ALBUM REVIEW: To The Core – Nosound

Post-rock project, NOSOUND, have returned with their newest record To The Core. Formed in 2005 by Italian composer and multi-instrumentalist, Giancarlo Erra, they have spent the last two decades creating their reputation around creating music that defies the rock genre in terms of ambience, methods undertaken, and tools used with this specific record marking the return of the bow string. This album also marks a return to their roots with reminiscing over their earlier works whilst still embracing their modern take on songwriting.

It’s a fair statement that NOSOUND’s music is very much in the world of the theatrical, not only due to the orchestral nature of the core instruments used, but also with their blend of ambient post-rock and art-rock influences that serve to elevate each lyric and emotion conveyed. It’s a shared experience, yet one can also visualise whether through picturing it through a performance or different backdrops and objects.

This stance is clear from the moment the album opens with The Nothing We Give, that starts out with light feedback before clearing into soft piano paired with electronic sounds. This sets a moody atmosphere, only exasperated further when Erra’s vocals come in, fully setting up the theatrical atmosphere where one fully embodies the lyrics and the story it tells, yet it also enjoys of moment of being uplifted with a sound shift within the chorus and electric guitar riffs making an appearance later in the track.

Whilst not a melancholic record at heart, it certainly feels more on the refined and serious side of things as opposed to something energetic and bouncy. Yet not once do you feel sadness or despair, more you experience a moment of tranquillity thanks to the beautiful nature of the instruments. They even serve as a small distraction when it comes to a point of cringey melodramatics in the lyrics of the title track where the story is focused on heartbreak but rather than feeling the same devastation you more feel like the friend listening to an incoherent, tipsy babbling. You get it, but you feel a little awkward, but hey, at least the piano and violin is here.

Yet this is the only point worth criticising as the other tracks are just truly stunning. Interrupt mixes the vocals with synths that accurately convey emotions relating to pain and confusion, leaving you with the same, perhaps all too familiar, fuzziness in you after. Closure is arguably the more uplifting track with twinkly piano and jazz elements, and Worn Out Parts is the most beautiful sounding track with ethereal sounds, acoustic guitar and stunning guest vocals from Louise Pigott.

A beautiful record that offers a brief moment of tranquillity, something that a lot of us need these days.

Rating: 7/10

To The Core is out now via Kscope.

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