The salvific properties of music are on display across Carillon Reverie, an ambient concept album by Italian musician Mauro Corbia, AKA 4partment. Now based in Berlin, Germany, Corbia presents a recent album that tells the tale of a young girl who heals her village with a flower and the melody from a carillon—a pitched percussion instrument played with a keyboard and comprising at least 23 bells. Traditionally played from bell towers for public audiences, the carillon is often associated with churches, and Corbia explores the psychological benefits that communal music provides.
His productions are almost always heavenly. For example, "Little Wonder" employs cushiony sustained tones and simple-but-nuanced melodic lines to create an escapist atmosphere; the title track mixes therapeutic ambient delays with mystical bell chimes, and "Window to the Night Sky" folds in nature sounds—crickets, birds, and a sense of moonlit air—over textured audio beds. However, it’s not all lush beauty. "Melting Permafrost" takes a haunting turn, with perturbing key changes, ominous crowd murmurs, and washes of chilling synths. But mostly, Corbia ruminates on the sonic pillows of our world, the auditory environments that soften the rough edges of human experience.
"You remember who you really are only through pain. After that, pain is no longer necessary." This aphorism appears in the album's liner notes and reflects the protagonist’s explanation for helping the people of Corbia’s fictional village. This sentiment is imbued in the contrast between tracks like "Traces of a Lost Fantasy" and "Let Go," with the former exploring darker, more uncomfortable moods, and the latter providing cathartic flushes of serene sound.
Ultimately, Carillon Reverie by 4partment is a medicinal and enriching aural realm that investigates the psychological friction of living in an imperfect world and how art can serve not only as a coping mechanism but also as a catalyst for transcendence.
★★★★