(Aiding & Abetting) Falascone plays the sax and Marsh (who is also a member of the Emergency String (X)tet reviewed above) puts everything together. The pieces are extremely processed, but just think of all the editing as another instrument. Okay, so this music has little to do with Planet Earth. All the more reason to go running into its arms. - Jon Worley
(Monk Mink Pink Punk) This record starts with Falascone's saxophone and Marsh's violin (he usually plays 'cello), and mixes them through electronics with voices and samples. It's a quiet and busy mess (in the sense of a messy room is often more interesting than a clean room: what's that over there?). Layers of acoustic instruments clash with various electronic layers, feeling like a quintet of able musicians. The voices (samples? Marsh?) add a schizophrenic air. Sometimes these voices and other noises sound like audio hallucinations that come from different parts of the room. Twice I had to check that insects weren't scurrying in the corner of my studio. - Josh Ronsen
(Vital Weekly) Marsh is a veteran improvisor who works mainly in the Bay Area in the last few years, but with several connections in Italy as well. You may know him as an improvisor playing electronics, violin, accordion, voice, cello, etc. He has numerous projects and collaborations going on. One of them is his collaboration with that other impressive improvisor Jack Wright. A more recent project is "Eight", where Marsh invited musicians and composers for a sound art work that was released by Setola di Maiale. Falascone was one of the participating artists. Afterwards they decided to intensify their collaborations. And "Non Troppo Lontano" presents their first results. Under the name of Falamar they will play in Europe later this year. His mate Massimo Falascone is new for me. Milan-based Falascone is on the scene since early 80s as an improvisor, performer and composer. He composed music for many film, theatre and video-installations. But improvisation is his main thing from what I can deduce from the information. On this meeting with Marsh he plays saxophones, samples and electronics. Marsh plays violin, voice and electronics. Recordings were done on one day in October 2008. They had a very fruitful meeting I must say. This is really an engaging work of highly experimental and abstract music but at the same time emotionally appealing. An ideal combination if you ask me. All electronic treatments do not diminish on the emotional impact, on the contrary. A fantastic and impressive job by Marsh and Falascone! (Dolf Mulder)
(Vital Weekly) Falascone and Marsh populate this rather lengthy (and lively) stretch of free-improv with spastic spatterings of sax, violin, electronics, and clipped samples. The duo employ a fair dose of negative space, upchucking brief tidbits of sound on a backing of silence; the result is often tense and surprising, though abuzz with a cacophonous array of squeals, bleeps, and stutters. Some improvisations are rather sparse and awkward (“Facciamo,” “Mattina”), though I am more partial to the fuller whirls of sound that comprise the busier moments of ‘Non Troppo Lontano.’ Jerk-jazzer “Casa Ne Pensi,” wild “Everything is Done,” and mega-whimsical “Sigma 40? are among the duo’s stronger compositions, each evocative of carnival worlds filled with devilish instrumentalists and menacing mechanoid beepers. It’s a maniacal trip, to be concise. - MT