Not to be confused with those lovely primates living in the island of Madagascar – Lemurs in Po Valley could be an oddity for zoologists indeed -, even if the name of this album could be puzzling as Lemuria is also the name of the hypothetical “lost land” where lemurs came from and the first field recordings of natural sets could let you imagine lemur’s habitat, Lemures is the name of the collaborative project by Venetian sound artist Enrico Coniglio and Ravenna-based photographer and field recordist Giovanni Lami, who supposedly named it after the so-called “spirits of the night” of the ancient Roman religion, which can be considered as forefathers of vampires, as they were souls of dead people who cannot find peace after death as they didn’t receive proper funeral rites, burial or any devotional remembrances by the living, a lack of respect which justified their malevolent or even vengeful behaviour. Lemuria or Lemuralia was actually the name of the feast during which Romans used to perform some rites to exorcise these evil spirits. I apologize in advance for such a smart aleck-like premise, as you don’t have to follow it in order to appreciate Lemures’ release, but the intensive recording session they held in a semi-abondened building in the countryside outskirts of Ravenna results in a blending of well-done stereophonic field recordings by Lami and remarkably piercing (particularly in the track named “I”) sinewaves by Coniglio, which could let you thik about haunted places where inanimate objects came alive as they were pranks from phantasmagorical shadowy entities, who burst on the scene by perturbing the illusory ordinary nature of recorded settings or objects. so that each of the four tracks (six if you consider the freely downloadable EP, which anticipated the release of the album) will appear more like a (somewhat confusing or nerve-racking) proper sonic adenture than a creative crossing of sound techniques. Vito Camarretta
via Chain D.L.K.