Reviewing any music released by Costanza is tough. Her new album Sonic Diary represents just one of the many dimensions of this multi-facetted artist.
Costanza operates on many levels and her visual collaboration with Embrio.net — a collective Italian-based artistic project, film maker Peter Mettler, and Japanese artist Yuko Sueta, along with her visual art, production, imagery, and her exploration of electronic music, help to indicate the depth of her multi–media talents and interests. Add to this her work writing for television (CSI Crime Scene Investigation), commercials, and production work and you begin to lift the lid. There is however much more. Her fascination with both art and architecture seeps into her music which is awash with abstract colour, exploration, shape, depth and dimension. Listening to Sonic Diary should be seen as just part of the journey, or trip if you like, into the mind of Costanza Francavilla. The best quote of all is taken straight from her website. "As a stunning multimedia artist the best way to experience her music is to WATCH."
It all began when she studied classical guitar in Rome. Moving to New York in the early nineties, she set up studio and began exploring the world of electronic music. Musically she is well known for her work with Tricky and in particular their 2003 album Vulnerable. Sonic Diary represents the first of two releases, the second Make Me Electric is planned for release at the end of the year. Costanza divides her time between music and visual art, the two meshing perfectly to make seeing her in a live situation a stimulating experience.
Sonic Diary is a continuation of that journey and one that is immensely satisfying. Opening with “Just Another Alien” Costanza uses the small print on the US Immigration form to simple, yet devastatingly potent, effect ending with her asking, "have you ever been a human being?" Her voice is a heady combination of sensual, hypnotic, mesmerizing, haunting, passionate, and evocative. The music is trippy electronica – deep enough to lose yourself in totally. Strangely compulsive it cannot merely exist in the background but renders a room full of people silent as their attention becomes focused on the music. There are explorations of relationships “I’ve Been Waiting For You” and “Silence”, life in New York “50 Bullets Fired In Queens” about the police shooting of Sean Bell in Brooklyn in November 2006. There are some haunting covers too – Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, taken from his American Recordings series, is given the Costanza treatment to excellent effect. Also, Fugazi’s “Promises” is another fantastic stretching of the original idea into whole new areas. “Burqa” is as powerful as anything on the album and is about the war in Afghanistan.
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