In the 20 years since their debut album, Sol29, Giancarlo Erra’s Nosound have plumbed the depths of bittersweet melancholy like few others. Set deep in the glum-lands of prog and post-rock, the Italian band have eked beauty from sadness on, notably, 2008’s grand Lightdark, the crisply articulate Scintilla (2016) and their most recent, electro-enhanced album, 2018’s Allow Yourself.
Seven years on, the five-track To The Core sees Erra return to more organic sound sources and double down on the downerism. Once again, this is desolately lovely, miserably minor-key music, with Erra’s production skills being Nosound’s not-so-secret weapon.
Bassist Orazio Fabbri and drummer Daniele Michelacci give a mid-tempo pulse to opener The Nothing We Gave. Jagged reverse guitar textures underpin mournful piano Erra’s vocals – refreshingly up front in the mix – as he evokes an empty, half-lit home: ‘Why should I stay if you have already gone?’
Subtly clever writing here: the song shunts up a key in the impassioned chorus to add urgency, then back down again for the morose verse. Low cello lines add doleful class while a whopping bowed guitar line adds hazy heft.
Gloomy piano ushers in the title track, which explores an intriguing story: ‘Are you the same man that I used to fear? Can you tell me what I long to hear?’ A son speaking to his estranged father, perhaps?
It’s raw stuff, almost theatrically so; but authentic too. Acoustic guitars, strings and beat build irresistibly. It leaves a deep impression in just over four minutes – Nosound clearly aim to make emotional impact in a brief period and end before the song outstays its welcome.
Take bleak lead single Worn-Out Parts, with its bone-dry drumbeat, sub-bass and heart-rending harmonies from Erra and guest Louise Pigott. It’s repetitive, but its swelling instrumentation moves, packing a punch belying its five minutes.
Monastic harmonies introduce Interrupt, with piano, cello, bass and washes of sound couching a sourly unsettling wordless female refrain, and portentous low drums to follow.
Michelacci gives a sadly busy groove to Closure, a Gilmouresque lyrical guitar solo capping the claustrophobic tale of a one-way train journey with ‘no stops and no turns.’
With Earth 2025 not exactly a cheery place, To The Core will be a masochistic listen to some. But these artists who know what they’re doing, and this crystalline dose of despair is also a well-rendered work of thoughtful, sensitive art. As ever with Nosound, that’s where the pleasure lies.
To The Core is on sale now via Kscope.
