Alessandro Monti - Almanac 33rpm/years After
With over 80.000 views and plays over the years "The Wind Collector" is a well kept secret of 90s ambient music, even if there is no full digital version available; after 33 years the original producer reimagines the work with a new approach to the music that is both traditional and experimental, from acoustic folk to post-rock, via choral music and granular synthesis; plus this could be the first time that dub and hip hop techniques are used on a folk recording.
There is a peculiar beauty in artists returning to old work decades later. Sometimes the result feels like nostalgia; sometimes it feels like revisionism. Almanac 33rpm/years After is neither. Instead, Alessandro Monti has created something rarer: a conversation between two versions of himself separated by thirty-three years.
The original The Wind Collector (1991), created with Gigi Masin and Alessandro Pizzin, has long occupied the status of a cult artefact among those who explore the quieter corners of ambient, electroacoustic and post-wave music. Its reputation has grown steadily over the years despite limited availability and almost complete absence from the streaming ecosystem.
What makes Almanac so compelling is that Monti refuses the easy route. Rather than remastering or polishing the original recordings, he dismantles them and rebuilds them from the foundations upward. Acoustic guitars, hand percussion, recorders, piano, field recordings, choral textures and granular processing replace much of the original electronic architecture. The songs feel less like remakes and more like archaeological reconstructions viewed through a contemporary lens.
Almanac 33rpm/years After is not merely a revisit to an old album; it is a meditation on time, memory and artistic evolution. It demonstrates how music can mature alongside the people who create it. Rather than trying to recapture youth, Monti allows the passing decades to become part of the composition itself.
A thoughtful, atmospheric and quietly adventurous work that rewards patience and repeated listening. It feels less like an album and more like opening a box of faded photographs and discovering that the images have somehow changed while you weren't looking
With over 80.000 views and plays over the years "The Wind Collector" is a well kept secret of 90s ambient music, even if there is no full digital version available; after 33 years the original producer reimagines the work with a new approach to the music that is both traditional and experimental, from acoustic folk to post-rock, via choral music and granular synthesis; plus this could be the first time that dub and hip hop techniques are used on a folk recording.
There is a peculiar beauty in artists returning to old work decades later. Sometimes the result feels like nostalgia; sometimes it feels like revisionism. Almanac 33rpm/years After is neither. Instead, Alessandro Monti has created something rarer: a conversation between two versions of himself separated by thirty-three years.
The original The Wind Collector (1991), created with Gigi Masin and Alessandro Pizzin, has long occupied the status of a cult artefact among those who explore the quieter corners of ambient, electroacoustic and post-wave music. Its reputation has grown steadily over the years despite limited availability and almost complete absence from the streaming ecosystem.
What makes Almanac so compelling is that Monti refuses the easy route. Rather than remastering or polishing the original recordings, he dismantles them and rebuilds them from the foundations upward. Acoustic guitars, hand percussion, recorders, piano, field recordings, choral textures and granular processing replace much of the original electronic architecture. The songs feel less like remakes and more like archaeological reconstructions viewed through a contemporary lens.
Almanac 33rpm/years After is not merely a revisit to an old album; it is a meditation on time, memory and artistic evolution. It demonstrates how music can mature alongside the people who create it. Rather than trying to recapture youth, Monti allows the passing decades to become part of the composition itself.
A thoughtful, atmospheric and quietly adventurous work that rewards patience and repeated listening. It feels less like an album and more like opening a box of faded photographs and discovering that the images have somehow changed while you weren't looking
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