Monumento Fiume (KOHLHAAS KHS023) was created by Giovanni Lami during an artist residency in Cotignola, a municipality in Ravenna. We’re told he built up a large collection of field recordings, of which this short LP represents but a sample; the remainder will go towards creating a “sound archive” of this pastoral area, while he pursues his “investigation of the anthropic landscape of the local area”. This pretension aside, naught but dull and lacklustre sounds emanate from this orange vinyl thing; it conveys nothing of the truth of the Italian countryside, nor a single second of anything that might be mistaken for transcendent beauty. It feels utterly divorced from a genuine “sense of place”, which one might suppose to be the minimum requirement for such a site-specific project. Equally indifferent are the vague cover artworks by Clio Casadei. (21/03/2023)
