In the first of these two silences, Castellani blends internal combustion engines and the squeaky wheels of a farm cart with low drones and vaguely organ-like sounds, along with both natural and harshly processed bird calls. Blends is perhaps a bit of a misnomer. While there are long stretches where sounds gradually crescendo and decrescendo in and out of each other, there are also several places where the sound just suddenly cuts out.

And just as suddenly cuts back in again. And some of the silences (inside each piece) are long enough to trick your ear into thinking the piece is over before it is. Although the two silences are quite different, they share at least one sound: falling water, which enters near the end of each one—rain in the first, and inside a showerstall in the other. Or so it sounds to me. Lovely stuff!

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