Il Guardiano Del Faro - Oasis
Top Italian synth floater from 1978, Il Guardiano Del Faro. Check the baked moog electronics of "Disco Divina" and the equally cosmic-mystic tune "Oasis" On the UK label Time Capsule run by Kay Suzuki.
Born 1940 in Milan, Federico Mon Arduini was a child prodigy who studied piano and was already performing at concerts from the age of eight. He composed pop songs for other ar sts which sold millions of copies, but his own solo success came after he encountered synthesizers in the early 70s.
Viewed as a precursor of New Age sound art, Arduini was one of the first producers in Italy to use the Moog synthesizer and a meeting with Bob Moog in New York only added to this obsession.
He was also an early adopter of the tradition among electronic producers to use a moniker to disguise his identity. Il Guardiano Del Faro (translated as “the guardian of lighthouse”) is a nod to the small Italian fishing town Porto Santo Stefano, where Arduini created his studio in the mid-70s.
He produced a number of albums from this seaside idyll of electronic instruments and tape recorders, but Oasis stands out from the pack. Released in 1978, it became a cult classic for its experimental sounds and emotional expressions. Spiritual synth sounds cover the album in a dreamy haze, oscillatinng between ambient and psychedelic. Sparing deployment of the Roland rhythm box gives dance floor favorites ‘Disco Divina’ and ‘Oasis’ touches of space disco and even teases proto-house elements like the great Sun Palace.