente piacevole, da godersi prima di andare a letto, ma anche per i momenti più rilassanti della giornata, magari buttando un occhio ai testi ogni tanto.
Damiano Gerli
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Free Albums Galore
17/02/2011
Alessandro Coronasaka aka Ballpen states that the goal of his album titled The Dreams Trilogy was to write songs as they are dreams. To a large extent he has succeeded for, like dreams, his compositions are loosely organized and meandering. I expect you will need to use Ballpen’s actual dreams as sort of a Rosetta Stone to decode most of this pretty album. Yet the idea works and our ears intuitively unravels the beauty of this album. On some tracks such as “The Sea Dreams” he uses vocals that are as ethereal as his instrumentation. Overall, it’s a oddly attractive minor masterpiece of bits and sounds that should keep your enthralled.
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On Repeat
15/01/2011
BALLPEN/MENION
C’è un bel po’ di fermento all’interno dell’universo dei Mucca Macca, storica band trip-hop cagliaritana di cui è uscito l’ultimo disco nel 2009 ( Elementary ). Non soltanto ha esordito il nuovo progetto dei Legère, che comprende il producer Maurizio Corda e il chitarrista Stefano Ferrari, ma lo stesso chitarrista ha avviato la sua carriera solista a nome Menion e il batterista Alessandro Coronas ha pubblicato il suo disco d’esordio come Ballpen.
Entrambi gli album sono usciti per una label romana, La Bèl Netlabel, e sono disponibili in download gratuito nel sito dell’etichetta (labelnetlabel.com/).
Menion è un chitarrista nuorese che col suo disco Out of Sound – Out of Silence ha messo a frutto anni di sperimentazione divisa tra lo sviluppo di un suono di chitarra di matrice post, che richiama artisti come Jim O’Rourke, e la ricerca all’interno di panorami musicali che attingono dall’elettronica (e qui ambient, idm e glitch sono i poli di riferimento).
«Ogni brano dell’ep è un paesaggio sonoro che tenta di afferrare un climax emozionale, percezioni che, da spunti biografici, tendono verso l’astrazione sonora», spiega Menion. «I titoli dei sei brani sono molto indicativi: ad esempio I Love Imperfection è un brano che invita a ricercare la bellezza anche nell’imperfezione, al non omologarsi a un concetto standard». In definitiva è uscito fuori un bel disco che si muove su scenari trasognati, liquidi e onirici, in modo molto sereno e disteso – anche se «il nuovo materiale avrà una impostazione più noise e ritmica, con atmosfere più oscure». Ballpen/Alessandro Coronas invece ha esordito questo mese con The Dreams Trilogy , un condensato di composizioni placide e morbidissime, che oltre ai sogni – richiamati esplicitamente nel titolo – fanno pensare al dormiveglia, a quello stato di abbandono e di semi-incoscienza che precede il sonno vero e proprio. «I sogni mi sono piaciuti fin da piccolo», racconta Ballpen, «succedono cose a volte cretine ma allo stesso tempo molto profonde. Mi piace ammirare o creare un equilibrio tra cose opposte. Mi trovo a mio agio a scrivere musica con la libertà degli avvenimenti dei sogni. Senza strutture, senza ricette». Anche in questo caso i brani sono creati con strumenti acustici che entrano in dialogo con l’elettronica, solo che in Ballpen questo elemento entra più che altro con il “processing” di certi suoni acustici attraverso un software come Ableton. Su un altro punto i due dischi convergono: nell’amore verso la ricerca chitarristica di O’Rourke e di certo post rock americano. (27 ottobre 2010)
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Match Cut
26/12/2010
Broken beats, chill vibes, fragmented samples, and acoustic guitar leads combine to form one of the most interesting and enjoyable releases of the year. It’s a bit of the old mixed with the new. Ten years ago, this album could’ve easily been included on Touch and Go’s exclusive label, as it borrows heavily from the sound design of Tortoise, Sea and Cake, and even some Trans Am. However, Ballpen also has their own unique take on this kind of collage-based sound recording – it’s totally of today and takes advantage of modern, non-linear editing and recording. The songs sound as if they were composed and arranged with found memories washed up on the shores of the nostalgia beach, simultaneously echoing back the days of indie-past and looking forward into the future of DIY recording.
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The Silent ballet
05/11/2010
2010 has been a remarkable year for confident, fully-hatched releases. From a surgical air strike by marquee talent The Dead Weather, to reinventions of the more obscure Eluvium and Efterklang, to thirty gorgeous minutes of synthesizer by complete unknown Voder, the last ten months have been ruled by musicians who are comfortable in their own skin. The Dream Trilogy by Ballpen is as self-assured as any of these. Whether it deserves such auspicious company has yet to be established.
Ballpen is Alessandro Coronas, an Italian percussionist and musical dissident. He writes of The Dream Trilogy: ‘The way the songs are composed are similar to what I’ve experienced in my dream so far. Like the hospital in my hometown turned upside down and placed in the middle of a race circuit, or me riding a turtle dressed up like Darth Vader, chasing my auntie along the dock of an unknown port in Malaysia.’ In a way, this brief write-up is the perfect introduction to the album’s flavor: within its first minute The Dream Trilogy seems to have sprinted through the ridiculous factory sounds of a Casio keyboard; a quick, vertiginous circuit bend; acoustic guitar tinkering; and finally, an almost jazzy exploration of Nick Drake-styled guitar picking with a light sea drum arrangement.
Things rather settle in from there, and they need to: the first sixty seconds are exhausting. While the disdain for convention continues, the Dadaist overtures do not. Occasionally a hearing-exam tone intrudes – floral and brief – but for the most part, the gentle, whimsical landscapes of the opening track’s second half continue throughout The Dream Trilogy.
Even the tempo seldom varies from the languid stroll of some 80 beats per minute, and the muted, countertenor vocals rarely emerge from their whispered, tin can effect. As in the realm of dreams, distinguishing characteristics are few and obscured. Aficionados will proclaim the album to be ‘cohesive’, while detractors may insist on ‘uneventful’, maybe ‘boring’. Indeed, with fixed tempo, steady-state tones and do-no-harm processing, much of the album seems to have been composed on the Tenori-on, or on one of its many web-based and mobile phone app knock-offs.
Roughly half of the tracks are instrumentals. Throughout the others, Coronas sings oddball lyrical arcs with a delirious, carnival clown near-whisper. In “The Magazine Dream” he all but channels Samuel Beckett: ‘A fox/a river/a Michael Scuffia/an egg.’ In “The Bus Stop Dream”, he graduates to the surreal: ‘Your ticket is valid for the next 30 years/go and check some bus stations/you might find a dog with your necklace.’ At least the last two stanzas of “Dream Episode” seem somewhat candid: ‘Open the window and stretch your ears up/and save your song/and save your song.’
The instrumentation is as softly deranged as the prose. “The Tap Water Dream” manages to sound at least a little bit like tap water; not like the pharmaceutically-enriched thing, but our most personal idea of tap water: pure, delicious, impeccably clear. He delicately taps a harmony slowly out of a steel pan as a slow jazz beat rides along. The score behind to the absurdist lyrics of “The Magazine Dream” sounds only vaguely different than the track before or the track after: a somewhat quicker canter, a quiet megaphone, a bit of clever noise in the B section.
The track names may start to belie what a full listen will reveal: there is only one nightmare-themed song here, and all the rest are that other kind of dream, the kind that conjures images of cheerleaders and Rachel Ray. “Serene Nightmare” marks the midpoint of the album and is otherwise undifferentiated from the other ten cuts: restful tempos, sanitary tones, chiming bells, and more homogenous charm. This is certainly not the wake-with-a-shriek, gasp for breath, clutch the sheets sort of nightmare that most of us are used to.
Imagine any pitched percussion instrument. A professor of prewar literature is tapping on it lightly, in nondescript rhythm. He begins singing Rimbaud’s poetry in a shy, under-used falsetto. The process ages you 45 minutes, and you’re most of the way through The Dreams Trilogy. There is no race circuit, no Malaysia, and sadly, no Darth Vader.
The album is a difficult code to crack. Corona’s chops as a philosopher of music are not in dispute and he displays courage as a songwriter. But – hushed or otherwise – most of this album is over-baked, affected, and even slightly pretentious. There is a point when bravery tips over into reckless indulgence, and unfortunately Ballpen sails someway past that, giddy with overconfidence.
- Fred Nolan
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Recent Music Heroes
02/11/2010
In recent years, among others, I am used to get deeply involved in music of some Italian labels having stylistically been offering different yet conceptually cutting-edge outputs. More specifically, every release under Barbie Noja, Chew-Z, Kill Mommy, Zymogen, and La bèl is an unexpected one and really worth to give a try. In fact, concerning specifically on in Italy residing projects I have discovered such ones like The Last Meredina, Nicola Ratti, con_cetta, Christian Alati, Barbagallo, The Japanese Gum, Menion, Elisa Luu, Difondo. By the side, speaking about the music from the Apennine Peninsula in a more general way, it would be a kind of crime not to mention the likes of Hox Vox, Ornitology, Les Dix-Huit Secondes, The reason is clear – because all of these aforementioned bands have put on their very own mentality to some Anglo-American influences. However, it seems so that there are two geographical peripheries in Europe which are really rich by their innovative music – Finland (their powerful avant-garde folk experimentations, so-called forest folk) and Italy. In the context, no chance to get over by Kraftwerk – Eleganz und Dekadenz Europa endlos
Actually the array will be completed with adding of Ballpen, the project of Alessandro Coronas, conjuring up really interesting and intimate dream-alike soundscapes. (And other billions of strange and funny combinations of the puzzle-pieces of my life – as he says himself) 11 tracks do search for their place and borders hovering between folk music, cowbell indie, sub-IDM beats, chamber music, dream pop, child music, even the classical approach of minimal, sometimes really minimal sonic palette (which is not suprising because of Coronas` conservatory-related background). Of course, the easiest way to chart the whole it would be tagged as “folktronic music”, and indeed, this is correct on its own – at least partly. For example, fabulous tracks Anna Lisa goes to bed, and The magazine dream. On the other hand, all of those slowly progressing chamber music lines built up to half-evolved crescendos, intimate sonic insights and introspections, a lot of key changes, subtle minimal electronic and glitch-y ghosts-infused undercurrents are up for to eliminate stylistic walls around its concept and allowing to bring forth a lot of transcendental feelings for a subject. Listening to this I can remember (or it is remembered by) for some soul mates – Oscar Hallbert (Sweden), and Thuoom (Finland). Altogether, a great composition indeed.
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hopblog
01/11/2010
Ballpen nous régale avec sa musique post-rock, folktronica, absolument délicieuse, qui n’est pas sans évoquer le post-rock de Chicago de la fin des années 90 ou encore la musique de F.S. Blumm. Une vraie gourmandise.
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Musica Selection
29/10/2010
Después de estar casi un mes alejado de la escena netlabel, vuelvo entonces ahora con lo ultimo que salio a mediados de mes, hablo de Ballpen y su the Dreams Trilogy para La bèl Netlabel.
Alessandro Coronas es el autor de este gran álbum, en donde intenta reflejar los hermosos
sueños felices del artista, y nos los transmite mediante un sonido acústico con delicadas y suaves voces que hacen aun mas ensoñador este viaje de melodías. Muy Recomendable.
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Phlow
26/10/2010
Sueños sonoros | Algunos sueños se repiten durante largos periodos de nuestras vidas. Algunos son tan fugaces que ni tan siquiera son capaces de marcar nuestra memoria. Alessandro Coronas, el responsable de unir a Ballpen, (entre ellos a F.S.Blumm) ha reinterpretado musicalmente sus sueños, capturando para la posteridad su actividad onírica que hubiera desaparecida tan pronto como su actividad sináptica hubiera cesado. “The dreams trilogy” es un compendio de tracks atemporales con líricas surrealistas que fluyen entre el easy-listening y el pop más acaramelado. Destacar la delicada atención a la percusión y a los muchos patrones traviesos que aparecen ocasionalmente.
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Hefty Shit
23/10/2010
This was released about two weeks ago on roma-based la bèl netlabel, which more and more becomes one of my favorite labels (from their five releases, they have out so far, i posted three here on hefty shit)..
This one is an album by alessandro coronas a.k.a. ballpen from margine rosso, cagliari, ítaly..
Three people are featured on it, f.s. blumm (with whom he also plays in a “creepy dub trio”, together with luca fadda), laura mura and bruna lilly..
This album is all about (his) dreams..on the release page at la bèl, he writes that “the way the songs are composed is similar to what i’ve experienced in my dream so far..” and that “this album has been recorded inside a cardboard box”..
In a posting on his myspace blog he talks about that when he first wrote this music, he “wanted it to travel the world, to get inside houses, rooms, parks, toilets, beds etc” and he would like to receive photos of people listening to ‘the dreams trilogy’..
“you shoot a picture of yourself listening to the bp album wherever you are and whatever you’re doin”
Maybe you should do him this favor, i would do so, if i had a camera..
‘The dreams trilogy’ is also available at the free music archive..
Enjoy this wonderful music and step to the a.m with it!
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NetMusic Life
24/10/2010
Quinta release per La bèl netlabel,promettente netlabel Romano/Biellese. Un altro ottimo artista Sardo,Alessandro Coronas qui nelle vesti di Ballpen,accompagnato da alcuni amici ed ottimi musicisti quali Laura Mura,f.s.blumm e Bruna Melis Fiori. “The dreams trilogy” è sicuramente uno degli album più belli,compatti,creativi ed omogenei che io abbia ascoltato nel 2010. Un concept basato sui sogni,da ascoltare in cuffia ad occhi chiusi,quando ci si corica nel letto dopo una lunga giornata lavorativa. I brani galleggiano morbidi,le voci ti sussurrano nell’orecchio,la batteria accarezzata crea pattern fantasiosi,quasi sempre accompagnati da campanelle e vibrafoni ipnotici. La chitarra disegna arpeggi che a volte riportano ad alcune uscite della Morr. Il tutto velato da piccoli interventi di piccoli suoni elettronici ricercati,che sembrano essere i pezzi mancanti di un meraviglioso puzzle giunto quasi al termine. Tra i brani spiccano il magnetico “The hometown dream”, con una inattesa apertura centrale di chitarra acustica di eccellente gusto. “Pass the ball & sail the days” è uno degli apici dell’album. Le prime giornate d’autunno,da ascoltare mentre si ammirano i colori marroni-giallastri degli alberi ottobrini. Poesia. Assolutamente notevole il 5/4 sciolto di “Serene Nightmare”,altro piccolo gioiello minimalista qui presente,con un basso che ti fa vibrare i polmoni ed una parte centrale che supera anche la concezione immaginaria di sogno. “Dreams Episode” e “Anna Lise goes to bed” potrebbero essere benissimo i 2 singoli dell’album,una visione di pop elettro-acustico moderna. “The magazine dream” è un altro piccolo capolavoro. La batteria di Coronas la fa ancora da padrona con i suoi pattern strampalati ma perfetti. Dal terzo minuto si parte verso paesaggi latino-lunari…Rio de Janeiro trasportata sulle coste del mare Imbrium. Un album che consiglio vivamente a tutti e che dopo ripetuti ascolti continua a regalare sorprese. Un artista da seguire con molta attenzione.
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Netlabels Revue
21/10/2010
Pour ma première chronique concernant La bèl netlabel, je dois dire que c’est une excellente surprise avec cet album signé de l’italien Ballpen dans lequel on découvre une musique post-rock, folktronica absolument délicieuse qui n’est pas sans évoquer le post-rock de Chicago de la fin des années 90 ou encore la musique de F.S. Blumm, que l’on retrouve d’ailleurs en guest sur l’album.
Au final, on a un disque d’une réelle beauté, très évocateur, dans lequel l’on appréciera cette farandole de sons autant acoustiques que numériques mis au service d’une musique dédiée entièrement à la tranquillité et au repos.
[8.5/10]
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Acuvi
19/10/2010
La bèl Netlabel (good name for a label!) is a new Italian based netlabel born in March 2010. They focus on experimental, noisy, relaxing ambient and natural crafted new age jazz.
Here are the two latest releases; Elisa Luu and Ballpen.
Check also out Di Bos, Menion, and Didondo.
Elisa Luu is a Rome based composer, and has been involved with several music projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali, Short’s Monday Night Jazz Orchestra and as a participant at Berklee Jazz clinics.
Originally started as a saxophone player, and moving to fusion and jazz. Elisa decided in 2007 to move over to an electric basic genre.
In 2008, she released her first EP through UK based label Phantom Channel and her last release is ‘The Time of Waiting” released on July 14, 2010.
Ballpen is a solo-project of Alessandro Coronas,Sardinian musician and composer. The music of “The dreams trilogy” is based on how his dreams have been working throughout the years…strange and funny combinations of the puzzle-pieces of his life.
If you listen at a reasonable low volume you can still hear the music and what’s going on in the room next to yours at the same time.
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Free Music Archive
18/10/2010
I’ve really been digging the organic sounds of young Italian netlabel La bèl (yes, as-in labélnetlabel.com). Their 5th and newest release is The Dreams Trilogy, a collection of dream-inspired gently imaginative compositions from Alessandro Coronas and guests, under the name Ballpen.
Hailing from Sardinia, Coronas is a percussionist at heart, and so the album is full of acoustic rhythms posing as melody and vice versa; some locked down in-beat while others tumble free. I’ve got a soft spot for the percussionist’s approach to composition, and this release in particular recalls Hexlove’s Harp Drafts, with a little bit of The Sea and Cake-style Chicago sound. The Dream Trilogy’s sleeptalky guest vocals are remeniscent of Sigur Ros, and I wouldn’t be surprised if “Kid A” the song was an influence as well — in particular the rhythm of “Sea Dream” and the bassline to “Serene nightmare” which sounds like a slowed down take on one aspect of the Kid A melody. For what it’s worth, this is the first time I’ve drawn a comparison to Radiohead on this here blog…(Jason)
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Yamanotedreams
18/10/2010
This album is the new release of La bèl netlabel. Very good album, I recommend !
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Quart
13/10/2010
A kedves olasz Alessandro Coronas Ballpen néven zenél (Golyóstoll!); The Dreams Trilogy című albuma a viszonylag új La Bel netlabelen jött ki ingyen. Mint a cím is mutatja, miről van szó, a leírás pedig azt mondja, hogy főleg az álmok azon tulajdonsága inspirálta a zenét, hogy “nincsenek sémák, minden megtörténhet, minden megfér mindennel”; egy részük dalszerű, más részük pedig úgy épül fel, ahogy egy álom bontakozik ki. Nagyon kedves minimáldalocskák vagy még inkább ezek vázlatai hallhatók itt, mindenféle ehhez illő hangszeren (gitár, csengettyűk, vibrafon, kevés dob és ütőhangszer, hárfa), valamint aprócska elektronikus neszezésekkel és néha (na milyen?) álomszerű énekkel. A szerző azt javasolja, hogy hallgassuk halkan, és akkor áthallatszik az is, ami a szomszéd szobában történik; így is jó, de úgy is, ha odafigyelünk, mert akkor rengeteg apró, nagyszerű ötlettel találkozhatunk. Ez már nem az első olyan ingyenlemez, amiről a nagyszerű FS Blumm jutott eszembe, aki itt ráadásul még vendégeskedik is több számban.
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