The beginning of the end. The sound of everything coming to its last hurrah. And the final chapter that started back nearly nine years ago with the Yggdrasill album, followed by 2019’s Mictlàn. For Giorgio Pinardi who started the vocal project MeVsMyself which brough ethnic, modern, world, vocal techniques, and improvisation, it’s time to close up show with Aiòn.
Putting this album on is like walking through the beautiful surroundings in the isolated areas of the Russian Republic of Tuva with scatting, throat singing, experimental atmospheres, and someone going completely insane from start to finish. What Pinardi does on Aiòn is to give his last farewell to the story by bringing it full circle, and showing how far he’s come.
I don’t want to compare him to Bobby McFerrin because that would be a cop-out, but he gives his voice a chance to burst through the floodgates and bring out the pain, the intensity, the heavy doors closing in on you, and finally reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.
Quite the ride, mind you. There’s the Crimson sound, Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters-era, trip-hop beats, ‘80s jazzy scats, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and elements of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So stories from Rabbit Ears production that we used to read and listen as kids back in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.
With some flute-sounding effects and travelling from Tuva to South Africa, Aiòn shows this incredible momentum that goes into a spiralling staircase by reaching the top to see what Pinardi has done by completing his mission. As he closes the curtain, it is a fascinating sound that is worth listening to, again and again. And what will Giorgio think of next? We may never know.
