Those who are into heavily processed guitars but still appreciate the value of bizarre orchestrations bathed in methodical (and often preposterous) abstractness should take a serious look at this man’s work, available at the OKSRNA website. These CDs were released in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Both are emblematic of Oppedisano’s qualities, which extend well beyond the curtain of effects and the bags of tricks under which he loves to hide his compositional chops. Hey, one doesn’t collaborate with David Lee Myers if there are no ideas in the brain.
MARCO OPPEDISANO – Electroacoustic Compositions For Electric Guitar
The only source besides what is mentioned in the title are an electric bass and a sampled female voice (courtesy of Kimberly Fiedelman in the funnily strange “Karmicom”). Heterodox pitilessness, celestial meanderings, timbral kinships and otherworldly correspondences are all found in this disc. Oppedisano gathers metals, rumbles, synthetic discharges and steamy distortion in a wonderfully incoherent vocabulary, characterized by a systematic refusal of remaining in the same place for more than ten seconds. Fastidiously arranged and executed, these sequences surprise, annoy and galvanize, even managing to extirpate a couple of appreciative laughs from this callous writer. We discern acumen and sense of humour which, mixed with the evident inquisitiveness of the protagonist (who’s not afraid of making music that sounds similar to a videogame soundtrack one moment and a cinematic trip the next) warrants several episodes of belligerently amusing paroxysm. Although the tapes collect tracks recorded in the 1999-2005 temporal frame, this feels like a concept album - which says a lot about its engenderer’s idealistic consistency. Atypically pertinacious, sporadically cheesy (in the right way), a few times enlightening, always abnormal stuff. The world needs it.
MARCO OPPEDISANO – The Ominous Corner
Once again, the lone protagonists are Oppedisano and Fiedelman (who this time is clearly audible in the spoken segments of “Renewal”). The array of machines utilized by the boss is slightly expanded, including radio, processed waveforms and MIDI instruments besides guitar and bass. I still have to grasp the reason behind my more-than-moderate contentment for this individualistic brew, which (de)ranges from heavily saturated, Vai-meets-Torn virtuosity to absolute mayhems where incessant sequences and complicated sci-fi convergences get interrupted by tear-in-the-black-sky openings of harmonic lights, repeated hints to galactic apprehensiveness and amusingly indiscreet hymns to renascence. The Ominous Corner presents the most technical side of this Italian-named American composer, and also his tendency to grandiloquence in several occasions: the irony that was present in various junctures of Electroacoustic Compositions is practically absent here. Yet one cannot but appreciate the incredible attention to every tiny detail and the sense of adventurousness, as Oppedisano attempts to redefine all roles in his six string-based architectures. The fact that he’s a technically superior instrumentalist constitutes a spicy ingredient of the recipe, certainly not a hindrance. Somewhat bombastic, but extremely accurate and often simply stunning music that didn’t succeed in boring me, which – given a typically difficult acceptance of axe-indulging paradoxes – equals success.
