Album Review: The Loud Silence by Donato Dozzy

Seattle's Further Records imprint is at the top of the heap when it comes to the weird electronic vibe emanating from a handful of uncanny centres of creativity scattered across the globe. UK madmen Wanda Group and Ekoplekz are represented on the roster, as is Belgium's Hans Dens (aka Innercity). Italian dream warrior Donato Dozzy released his epic double album K for the label back in 2010, and is only now — after a few releases for the Spectrum Spools label — dropping his sophomore Further effort.On The Loud Silence, the producer ruminates on the sonic possibilities of the jaw harp in an attempt to harmonize the instrument's peculiar timbres with the electronic club music he's been immersed in over the past decade or so.

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Donato Dozzy’s new LP, recorded along the shores of the Mediterranean, is called The Loud Silence—a most appropriate title considering that it's an vaguely uncomfortable, anxiety-filled story laid out within a 38-minute run-time. These eight tracks creative a vast, forest-like memory palace, projecting a psychedelic yet introspective story on throughout its dark corners. And while it's engaging, tantalizing and consistently interesting, it tests the listener by wading through a foliage of field recordings and mouth harps to get to its core, requiring an effort which can potentially get wearying at times.

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The history of the mouth harp is vast: It is believed to have originated in Asia, possibly as early as the 4th century BCE, and its spread extends from Vietnam to Finland, from Siberia to Cameroon. The Dutch musicologist Phons Bakx has compiled a list of more than 1,000 names for the instrument, including the English-language terms trump, gew-gaw, mouthfiddle, Omaha flapjack, and marranzano pancake. It's most commonly known in English as the Jew's harp—a name whose etymology has flummoxed scholars for decades.

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The mouth harp emits what many might would call a 'down-home' sound. It provides a peculiar, spittle-covered backbone to a variety of rural folk musics, many of which give the harp its own local moniker. Call it the 'jaw harp' or the 'Ozark harp' for instance, and you can imagine it being played on a south Missouri porch, providing a droning background to washboard rhythms.

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