Beauty, culture and live, lively music from "L'Accademia degli Antichi": a new-born reality in Vicenza

Alessandra Borin and Ilaria Fantin are two young musicians, a soprano and a lute players, respectively, and they sort-of had that special gift only youth owns... imaginative and sparkling ideas and enthusiasm, they in a few months were able to create something worth years of work and organizing in lesser, older hands.

A group of people, mostly young ladies, created a festival of acoustic, classical/popular music with large use of seldom represented music, instruments, and very esoteric beautiful venues in Vicenza (old) downtown... the Palladian masterpiece buildings hosts, in these days, "Pino de Vittorio & Laboratorio '600" (voice and theorbo, lute and harp for traditional songs from Southern Italy) - plainly said, FANTASTIC,  and "Cantsilena" trio presenting oud, rabab, percussions and voice,  a truly wonderful mix of modal, Eastern music and instruments and italian traditional texts from both Northern and Southern Italy... all three musicians were superbly performing and very down-to-earth, spending a lot of time with people after the concert showing instruments, chatting and sharing impressions; music was strongly reminding to me the Rene Clemencic's troubadours recordings from early '70s on Harmonia Mundi... beautiful.

 

This evening will be "Piccola Bottega Baltazar", traditional songs from Veneto, Italy and tomorrow "Claudia Bombardella", legends, instruments and voices from the World.

I already know the next concerts will be - like the two above mentioned - surprising, enriching and something which will be carved in my soul and memory... I bet it.

Follow "L'Accademia degli Antichi" of FB, folks... it appears they will be a goldmine of new music and, believe me, they "know" the rare pleasure and importance of musicians meeting people after the concerts, which is something - as both Alessandra and Ilaria told me yesterday evening - something very, VERY sought after by ancient music and classical musicians, deeply lamenting the gap usually found between stage and audience... greatly missing meeting and sharing emotions with passionate people attending the event.

I agree the academic vs. real, everyday life relationship REALLY needs to be changed... like hand-clapping often doesn't express ALL the pleasure coming for music and performance... so - why not - hooray for: whistling, politely shouting, down to finger-snapping, perfect for small venues:-)))

Musicians need to meet people... to know if and what they liked, to transform "music" into "living music"... the looong years of studying - this way - make sense and give satisfaction after EVERY concert.

Furthermore, music and musicians and listeners GREATLY improve their bonding and relationship and music remains lively and fresh...

Let's turn off our TV-sets, folks... listening to music and concert going is the answer for better living:-)


Thanking Franco Pavan and Pino de Vittorio (also deeply thanking Franco and Bela Bartok for "The tree of chanting" definition,  Ilaria and Alessandra for beauty and cleverness, Peppe Frana for his oud suggestions and Paolo Rossetti and Alberto Ferraro for empathy.

ECM at Haus der Kunst in Munchen Nov. 23/25, 2012

Grand opening with Manfred Eicher on Thursday 22nd...

God bless ECM.

Vrooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

Yeah!

Giorgio Foschi - the italian reel-to-reel maverick

I knew him years ago... Giorgio is fond of recording and tapes and recorders and microphones since he wore short trousers... he became an accomplished technician, open-reel and studio gears his speciality.

Strange indeed he was also technical/maintenance assistant to the late Tomas Gallia at Angelicum in Milan, many years ago... and I learned it only recently.

Giorgio (and other friends) recently visited me for some music... we had a good time enjoying some first generation master-tapes on my Telefunken's M15A in Gotorama glorious sound...

Here is a groundshaking new, pals...

Giorgio is involved in a very, VERY esoteric project: producing 1:1 master-tapes for the discerning music, audio and open-reel lovers.

Yes, you read it... not analog master tapes to produce vinyls or disks...

1/4 inches, 15 i.p.s. CCIR eq. half-speed mastering master-dub tapes with an embedded quality/originality watermark... yes!!!

Amateur recording is increasingly difficult, these days: musicians are afraid to be hi-jacked, unpaid for their musicanship and art; for this reason many tape recorders owners and lovers only own one or two tapes to be used on their Revox, Nagra, Uher, Teac, Sony's... whatever:-)

The dubbing facility is a truly world-class studio... a dozen of carefully tested and aligned - a Giorgio's labour of love - Telefunken M15As are connected to a Studer A80 "mother tape reproducer" playing the master-tape... Syncro and... voila'.

OK, ok... also about 1,3 km (yes!) cables are used to connect the behemoth.

Hi-end dubbing is possible... without loosing quality after duplicating.

More infos will be available soon... including price-tags and titles available.

Giorgio Foschi (at right) - Milan, Sept. 2012

The recording samplers I recently heard are very, VERY nice...  music, recording and playing.

A braveheart project, indeed: I wish to Giorgio and his partners the VERY best!

A success that, considering class and energy involved in the project itself, these people deserve.

Silver

The silence is Gold, but music is Silver.

Yes, folks... after some days now using the Audio Consulting's 0,5 mm solid-core silver/white cotton speakers cable in Gotorama I know I'll never finish this crazy game, playing around and fiddling to further improve my audio system, again and again...

I mean that also minor changes like "only" swapping my previous old Siemens' "Klangfilm" multi-strand cables for Serge's silver cables brought to me a new level of resolution which is difficult for me to express in a someway "unfriendly" language like English - de facto - is.

... and I'm not talking about only of the a.m. speakers cables, as also the RCA's cables are used, now...

Nonetheless, I try... could be enough saying  I do not need to use other TacT's EQ pre-sets BUT the flattest Franz Hinterlehner and myself did, some months ago...

What does it means?

IMO, the AC's silver speakers and RCA signal cables work as a combo... I tried to use only for one or two Hiraga's amps, BUT the effect of smoothness and relaxed detailing, someway different from the previous detail I previously got, was only "here" with the whole combo in use.

Considering that also Mayer's line-stage, LCR phono-stage and crossover are COMPLETELY wired with silver cable... hmmm, that makes me think.

ALL cables are brand-new and still burning-in... the difference - vs. old cabling - is almost incredible, as every new listening-session (since I began using AC's cabling) is better than previous one...

This didn't happen so often... the previous cables were sure "equalizing", while the silver cables are flatter, more neutral and natural... less flashy, BUT much more ears and music friendly, yet incredibly dynamic and transparent, BUT not edgy.

In the recent past, after beginning using Thomas Mayer's 4-ways crossover, I noticed that the gain level was paramount for a given instrument or music and I was setting volume very, VERY carefully and properly, obtaining the most satisfactory result.

A sort-of new self-consciousness, I called it... the music and resolution - i.e. - recordings ambience and noises and instruments timbre and harmonic decay - are sublimely embedded to each other, like a whole.

I do NOT perceive or experience sounds AND music or recording AND ambience or imaging and soundstaging but as a whole, brand-new"thing", owning a sense of cohesiveness seldom, VERY seldom, heard, everywhere BUT during a live concert... best seats, I mean:-)

Now, about ten months after Thomas' masterpiece crossover entering Gotorama's, the Schmidlin's cables are one more ingredient to the final recipe... if Goto's are the premium "beef" and Mayer's crossover the olive wood for the "fire", the new silver cables represents the "salt".

The other ancillary gears, Garrardzilla, Schick's arm, Lumiere DST, Hiraga's Class A amps, etc. etc. are a nicely dressed table I take care of.

... and discs... master-tapes... disks...  Music?

What's it?

... maybe... a landscape we cannot stop watching, breatheless.




  

Dreaming...

... while music was flowing...

The Vinyl Bag

Elegant?

No... yet... it's THE record collector's bag:-)

The Endless Wait

Beloved Chicco spent hours and hours waiting for me or my wife... he was a Zen little, shiny dog... always meditating... lesser people was thinking he was sleeping... NO!

He was waiting for our next walk in the park, sniffing and looking around...

... endlessly.

... like endless is my love for him.

My NOVA tube radio

From the age there was only "radio" and not "tuner"...

Nicely sounding and classy, so smooth and round shaped, almost sexy.

...ahhh... those stations names...

Goodmans' oval speaker... cool!

Let's cut our own vinyls!

Indeed!

Musings

Lol!

:-)

Toyohiko and Miki Satoh's "Ayumi" on Carpe Diem and Linn's Master-Quality download

I love Satoh-san's lute playing since my boyhood... how couldn't I... he studied with (beloved) Eugen-Muller Dombois at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basle, Switzerland...

I was lucky enough to attend at three of his concerts, solo and ensemble playing, and also the honor to record him during a concert... I still cherish the open-reel master...

Here is his last recording, dueting with his daughter, Miki.

Mr. Satoh's playing has a clipped cool grandeur, and there were an electric tension and rhythmic spring to much of his work.' The New York Times

Toyohiko Satoh:

Toyohiko Satoh, born in 1943, is a Japanese lutenist and composer.

Satoh studied music history at Rikkyo University in Tokyo with Tatsuo Minagawa and guitar with Kazuhito Ohosawa. He gave his first guitar recital in the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert hall in 1965. He also began his studies of the lute while at Rikkyo.

In 1968, Satoh came to Europe; he studied lute with the pioneering lutenist Eugen Müller-Dombois at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland. Two years later, in 1970, he recorded the first LP devoted entirely to the solo Baroque lute. One of his recordings won the Edison Prize. He has been involved in over 50 ensemble recordings, with such artists as Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Elly Ameling.

Satoh has concertized throughout the world as soloist. His October, 1982 debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York was praised in the New York Times; the critic Tim Page praised his ‘intensity and sense of drama' and ‘electric tension and rhythmic spring'. He has also performed and recorded with many chamber ensembles, including the group Alba Musica Kyo, which he formed.

Satoh has also performed in a lute duo by the name of Ayumi, with his daughter Miki Satoh; they recorded a recital for Carpe Diem in 2010.

In 1973, he became a professor at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Holland, a position he held until 2004. He has also taught numerous master classes in Italy (Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena), Germany, the USA, Canada and Japan. As a teacher of the baroque lute, he has advocated the use of gut strings with no metal admixtures, and of historically accurate performance techniques. His 1987 book, ‘Method for the Baroque Lute' (Munich: Tree Editions) is widely used.

He has been actively composing, and performing and recording his compositions since 1981. In 2000 he became the president of LGS-Japan (Lute & Early Guitar Society of Japan) and LGS-Europe.

Miki Satoh:

Miki Satoh was born in 1989 in Voorburg, Holland. She started Lute-playing at the age of 9 and has since studied privately with her father, Toyohiko Satoh.

In 2002, she moved to Japan with her family and in December 2003, she played her first public concert in Japan with her parents. In January 2007, she had her debut recital on renaissance lute and in September 2007, she played the first of a series of duo concerts with her father on baroque lutes.

Besides playing lute, Miki is studying chemical science and engineering at Ariake National College of Technology, Japan, and devotes much of her time to traditional Japanese dance and archery.

She is a master of kyudo (Japanese archery), holding the third Dan.

I hope and trust my friend Reinhard will read this and DL the Master Quality FLAC for our next meeting:-)))

Musings?!?!

Nope!

Arabic-Mediterranean New Wave - Kamylia Jubran & Werner Hasler - Wanabni and more...

I love the crossroads, musical transversalities and stylistically and culturally multi-layered, "open" and undefined musical expressions...

... yesterday I began to listen to some music, like following an idea... first it was a disk I bough while in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia... Sonia M'Barek's "Tawchih", nice, NICE music from Tunisian master musicians with Sonia's beautiful voice, recorded live at the Centre de Musique Mediterranee, always in Sidi Bou Said, in those beautiful large rooms so full of life, history and class where once lived "Le Baron".

Arabic classic music, oud, violin, voice, doumbek or tar, nay flute... I sort-of prepared my soul and spirit.

Then, felt more confident and adventurous and handled Kamilya Jubran & Werner Hasler's "Wanabni" on Pure... recorded in Bern, Switzerland by Dave Muther on 10-15/8/2009 at Influx Studios... quoting this facts as the recording is very nice, indeed... serving so well the music, oud and oud electronic sampling, voice, trumpet and electronics...

On track 2 "Wana Rif" on a beautiful text by Aicha Arnaut music is both old and new as it can be... it's not jazz, or ethnic/world or classical... a New Arabic Wave, sung in Arab (texts are translated in liner notes in German and English, as well).

On track 3 "Lam" a growling oud and a superb, TRULY loooow bass are so well presented... really house and soul shaking stuff, folks... a  trumpet someway reminding Markus Stockhausen and, of course, Jon Hassell - who's also very, very deep into Eastern and Indian music idioms - is also well here, but all the disk flows slightly dark and sad in mood, BUT very happily as a musical/listening experience.

Cool.

I love this disk.

... and to end the evening, I shot myself with a weird vinyl, still more for the true daredevil:-)

"Bachir Attar with Elliott Sharp in New York" on Enemy Records from Munchen... it's Morocco and Manhattan... kif and speed, Guimbri and distorted electric guitar, bendir and voice... electronic and earth sounds...

Moroccan musician Bachir Attar is the leader of the phenomenal Master Musicians of Jajouka, a performing ensemble whose history extends back centuries, but which late Brian Jones made it known to the Western world, back in the late '60s.

It's - sometimes - a nightmare-hinting, claustrophobic disc... yet a deeply moving and seldom heard mix... it's like country mouse goes in town to meet city mouse...

No winners or loosers... their breathing and squitting is the same, yet the vocabulary is different, like the speed (a different breed from above mentioned one:-))

I recently listened to more interesting and promising contaminations... serpent (a rare, exotic dinosaur-like wind instrument from Middle Age and early Renaissance) and double bass (thanking Serge Schmidlin and Dirk Sommer for this) and solo theorbo playing (some kind of) jazz!

A pastiche?

No, not really... it's like music eats and digests itself and re-born brand new, unafraid of (human) labels and definitions... time and music... music and time... the most mysterious elements in our life.

Giuliano Vitton's esoteric potatoes!

Sublime quality potatoes from a small farm in Valle d'Aosta, old, ancient breeds from France, Peru... growing between 1500 and 2000 meters on sea level,  at the Italy/France border.

Super!

Street Art

A choice of spontaneous art - i.e. spraying, affiches, signals and assorted wall handicrafts...  shadows included, from my hometown, Tokyo, Nara, Venice and Ragusa Ibla... with a fond, lovingly posted pix of my Chicco (and dedicated wall script),  four months after he passed away.

... found in Venice: a paper gondola and gondoliers glued to an old wall, about 10 cm long... almost 3D!