Controlled Bleeding & Sparkle In Grey "Perversions of the Aging Savant"

Country: Italy/USA
Genre(s): Experimental, Fusion, Progressive Rock, Ambient, Post Rock
Label: Off Records, Old Bicycle Records
Format: CD, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Intro (Controlled Bleeding) 01:24
2. Garage Dub (Controlled Bleeding) 06:08
3. Springtime in Brooklyn (Controlled Bleeding) 03:29
4. Perks pt.1 (Controlled Bleeding) 10:39
5. Birdcanned pt.1 (Controlled Bleeding) 07:21
6. Birdcanned pt.2 (Controlled Bleeding) 01:23
7. Idiot savant pt.1 (Sparkle in Grey) 04:14
8. Idiot Savant pt.2 (Sparkle in Grey) 05:53
9. Idiot Savant pt.3 (Sparkle in Grey) 06:12
10. Idiot Savant pt.4 (Sparkle in Grey) 06:37

Extra Perversions (CD)
11. Mevlano Pt. 1  (Sparkle in Grey)
12. Live in Brooklyn, 2012 (Controlled Bleeding)

Extra Perversions (Download)
11. Iurop Pt. 2  (Sparkle in Grey)

12. Untitled (Controlled Bleeding)

Line-up: 
Paul Lemos, Mike Bazini, Tony Meola, Chad SB (Controlled Bleeding)
Alberto Carozzi, Cristiano Lupo, Franz Krostopovic, Matteo Uggeri (Sparkle in Grey)

Description/Reviews: 

Split albums are often forced and incoherent, with the musicians and songs having little true connection to each other. “Perversions of the Aging Savant,” is exactly the opposite; the work is the culmination of the long-time, long-distance friendship between Matteo Uggeri of Italy’s Sparkle In Grey and Paul Lemos, founder of US noise pioneers Controlled Bleeding.
“Perversions of the Aging Savant” not only shuffles the cards with the additional "extra perversions" of the two groups placed symmetrically at the end of the album, but is also the result of mutual suggestions and course adjustments, throughout the preparation of the tracks. The laborious process of bilateral "influence" has allowed the development of a tangible affinity in the sonic climate and of a considerable stylistic consistency among the different sections of the album, without affecting the individual characteristics of the two projects.
On the one hand, we have the well-known eclecticism of Bleeding, ranging from pages of confident guitar based prog rock (the aerial and enchanted notes of “Brooklyn In Springtime” recall the delicate touch of Tony Duhig of Jade Warrior) to rough industrial-noise excursions (the coarse-grained groove and the whirling distorted solos of “Perks Pt. 1”) or to jazzy improvisations jumping from soberly melodic to tangled and dissonant (the two parts of “Birdcanned”).
On the other hand, there is the compact suite “Idiot Savant” by Sparkle In Grey, a poignant chamber piece with neo-classical aplomb, gradually built from sparse notes of piano and a mournful violin around an emotional recurring theme, among mysterious choral breaths and subterranean cacophonies. In some moments of the album we even witness a sort of mimesis, therefore the “Intro” by Controlled Bleeding, with its weird accelerated voices on a strident rhythmic mechanism, could very well be a creation of Sparkle In Grey, while the Italians’ “Mevlano Pt. 1” could pass for an episode by Lemos, Joe Papa and associates linking free jazz to ambient drone. The two projects also reveal a common inclination towards dub, besides the propensity to explore different routes, aerial and solar but also misty and labyrinthine, often in an improvisational mode.
On “Perversions of the Aging Savant,” two champions of the international underground scene join forces to concoct an exquisitely perverse juxtaposition of free-prog-jazz-noise-ambient courses and post-rock-electro-neo-classical tidbits.

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page  (Controlled Bleeding)
Facebook (Controlled Bleeding)
Web page  (Sparkle in Grey)
Facebook  (Sparkle in Grey)
Progarchives  (Sparkle in Grey)
Proggnosis  (Sparkle in Grey)