Instrumental Quarter

Delusions of Adequacy
Instrumental Quarter - No More Secrets CD
by Andy Hawkins

Words can be unnecessary. Whether you’re making eyes at the hottie across the bar or trying to encourage a friend to call for help while you’re standing in a cave full of sleeping bears, sometimes speech and its wicked cousin words are just flat out uncalled for. Paride Lanciani knows this. Charting a chaotic path like a Styrofoam cup down a muddy creek, the Italian guitar-maven’s latest brainchild, Instrumental Quarter, is effuse with the life blood of raw, improvisational musicianship.

The music in No More Secrets drips from the tips of low-hanging icicles. It rises like a green fog inhaling the world. It evokes a natural setting – morning, midday, night, all wrapped up in a warm blanket of coastal tectonics. Kinetically thumping and tumbling one second, soft and translucent the next, Instrumental Quarter defies an easy categorization (aside from the obvious instrumental label), and you get the feeling that’s exactly what Lanciani wants.

Enlisting help from cellist Marco Alloco, drummer Flavio Cravero, and bassist Luigi Racca (also officially three-quarters of Lanciani’s previous outfit, the Steve Albini-produced Kash), Paride delights in twisting a listener’s expectations. The evocatively beautiful soundscapes of the title track eventually give way to a stomping, acrobatic display of finger picking and polyrhythmic time changes in “Just a Dream.” Musical frameworks tumble headlong down grand, spiral staircases before arising from dead dust to ascend a golden ladder to Heaven – it's that breathtaking. Instrumental Quarter delights in ignoring preconceived notions of “instrumental music,” making up for its lack of any lyrical accompaniment with witty guitar tricks and sonorous melodies.

This album may not impress your futurist friends, who insist on listening only to trip-hop while digital filming their own faux-hawks in the mirror. Its more likely to convince your grandfather, whom you play chess with regularly, that perhaps you aren’t some “punked-out punker with punky ideas.” Next time the both of you decide to try a hand at Fisher’s favorite game, mix up a batch of ice tea, take it out on the porch, and throw in this record. Trust me, he’ll appreciate it even more because it's Italian.
- Andy Hawkins

Instrumental Quarter - No More Secrets (CD, Sickroom, Instrumental)
Nice organic instrumentals with unique twists. You never know what to expect from the folks at Chicago's Sickroom label...but no matter what genre of music, these folks almost always satisfy by presenting credible and inventive artists. No More Secrets is the debut album from Italy's Instrumental Quarter. On the eight tunes presented, the band literally defies categorization...presenting lovely and effective instrumental mood pieces that are intelligent and memorable. Some of the tunes have a classical sound while others are more like progressive acoustic instrumentals. This is perfect outdoor music...conveying the kinds of thoughts and emotions one feels when in touch with nature. Beautiful stuff here...including "Derniere Soiree," "Double Layer," "Illinois Breakfast," and "Wings of Torpedo." Unique and haunting music. Highly recommended. (Rating: 5++)
- LMNOP

Scratch Magazine
Instrumental Quarter
No Secrets - Cd Review
By Tom "Tearaway" Schulte

This instrumental music album is sophisticated and rich in moving, protean arrangements.
The timbre of the music is greatly enhanced by attaching to a rock trio (guitar, bass, drums) a cellist (Marco Allocco).
The rock trio is three-quarters of the Italian indie pop band Kash (website).
This gives guitarist Paride Lanciani a new creative outlet and direction. - Tom Schulte

Largely the project of Paride Lanciani (of Kash), Italy’s Instrumental Quarter is very unlike the guitarist’s other band, which is sort of the Mediterranean’s answer to U.S. Maple. Even though two other Kash members are featured on Instrumental Quarter’s debut, No More Secrets (Sickroom), it’s an entirely different animal, effusing a swooning mix of intricately played (appropriately enough) instrumentals.

Lanciani’s work on acoustic guitar resonates with folk sounds (both Italian and American) while his collaborators on the album (most of whom are being substituted for the tour) flesh out the songs to languid moodpieces. Central to the band’s work is Marco Allocco’s violoncello, which underpins Lanciani’s guitar with luminescent tones. The results are not unlike, say, the Rachel’s or maybe the Shipping News. During the performance, Francesco Calabresi will be showing films made specifically to accompany the music.

Headlining is Columbus’ own instrumental raconteurs Silencio, while Chicago’s Greenness opens the show. - Stephen Slaybau

Do you have an instrumental quarter? I need some change. HA! Woo! I am funny. Ugh.
I've taken the liberty of creating a paragraph break after that crack, so that you can once again catch your breath and regain your composure after that fit of laughing.
Instrumental Quarter is - surprise - an instrumental band from Italy. This is the soundtrack to swaying grass. This is the soundtrack to watching birds feed at the seashore. This is the sound of springtime on the Alaskan Tundra. This is music, organic and moody.
A quartet who are proficient at their craft, Instrumental Quarter's music is inspired by the patterns and frameworks found in the natural world.
So it is natural to see this as a soundtrack to any activity away from the hustle and bustle of the world of cars, traffic, noise and pollution. The music is intensely peaceful and serene. However, just like nature, the tone and climate can change at any moment. While overall it is lush and quiet, the music can also be quite agitated and vaguely menacing as with the funky "Just a Dream". The addition of a violoncello (a bass viol of four strings, or a bass violin with long, large strings, giving sounds an octave lower than the viola, or tenor or alto violin) rounds out the sound nicely.
The complex acoustic guitar and bass lines, are dashed with a bit of melancholy in the form of this violoncello.
I would completely agree that the goal of these musicians has been achieved. They have translated the sensation of witnessing and being surrounded by nature into a musical output. The output is quite laid back, and moody. This is a disc to be wholeheartedly embraced by those who enjoy watching the trees sway and the grass grow. Those who live on their X Boxes, television, and I-Macs, might not find it so captivating. - Dan Williams

Nova Recordings - CD REVIEW
Organic arrangements and acoustic instrumentation are the hallmarks of No More Secrets, the debut record from Italy's Instrumental Quarter.
Guitarist Paride Lanciani has enlisted the help of Marco Alloco (violoncello), Flavio Cravero (drums) and Luigi Racca (bass), to flesh out these dynamic and intricate compositions.
Three of the four musicians here are members of Kash, who have, since 1995, released three albums to their credit, including their latest, Beauty is Everywhere, recorded by Steve Albini.
The songs on this album seem to be inspired by many of the frameworks found in nature. Often, the music tends to build itself to crescendo in a spiraling fashion, with layers of sound revolving around one particular element, while the individual lines themselves are created with exacting, breathless attention to detail.
Form and craft combine, resulting in a piece of work that is refined, cohesive and yet multi-faceted. - Nova Recording