CLOCK DVA - NOESIS

"Clock DVA has returned! [...] 'Noesis' is an act of intellect, the cognitive power of the mind. [...] The magic radiating through the album’s cinematic audio frequencies is a theatre of electronic statements as pure as starlight, as if it were an algebra of sound that evokes oneiric states of grace aimed at expanding the cognitive horizons of thought."

Aldo Chimenti (Rockerilla Magazine – January 2023)

- My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

- For crying out loud, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty-dollar whore.

Blazing Saddles (1974), dir. Mel Brooks

I don’t consider myself the alpha and omega. But I’ve read quite a few articles and reviews in my life, and I know that trying to evoke through words - or worse, a torrent of words - the emotions that music spontaneously generates is a path that often leads to shallow waters. So I’ll try not to drift in that direction and avoid stepping too far beyond the bounds of cognitive clarity.

Sometimes, though, the urge to share an impression is stronger than cold calculation, and one can really get carried away. So please forgive those moments where I approach the edge of exaltation - or even cross it - like the aforementioned Aldo Chimenti. But what the hell can you meaningfully write when something like Noesis lands in your hands - or rather, in your ears? A phenomenal album from one of your teenage idols? A record you’ve basically been waiting for over three decades? So, if this kind of enthusiasm annoys you, feel free to scoff in embarrassment - just like I scoff when I read death metal reviews where, in practically every other piece, you get sentences blooming like livor mortis saying, “As soon as the album started playing, a sweet stench of decaying corpses filled my room…” But hey, I can’t be mad when, instead of stench, I’m hit with phenomenal riffs.

There’s no point in breaking Noesis down into individual tracks - because their structure, duration, and order are most likely dictated purely by the requirements and limitations of the record label. What truly matters here is something else - or rather, someone else. There’s no need to recount the history and shifting line-ups of Clock DVA, tempting as it may be. What we can say with certainty, however, is that today, we can clearly point to the person responsible for the "elegance" of the current Clock DVA sound. That person is Maurizio Martinucci (aka TeZ), the current musical partner of Adi Newton.

Bauhaus, Futurism, Dadaism, Cosmism, Suprematism, Projectivism, and Connectionism - these threads run throughout Newton’s entire body of work. However, on Noesis, they serve more as a reference point (back in the good old days, so to speak) than actual content. The real content revolves around the clash between these ideas, slogans, dreams, and artistic movements - and the reality we now inhabit. You see, we’ve arrived in that once-dreamed-of future. And you know what? All those grand, lofty visions… we might as well shove them in our shoes. There’s probably no better way to sum up the present era than those two-panel memes: “In 2020, there will be flying cars”. Well… there are no flying cars. Instead, the “greatest achievements” of modern civilization are absurdities and cringe-worthy nonsense. We’re starting to struggle just to stay sane. Our dreams of mechanizing and automating the world have come true - but not the way we imagined.We’ve been swept into an avalanche of consumerism, planned obsolescence, and a whirlwind of “change for the sake of change” - all lacking meaning, logic, or structure.

“Technology has brought about massive change in all aspects of society, but it also brings dissatisfaction, alienation, and the narcissism of social media,” Newton says in one interview. “There are built-in problems that come with it - and that’s what we’re trying to communicate on Noesis. Take ‘The Fall of the Dream Machine’, for example - it’s about how people are preoccupied with Z-list celebrity weddings. It’s large-scale nonsense. Just absurd, really. Or look at TikTok - people posting videos of indecent things, dragging others into it. It doesn’t matter how much we don’t want to believe we’re being controlled and manipulated. Our dependence on technology is terrifying. Instead of using it to liberate humanity from hunger, poverty, or even the burdens of daily existence […] we’re still living in a world where people die of starvation, sleep on the streets, or have no access to water.”

Of course, the solution is not to escape from technology - no one in their right mind truly believes that, even though certain forms of “regression” like neo-Luddism, Luddism, or anarcho-primitivism surely exist somewhere out there. But that’s certainly not the philosophy behind Clock DVA. That’s why it feels entirely logical - and most natural, even if some might find it paradoxical - that TeZ and Newton make use of electronic devices in combination with cutting-edge technologies. Despite the group’s deepening immersion in electronics over the years, the central subject remains the human being. There are countless elements in Clock DVA’s music that speak to this human presence - most notably the words and vocals. These, combined with the trance-like, motoric musical layer, create an atmosphere of something like techno-pop-noir. Personally, I fully “buy into” this current incarnation of Clock DVA - no change needed. Just as, over four decades ago, I wanted to make music like what I heard on Advantage (my first contact with Clock DVA), today I feel much the same, discovering layer upon layer of inspiration woven into Noesis. This is also thanks to the phenomenal vision of Maurizio Martinucci, who, alongside Adi Newton, has managed to keep the project alive without giving in to the temptation of trend-hopping - or, on the other end of the spectrum, simply cashing in on past glory. Clock DVA is simply Clock DVA. Just like the lion is the king of the jungle.

A brilliant album.

Robert Marciniak

12.10.2025