Title: Night Tunes Collection
Artist: Tree60
Release Date: 2014 June 09
Genre: Downtempo / Trip-Hop
License: CC BY-NC-ND
Label: Dusted Wax Kingdom / Tree60 BandCamp
Introduction
There are times when the best music takes a long time to develop, grow into maturity. It can be a slow process over several years. Sometimes it can seem like it takes forever. In the case of the night tunes grown on Tree60, it took a decade for these tunes to grow.
Tree60: Night Tunes Collection
Tree60 (360 degrees + Tree) is the solo project of Stefano D’Incecco, one-third of the group Mui. He has been part of the music scene since 2000, hailing originally from Italy, now based in Barcelona, Spain. He currently DJ’s in Spain, Sweden, England, and Italy.
The music on Night Tunes Collection has been collected over the past 10 years (2003-2013) on an Akai Mpc 1000 and Clavia Nord synthesizer.
Tree60 takes samples from jazz, funk, soul, Mediterranean and ethnic music and combines them with beats and analog instrumentation to create songs that are both slightly darker and rich in texture, while having a very organic sound to them.
This release is an homage to the night, to the nocturnal environments and spaces that we explore in our dreams. The tracks are full of images of the hazy night-time environments, like ‘Grhodes’ Rhodes piano with baritone saxophone, and ‘The Missing Trumpet’ weaving flamenco guitar style with swooping dark strings and ethnic vocal samples over a solid funk rhythm.
The whole effect of this release is at once captivating, as it is exploratory. I found myself enthralled with the music, and feeling a bit adventurous: wanting to seek locations that fit the moods of the songs on this release.
Conclusion
I find I have something of a contradictory stand on this release. I like it, and I like it a lot. There is a lot of good music here. Samples are well-chosen, and Tree60’s treatment and transformation is exceptional. It’s so excellent that I want to hear more. A lot more. However, here’s the rub: it took 10 years for this release to come together. I am certain it was the attention to detail, the meticulous matching of samples and beats that took a long time to accomplish on this release. And I don’t want Stefano to rush into producing another release with the (hopeful) success of this one. I don’t want him to lose that level of detail that makes this release so exceptional.
So, I think we have to be satisfied with this release for now, and just wait for Stefano to gift us with another release of night tunes grown on Tree60 in his own time.
Tree60: Night Tunes Collection
Free / Donation / Name Your Price
7.5
