By Ferruccio Martinotti
Edition number 4 of “To listen to”, the festival of experimental listening,
dedicated to “the exploration of the different shapes of sound”, as per the
communication claim. A mesmerizing cabinet of curiosities, a sonic Borges’
library, deployed through concerts, labs, sound installations and
masterclasses, drove the audience towards the real Unknown and the sheer
Unexpected. Concerts took place in the grand Concert Hall of the
Conservatorio (free admittance!) and the following is what we attended.
Acousmonium of Paris INA grm (saturday 27)
Eve Aboulkeir – Guilin Synthetic Daydream, 2020
Jim O’Rourke – 8 views of a secret, 2024
Sarah Davachi – Basse Brevis, 2024
Francois J.Bonnet – Banshee, 2024
The term acousmonium comes from the french “acousmatique” utilized by Jerome
Peignot, Pierre Schaeffer and Francois Bayle to define every noise or sound
listened without seeing the source. Key elements are the tech specs of the
speakers and their setting in the space, placed on the stage according to
power and audio spectrum, in order to become a real orchestra. The music is
“played” by the mixing desk, tuning the linear fader to manage the sound’s
dynamics. The audience watches Nothing, listening to Everything:
astonishing.
La fuga di Socrate – Guido Brignone, 1923 (tuesday 30)
The legendary movie is soundtracked live by Caravaggio (Bruno Chevillion,
bass, double bass, electronics; Benjamin de la Fuente, violin, mandocaster,
tenor electric guitar, electronics; Eric Echampard, drums, percussions,
electronics; Samuel Sighicelli, Hammond, sampler, Korg, Minimoog), a
post-rock band that through the “counterpoint technique” delivers sound
effects and free spatial escapism, greatly enriching the old grainy
photograms.
Mauricio Kagel: Spielplan, 1970. Instrumentalmusik in Aktion, concert
version for experimental sound generators (wednesday 1)
From 1967 to 1970 Mauricio Kagel wrote nine books to be freely utilized to
stage his (in)famous anti-opera Staatstheater and the sixth of those
(Spielplan) consists of 42 pages describing how to generate sounds from an
array of prepared objects, modified instruments, recycled materials, all of
them hugely amplified through several kinds of microphones. Stanislas Pili,
Joao Calado and Andrea Zamengo put on (likely for very first time) all the
Spielplan pages, surrounded on stage by every kind of sound generators:
drippers, wind machine, hoses, a disassembled piano, nails, mechanical toys,
grids and watches. The Way of the Sound is Infinite (and we are deeply
grateful for that).
Anna Clementi: I sing the Body Electric (Thursday 2)
Olga Neuwirth – Nova/Minraud, 1998
Aldo Clementi – Parafrasi, 1981
Laurie Schwartz – the waves, 2025
John Cage – Aria, 1996
Born in Rome, daughter of the composer Aldo Clementi, Anna soon moved to
Berlin where she attended Dieter Schebel’s courses at the Hochschule der
Kunste, teaming up with him in the group Die Maulwerker. John Cage has
always been her North Star and on tonight’s repertoire he casts such an
influence: voice, language, dance and words are combined in a prodigious
way, clearly explaining why she’s a self defined “actress of word”, instead
of a singer.
Stefano Scodanibbio – Oltracuidansa, 1997/2002 for amplified double bass
and 8 channels fixed media
One of the Greatest of All Time on the double bass, he composed more than 50
works, mostly for strings, played all over the world. Composers like
Bussotti, Frith, Donatoni, Estrada, Xenakis wrote music for him, while John
Cage said: “Stefano is astonishing, I never heard someone playing double
bass as he plays”. Teacher at Berkeley, Stanford, Oberlin College, Stuttgart
Musikhochschule, Conservatoire de Paris, Conservatorio di Milano, he spent
long and fruitful collaborations with Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi and Terry
Riley, creating new techniques, extending the colours and range of the
double bass, heretofore considered impossible on this instrument. His most
famous and tremendously challenging work is “Oltracuidansa” and the
impossible task to play it live is entrusted to Dario Calderone, a top notch
double bassist, former collaborator of the late Sconadibbio. The outcome is
simply astonishing, leaving us speechless.
Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke – Pareidolia (sunday 5)
The Grand Finale with the aces of contemporary music: rock, pop, jazz,
noise, free improv, electroacoustic composition, soundtracks, it’s really
difficult to find a spot in their musical scope not yet charted. We saw them
in town a couple of years ago with the embryonic project of Pareidolia,
delivered tonight in its chiseled ultimate version, edited on record some
months ago. The synthetic cold of laptop music is interspersed with vocal
and flute, making the final result fascinating and evocative.