Venice is Austrain guitarist-sound artist-producer Christian Fennesz’s masterpiece. It was released originally in 2004, followed by a 10th-anniversary edition (Touch, 2014) with a bonus track, and now its limited edition, 20th-anniversary re-issue in DVD style digipack adds two more pieces and unseen photographs from the original sessions. It was remastered by the original sound engineer Denis Blackham who makes full use of today’s much improved audio production, recording and mastering technology, with liner notes by the graphic designer and Touch label co-founder Jon Wozencroft, who designed the timeless, painting-like cover artwork, and Fennesez himself.
Fennesz composed Venice in the Italian city where he stayed for several weeks. He was fascinated by the sounds and the acoustics of Venice. «From my room, you could clearly hear conversations at night with the window open, but it was uncertain whether they came from the neighboring house or several blocks away as if the sound waves in Venice followed their own rules», he writes in his liner notes. The album title came to him as a suggestive description of a dignified decline, decay, death, and rebirth.
Fennesz collected short recordings of him playing acoustic and electric guitars over months, experimenting with newly introduced soft synths and samplers, and field recordings, sometimes taken on the go and directly in Venice. The recording continued in Vieena’s Amann Studios in January and February 2004. Fennesz hosted fellow Viennese guitarist Burkhard Stangle (who has previously worked with Fennesz as a member of the experimental Polwechsel) on two pieces.
David Sylvian (of Japan fame) wrote the lyrics and sings the beautiful and touching «Transit», a piece that encapsulates masterfully the emotional core of Venice and marked an ongoing collaboration that began on Sylvian’s Blemish (Smadhisound, 2003) and continued on When Loud Weather Buffeted Naoshima, Manafon and Died In The Wool | Manafon Variations (Smadhisound, 2007, 2009 and 2011). The new booklet also reproduces David Sylvian’s original handwritten lyrics for «Transit».
This remastered version of Venice keeps its timeless magic. Fennesz’meticulously crafted layers of enigmatic yet highly immersive ambient textures sound fresh and draw you immediately into his suggestive and cinematic sonic vision. The music swings between experimental and abstract, and noisy and accessible but keeps its subdued, mysterious atmosphere.
Eyal Hareuveni
Christian Fennesz (electric guitars, acoustic guitars, synthesizers, samplers, field recordings), Burkhard Stangle (guitars), David Sylvian (vocals)
