Parlando
Neuma, 2025
9/10
The San Diego artist Christopher Clarino is well versed in interdisciplinary work, solo settings, and American Sign Language and these 5 detailed pieces showcase his percussion skills with help on one of the selections.
The title track, by Igor Santos, starts the listen with Shaoai Ashley Zhang’s strategic synth alongside Clarino’s mesmerizing vibraphone, where pitch and range are explored, and Anthony Donofrio’s “Meditation on Italo Calvino’s ‘The Castle of Crossed Destinies’” follows with nearly 19 minutes of ambient drumming and unpredictable percussive bouts that are executed with attention to space.
The middle track, “Glockenspiel”, by Barbara Monk Feldman, is a captivating moment that’s full of rhythmic intricacies and ringing sonorities, while Thomas DeLio’s “jeu de timbres” displays colorful bell prowess that’s rife with tonality.
The final tune, “The Narrow Path”, spotlights the vast possibilities of the vibraphone via profound detail to harmonics for 16+ minutes that somehow still ends too soon.
This is Clarino’s debut, and it meshes sound, body, and language in a fusion vision that speaks to the soul.
Travels well with: Hypercube- The Force For Good; Kyle Jones- Dualities