Federico Balducci Releases LP

The understated rumble that awakens the beastly fourth movement of “Poème Sans Titre” undisputedly stands capable of sending chills down most any listener’s spine when played even at a modest volume, but when it’s experienced full-blast, it feels so cinematic that it conjures imagery within our own minds right on the spot. This is par for the course in every portion of Federico Balducci’s stunner of an album The World Forgetting, by the World Forgot…, and though it often amounts to more of an avant-gardist’s dreamscape than it does anything even remotely mainstream, there isn’t a stitch of audio here that I would personally deem intangible to the casual experimentalist’s audience. 

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You can tell this entire LP was influenced by literature, as the poetic sensibilities of the twenty-third and twelfth movements in “Poème Sans Titre” contribute significantly to the uneven continuity of the tracklist. There’s a loose, improvisational feel to the construction of the material, but I would stop well short of deeming anything here even slightly undisciplined in execution. Everything, and I truly do mean everything in The World Forgetting, by the World Forgot… feels really controlled and efficiently delivered, as to give us as much substance as is possible in record like this one. 

I definitely detect the essence of noise music and aural collaging in certain elements of “Poème Sans Titre XV,” “XIV,” “XXVI” and especially “VII,” and though it isn’t quite as obvious as some of this LP’s contemporaries – the new Reed Stewart and Paul Jordan albums come to mind – there’s postmodernity in play here that there’s no getting away from. I like that Federico Balducci isn’t being particularly indulgent in any of the themes he’s utilizing in this record, not only because it circumvents so many negative traits frequently inherent in ambient works, but because it allows for us to reach the catharsis (and, on occasion, tension) serving as centerpiece in any given composition here. 

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The third and fourth movements exhibit and intriguing use of tension in the harmony that I’d love to have heard a little more of in The World Forgetting, by the World Forgot…, and with any luck we’ll see a follow-up to this latest offering a lot sooner than later. Even with the diversity of the content withstanding, the flow of the material is even, making for a melodic caress assigned to every rigidly-placed texture in the mix. 

Avant-garde fans of all backgrounds would be more than wise to give what Federico Balducci has created for the planet in The World Forgetting, by the World Forgot… a close examination this September, primarily to experience the composer’s aesthetical wit at what could be its most unrestrained and provocative to date. Acerbic harmonies and blistering weight born of delicate strings await any and all who give this twenty-six track, thirty-nine minute LP a spin, and while it’s definitely one of the more involved listens you’re going to come across in 2020, I wouldn’t say it’s anything but gripping for the whole of its running time. 

Mindy McCall