In Il Sangue della Pietra, a collection of solo pieces for bass clarinet, Marco Colonna once again demonstrates his ability to play across the expressive range of the instrument. Colonna’s is a consummately lyrical voice; on each of the ten pieces in the set his sense of melody provides structural coherence as well as propulsive continuity. As with his previous solo work the line between composition and improvisation is difficult to determine, if indeed such a line exists; Colonna’s sensibility is compositional even when he’s improvising. On a piece like Ulivi, he spins variations on long, register-spanning themes; the melodic development in the three pieces titled Take a Breath demonstrates how a single-note instrument can imply harmony. In the legato, serpentine lines of Eielson and on the convoluted Indelibile and the boppish Un Filo, all relentlessly forward-moving pieces, Colonna brings out an unexpectedly nimble side of an ordinarily ponderous instrument. Running throughout the album is an audible undercurrent of breath—explicit evidence of the living force supporting these fine performances.
Daniel Barbiero
Avant Music News 