z.e.l.l.e.: nth z.e.l.l.e.: nth (Line - 2001) Italian microaudioexplorers Maurizio Martusciello and Nicola Catalano team up to become z.e.l.l.e.... together they forge those itty-bitty soundscapes which you've come to expect from the Line label. No exception, 41-minute-long nth dwells in a practically subaudible world of gaseous vapors, almost-imperceptible clicks, low-frequency hums and various hybrids thereof. Whether you find it all tantalizing or frustrating will depend on your personal affinity toward microsound experimentations. Intermittent hissiness radiates from the 1st track, with vaguely "wet" specks sometimes spurting forth in mechanoid impulses. The 3rd piece (7:02) unfolds... quietly, yes... into enigmatically sizzling expanses with twiddly chimes which come and go in teasingly unpredictable patterns. The ringing replicants of 4 ripple outward in echoing spirals. Imagine if Barbie®'s little toy TV was sporadically emitting a test pattern... it would sound alot like the coming/going monotones of 5 (1:23). In 6, semi-rhythmic microbes flutter and pip alongside robo-cricket patterns. In sparse metallic tones, faint, wavering undulations periodically emerge from (and recede back into) the otherwise still 8th track. In an ambient-listening paradox, the sounds of z.e.l.l.e. are so elusive, that one must actively seek them out, because if you listen wallpaper-style (and/or in a less-than-noiseless environment) they will surely go unnoticed except for the few more-"boisterous" passages. Finely crafted, but so-delicate, nth receives an 8.3 for obvious topical sincerity and arrangement skills... no matter how "small". The Line label is all about this sort of thing... go there for more. Also, Line's co-founder Richard Chartier is our interviewee this momth. This review posted November 4, 2001 AmbiEntrance © 2001-1997 by David J Opdyke (except CD cover art, rights retained by original owners).