SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NICOLA CONTE – VIAGGIO

NICOLA CONTE
VIAGGIO
BLUE NOTE/SCHEMA/FAR OUT RECORDINGS

With compilations, particularly curated ones, there’s almost never a middle ground; they are either great or they are simply bad. To come up with a great one is a painstaking process; you have to be really knowledgeable about the subject matter you are covering, and you have to take time and care to make your selections not only good ones but be logical if they are supposed to really present the idea of the compilation itself.

Italian artist/DJ/producer, Nicola Conte, has already established himself as a great curator and compiler with a series of almost perfectly compiled selections covering various genres, with a five-part Viagem series covering Brazil’s lesser-known bossa nova and samba jazz.

Now, Conte has decided to cover something closer to home; Viaggio delves into Italian so-called library music covering its prime period between 1970 and 1979.

If doing a great comp is hard, here Conte’s task was even harder, as library music was and still is designed as sounds that are supposed to accompany moving images—films, videos, etc. Picking up good or great ones that can actually stand on their own, without those images is even harder, but Conte makes it all work, which is of somebody who is a true expert in his craft.

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