Tuesday 4 October 2022, 8pm
Two nights of experimental music from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region
Night 1/2
- Roberto Paci Dalò: Lament
- Francesco Serra/Trees of Mint
- Silvia Tarozzi: Mi specchio e rifletto
ATER Fondazione and Emilia Romagna Music Commission present SUONO GRASSO in collaboration with AngelicA – Festival Internazionale di Musica
Lament: A Sound Ritual
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments constitute some of the oldest forms of writing, and examples exist across human cultures. Lament is a sound ritual where analogue and digital sounds merge. It is a celebration of the power of sound, evoking such territories as the Jewish and Romanian doina, the Southern Italian lamentazioni, the Scottish pibroch (piobaireachd), the Albanian and Greek meditative styles and the conventional fixture of the heroine’s lament in baroque opera. These references are blended with today’s electronics and processing. Not categorisable into a specific genre or style, Lament has been described by critics as a “shamanic action” and an “unforgettable experience”.
Roberto Paci Dalò: composition, clarinet, bass clarinet, voice, live electronics
Production: Giardini Pensili, Transcultures
Philip Jeck (1952-2022)
Roberto Masotti (1947-2022)
Hermann Nitsch (1938-2022)
in memoriam
Francesco Serra (Cagliari, 1980) is a self-taught guitarist who lives and works in Bologna. His research focuses on identifying performative practices aimed at extending the timbral qualities of the electric guitar and emphasising the evocative potential of sound. In his works, in particular with his solo project Trees of Mint, he has progressively deconstructed songwriting through sound experimentation and investigated the possible contaminations between sound, space and image.
Roberto Paci Dalò’s music combines avant-garde, electronics, early music, improvisation and traditional music(s) in an unusual way. His work has won him international admiration from, among others, John Cage, Robert Ashley, Giya Kancheli and Aleksandr Sokurov. Clarinetist, live electronics and composer wizard Roberto has performed worldwide in collaboration with such artists as Kronos Quartet, Scanner, Julia Kent, Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, Jon Rose, Terry Riley, Tom Cora, David Moss, Fennesz, Akio Suzuki, Philip Jeck, Olga Neuwirth, Stefano Scodanibbio, Tibor Szemzö, Zahra Mani, Robert Lippok, Mouse on Mars, Tenores di Bitti and Luigi Lai. Parallel to his music work, Roberto is an established theatre director and visual artist. His radio works are an international reference in radio art. He leads the group Giardini Pensili and is the recipient of the Berliner Küsterprogramm des DAAD Fellowship, the Premio Napoli 2015 and the Q21 / MQ MuseumsQuartier Wien 2017 residency. Roberto exhibited at the Biennale di Venezia 2022. He is founding director of Usmaradio – the Research Centre for Radiophonic Studies at UNIRSM (University of the Republic of San Marino).
Mi specchio e rifletto was released on Unseen Worlds to rave reviews in 2020 and has been performed in its entirety at AngelicA (Bologna), Teatro Tempio (Modena), Gong Tomorrow (Copenhagen), Alter Festival (Aarhus), Rewire (Den Haag) and Tectonics (Glasgow).
Silvia Tarozzi – vocals, violin, slide guitar, radio, toys, objects, composition
Valeria Sturba – vocals, violin, theremin, electronics, objects
Cecilia Stacchiotti – synthesizers, keyboard, vocals, bansuri flute
Stefano Pilia – baritone electric guitar, objects
Edoardo Marraffa – tenor and sopranino saxophone
“I started to compose the songs included in this project many years ago, inspired by a book of poems by the Italian poet Alda Merini. The rhythm and sound of her poetry and her special voice (she used to do readings of her poems, often recorded on video or broadcast on Italian television) suggested to me a musical translation. For copyright reasons I could not use her poems, so I decided later to remove them, keeping the music and starting to compose my own lyrics. What at the beginning was an obstacle became the opportunity to create something new and personal. The poet is still present, as a subtle and underground track that guided me away.
The live presentation is born from the desire to bring to the stage the richness of atmospheres present in the recordings and the feeling of freedom that accompanied the composition of the songs. The project features musicians from different musical backgrounds, all playing different instruments but linked by the shared practice of both improvisation and composition. The music of Mi specchio e rifletto is enriched by the contribution of new personalities and becomes alive and sensitive to the energy of the band.” – Silvia Tarozzi
“Tarozzi speaks to a larger, often invisible web of women and the shared experiences of their private lives… Like Merini and so many others, Silvia Tarozzi wants to be seen as her full self. She paints private worlds, illustrating labyrinthine feelings in new colors. And by rendering her own reflection more brilliant, Tarozzi makes it easier for others to see themselves, too” – Pitchfork
Silvia Tarozzi is a violinist, improviser, composer and vocalist. A graduate in violin, chamber music and early music, her personal research on sound and instrumental gesture is expressed in numerous artistic collaborations with composers of her time, including Pascale Criton, Éliane Radigue, Pauline Oliveros, Philip Corner, Cassandra Miller, Martin Arnold, Pierre-Yves Macé and others. Mi specchio e rifletto was her first record. She is the violinist of the French ensemble Dedalus and has performed as a duo with the cellist Deborah Walker for almost 20 years. Ealier this year Unseen Worlds released Canti di guerra, di lavoro e d’amore, a new album by Tarozzi and Walker, featuring personal and experimental reinterpretations of Italian folk music.
Valeria Sturba is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer who graduated in violin and also plays theremin, keyboards and minisynth, and loves to creatively crease electronic effects, looper and assorted sound toys. Her musical horizons range from songwriting to rock and jazz, tango to free improvisation, the soundtracks of silent films to the live accompaniment of theatrical performances. She is one-half of OoopopoiooO, a surreal Dadaist duo with Vincenzo Vasi, and part of the Grande Abarasse Orchestra of John De Leo and the Assassins quartet of Francesco Cusa. She has collaborated with Tristan Honsinger, Enrico Gabrielli, Fabrizio Puglisi, Mauro Ottolini, Cristina Donà, Médéric Collignon, Stefano Benni, Hamid Drake, Lino Guanciale, Ermanno Cavazzoni, Anna Maria Hefele, Giancarlo Schiaffini and many others.
Cecilia Stacchiotti is a multi-instrumental musician and electronic composer. She graduated in piano, literature, philosophy and electronic music/sound design. She has played in various musical formations as a pianist, keyboardist and guitarist and more recently as a DJ. She has performed in productions of John Oswald’s Transitive Axis (homage to the Grateful Dead) and FFF / For Fred Frith, with the AngelicA Orchestra under the direction of Domenico Caliri.
Stefano Pilia is a guitar player and composer born in Genoa and based in Bologna. His work has become progressively concerned with researching the sculptural properties of sound as well as sound’s relationship with space, memory and the suspension of time. Pilia explores these points of focus through instrumental practice and investigations into the recording and production process. He is one of the founding members (alongside Valerio Tricoli and Claudio Rocchetti) of the seminal group 3/4HadBeenEliminated, a project that synthesises improvisational, electroacoustical and avant-rock sensibilities. He is also a member of the psychedelic quartet In Zaire, the BGP trio with David Grubbs and Andrea Belfi, and il Sogno del Marinaio alongside legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. Pilia is also the lead guitarist for celebrated Malian singer Rokia Traorè and the cult Italian band Afterhours. He has collaborated with artists and musicians including Katia and Marielle Labeque, David Tibet, Zu, Oren Ambarchi, John Parish, Fire Orchestra!, Angela Bullock, Oliver Mann, Gianluigi Toccafondo, Laura Agnusdei, WuMing, Phill Niblock, Z’ev, Manuel Mota, Enrico Malatesta, David Maranha and Dean Roberts.
Edoardo Marraffa has dedicated himself to improvised and free music since 1993, collaborating with the most innovative bands of the Italian scene such as Collettivo Bassesfere and Specchio Ensemble, as well as more recent projects including Casino Di Terra, Vakki Plakkula, Mrafi, Small Talk, Eco D’alberi, Les Ravageurs, ChiaroScuro, Tell No Lies and the Marraffa Stadhouders duo. He has collaborated with Tristan Honsinger, William Parker, Hamid Drake, John Edwards, Olaf Rupp, Han Bennink, Clayton Thomas, Wayne Horvitz, Wadada Leo Smith and many others.
