Sigillum S

Few things in our mutable existence are as certain as quality music from Sigillum S. This Italian experimental-minded industrial/dark ambient project started building their temple of sound a few years before the birth of this author – in 1985. And what an intricate temple it is: full of dark corners leaving ample room for monuments of the imagination, altars for mysterious ceremonies conducted in hushed voices, and an overflowing sense of tranquility. Sigillum S combines Paolo Bandera, aka Sshe Retina Stimulants, Eraldo Bernocchi, known for his many musical endeavors (including collaborations with Mick Harris, Chihei Hatakeyama, etc.), Bruno Dorella, and Luca di Giorgio. Even after all these years, Sigillum S keeps coming up with fresh music, as evidenced by their 2018 LP, The Irresistible Art Of Space Colonization And Its Mutation Implications – one of our favorite records of the year. It is a huge honor to include their mix in our series!

STM 277 fluctuates between the weighty harshness of industrial textures, airy ambience and sounds of a more improvisatory nature, mostly from a jazz background. The latter is illustrated by the fact that the mix is framed with legendary Dizzy Gillespie’s brilliant 1957 live recording from Newport. Elsewhere the contrasts are maintained by such diverse picks as the gritty distortions of “Dead River” by Uniform and The Body, the echoing arpeggios of melancholy of the track by Bing & Ruth or even the majestic drones of Hans Zimmer, evoking the flashy scenes of the excellent Blade Runner 2049. Rhythms are changed by floating soundscapes, guitars by electroacoustic experiments and this variety illustrates the broad range of influences behind the sound of Sigillum S.

In the records

Sigillum S on the mix

Sigillum S have approached the mix process as some kind of acoustic mirror of their current mindsets and creative framework. As such, they have individually selected relevant inputs from their contemporary listening platforms and infected them with deteriorated seeds from lost past, together with a few self-references to their solo works, just to provide clearer coordinates.

The contribution has then been mixed into a coherently dystopian map of cultural anomalies, ranging from hyper-inflated gender noise to decomposed ethnic blisters, from pure jazz tones to scorching doom blasts. A linear representation of what Sigillum S usually presents in a fully overlayered fusion of contradictions and paradoxes or Hans Zimmer.

Enjoy and get lost in amplified contrast and fictional theory.