Sorgente is the first solo album by the Italian Maestro Devid Ciampalini. Recorded in a period of isolation spent in Garfagnana, a geographical and historical area in Tuscany, between the Apuan Alps and the main chain of the Tuscan Emilian Apennines, Sorgente reflects the nature of his genesis and the shapeless character of the watercourses which inspired it. On the footsteps of itineraries traveled in youth, Devid opens a dialogue between the natural elements of these unspoiled landscapes and the analog equipment used for processing and revealing what captured during the recordings sessions.

The electronic bleep blops of these strange and lively compositions have something that recalls the blossoming mushrooms, the vivid green of the moss that springs up on the stones, the smells of the undergrowth, the movements of all the micro fauna that lives in the so called Alta Valle del Serchio and something of the gentle and bizarre character of Devid himself. As the well-known Italian metaphonist Marcello Bacci, also from Tuscany, Devid seems to research something of secret and hidden into the sounds he’s playing with. Surrounded by tape recorders, old synthesizers, sonorous objects and strange self-made stuff, Devid moves like a medium in the middle of his experience, filtering and mixing, and then redistributing sound bubbles in the attempt of blending natural phenomena and electronica into new elements, sometimes more abstract, sometimes more concrete. Recording devices provide a chance of spirit communication and try to connect us to this different plane of reality. The sound, after switching to a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and after being randomly cut and pasted, reveals itself completely at about ear level as an ecologically shimmering sound system. Devid plays crumar ds2, mini gem electric organ, elgam montreal electric piano, 2 oscillators, revox b77, mixer tascam m216, microphones, analog spring reverb and several tape delays.
Field recordings collected in Fornovalasco and Lucchio (Lucca). Mastered by Renato Grieco. Photo Cover shooted by Devid at Parco Fluviale dell'Elsa. Sheeps photo by Isotta Meniconi.

"Esiste anche una fredda sorgente, collocata sopra la quale
una stoppa s'incendia e sprigiona subito fiamme,
e una torcia ugualmente si accende e risplende
tra quelle onde, dovunque la spingono i venti, mentre galleggia."
- Lucrezio, De Rerum Natura.