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Talk to the Sea
The late Jamie Tiller commenced his influential Music From Memory imprint with a selection of long-forgotten synthesized études from Italian keyboardist Gigi Masin, who had lost most of his gear and recordings in a flood in the 1990s and had simply hung it up. It was nothing short of a revision of musical history, as it posited Masin as a profound ambient master worth mentioning in the same breath as Brian Eno. Or is that Boards of Canada, as Masin’s eerie pads and skittering drum programming on “First Time Ruth Saw The Sea” also anticipates that group by a good six years. The music ranges from being as warm as a Balearic sunset and as cinematic as a Tuscan hillside to as mesmerizing and foreboding as the gray waters of his native Venice. The set rekindled Masin’s dormant career and established Music From Memory as a label worth following and trusting as it dove deeper into uncharted waters.