Andrea Guzzoletti – Invisible Cities, the music project that has been gradually evolving for the past three years finally moves into its finished state as this morning it was released to the public on line on itunes and Amazon and will be available in record shops later on this month.
The record is dedicated to the memory of the great musician Hector Zazou who tragically passed away in September 2008, and will contain a previously unreleased live track which gives us further valuable insight by way of a performance by Andrea Guzzoletti on stage together with his friend Hector Zazou.
In July for the art event THE CUBE in Piazza Angelio it was possible to hear some of the music written for Invisible Cities but now for the first time it is possible to hear the complete cycle of music composed by Andrea.
In questi giorni sta uscendo sui principali portali il mio disco “Invisible Cities” in formato digitale, e per la fine di settembre inizi di ottobre sarà in distribuzione fisica anche nei negozi di dischi. Il disco Invisible Cities nasce come lavoro legato alla lettura del libro “Le Città Invisibili” di Italo Calvino, come nel libro si tratta di un viaggio spesso mentale attraverso città che non hanno riscontro nella realtà. – Andrea Guzzoletti
The artist Keane has also been involved in this project during the 2009 and 2010. He has been listening to the music that Andrea has been producing right from the start of this project and has been producing images based on what he could hear. Leaving aside his normal medium of canvas and paints, he has been producing a series of black and white monoprints. – more images here
The book Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. It is framed as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, who constantly has merchants coming to describe the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo. The majority of the book consists of brief prose poems describing 55 cities, apparently narrated by Polo. Short dialogues between the two characters are interspersed every five to ten cities and are used to discuss various ideas presented by the cities on a wide range of topics including linguistics and human nature.
Not only is the book structured around an interlocking pattern of numbered sections, but the length of each section’s title graphically outlines a continuously oscillating sine wave, or perhaps a city skyline. The interludes between Khan and Polo are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device, a story with a story, that plays with the natural complexity of language and stories.
Just like the book, the disc is a metaphysical voyage where the predominant themes are the dual nature of language and communication, closed versus open environments, movement and stasis – in the sense of actual physical movement as opposed to mental ‘travel’.
The trumpet is both traveller and listener; but this role is also exchanged with and between the other instruments: Piano and Guitar. As with the novel, the objective is to create order from a multitude of sounds and colours often in contrast with one another, in fact in this work there appear to be no precise structures but a particular attention which encompasses everything from the minute detail to ensemble visions; but always looking where others cannot see, towards that which appears invisible to them. The work consists of a total of 9 tracks composed and arranged by Andrea Guzzoletti, featuring important contributions from two other elements who, as well as being close friends, are also superb musicians : Roberto Cecchetto and Stefano Onorati
A quick jump back in time to April 2009 at the Barga Jazz Club where he performed with Roberto Cecchetto – chitarra | Stefano Onorati – pianoforte | Walter Paoli – batteria |… this can be seen here
Click on the link below to hear an interview with Andrea recorded in the barganews offfice back in May 2009 (in Italiano)
Spero che qualcuno se lo compri anche questo disco, in ogni caso ringrazio Keane per lo spazio che ogni volta mi concede ma soprattutto per aver seguito il lavoro dall’inizio aiutandomi in tante cose, e per le grafiche di copertine che raffigurano dei lavori fatti da lui ascoltando i miei brani, per chi lo volesse comprare in formato digitale questo è il link dell’ iTunes store http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/underground-city… per chi vuole il disco dovrà aspettare fine mese inizi di ottobre e lo troverà nei negozi. Grazie a tutti