With Gioco Bambino, the electronic duo Klangstabil (Maurizio Blanco and Boris May) took the idea behind its LP Sprite Storage Format and pushed it further. All the music heard on this CD comes from the bowels of a Nintendo Gameboy (which translates to "Giaco Bambino" in Italian). An additional Gameboy Camera cartridge was used as a crude mixing desk. On a few tracks, the toy is hooked to extra electronic equipment, but that's it. Everything happens in real-time: no overdubs, no post-production treatments. Results are astonishing and very entertaining. Fans of Klangstabil will find this music closer to pop than usual -- it seems the video game sounds inspired some cheerful childish tunes. But the more one moves forward into the CD, the more distorted the sounds and the more abstract the strucures, leading to cutting-edge tracks like "Mostro" and "Il Pidocchio Allegro." The previous LP featured a proto-version of this project, recorded in one night and immediately released. Gioco Bambino is the result of eight months of work. A total of 20 tracks were created, the best 12 were chosen to appear on the CD. Klangstabil performed an impressive act of tightrope walking between challenging sound sculpture and entertaining low-tech electronica. Try to identify the sounds from your favorite games, it's a lot of fun. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide
