Luciano Cilio was born in Naples, Italy, in 1950. He studied music and architecture and, in the late ’60s, collaborated with local artist Alan Sorrenti, American expat Shawn
Phillips and various avant-garde theater groups. A virtuoso guitarist and self-taught composer, Cilio released only one LP before his untimely death at the age of 33.

Dialoghi Del Presente (1977) is a work like no other, one that sounds both ancient and ahead of its time. Produced by Renato Marengo, it features a series of muted tableaux for
strings, woodwinds, guitar, chorus, piano and percussion. Cilio carves out a space where subtle, repetitive phrases yield—almost imperceptibly—to breathtaking silence.

While each subsequent “quadro” grows more abstract, Cilio draws the listener into an expansive, pastoral soundscape. The closing piece, “Interludio,” begins with a plaintive guitar, which is joined by haunting strings and woodwinds before concluding, poignantly, as the album began, with Cilio and his guitar, alone once more. Superior Viaduct’s edition reproduces the original sleeve design.

Recommended for fans of Johann Johannsson, Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, Arvo Part and Popol Vuh.