A "poly-autobiographical" musical combinatory poem inspired by the life stories of a group of musicians whose testimonies Alessandro Bosetti has collected, exploring the shifting and multiple dimension of identities through voice expression, between electro-acoustic research, jazz and experimental opera.
In September 2019 Alessandro Bosetti was invited by fellow composer and curator Riccardo La Foresta to create a new work for a newly created ensemble as part of a residency program hosted by Centro Musica in Modena, Italy.
The very first encounter took place on Skype – kind of a prediction of the forthcoming physically distanced pandemic times. The first, straight-to-the-point question Bosetti posed to each musician was to tell him the history of their life.
The materials collected in the interviews subsequently underwent a process of anonymization, selection and cut-up in order to create the imaginary autobiography of Didone, a genderless character on whom Bosetti composed a combinatory poem in 84 aphorisms, six of which have been translated into music.
The ensemble consists of extremely different musical profiles: the contemporary soprano Giulia Zaniboni, minimalist banjo and acoustic guitar player Glauco Salvo, and four musicians with a jazz background such as guitarist
Luca Perciballi, drummers Andrea Grillini and Simone Sferruzza, and saxophonist Dan Kinzelman (also part of Hobby Horse trio and long-time collaborator of Enrico Rava). Some of the stylistic features of Bosetti's project Trophies (along with Kenta Nagai and Tony Buck) can be detected here and there. Persistent repetitions, mesmerizing sonic masses and extended, oblique melodic lines are here led by the clear and precise voice of soprano Giulia Zaniboni.
The voice is at the heart of this work: the textual fragments of the autobiographies are filtered through Zaniboni's contemporary vocality, while informing the instrumental writing as well. Themes and textures unveil traces of words or sentences; fragments of biographies are embedded in the intricate instrumental dialogue between the two drummers.
A final layer was added by Ettore Tripodi, a unique and out-of-time visual artist who imagined Didone in a series of illustrations accompanying the poem.
Didone is a work about the reconfiguration and recombination of identities, where every specific sense of belonging melts into an indistinct swarming of possibilities.
With Giulia Zaniboni (voice), Dan Kinzelman (tenor saxophone, flute),
Luca Perciballi (electric and acoustic guitar), Glauco Salvo (electric guitar, banjo), Simone Sferruzza (drums), Andrea Grillini (drums).
Recorded at Centro Musica, Modena between 18th and 22nd September 2019, under the residency program "Autobiografie strumentali" hosted by Centro Musica – Comune di Modena and funded by Legge 2/18 Regione Emilia-Romagna – Progetto Sonda.
Alessandro Bosetti (born 1973 in Milan, lives and works in Marseille) is a composer and sound artist who focuses is in the fringe area between spoken language and music, working on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication, producing text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. In his work he moves across the line between sound anthropology and composition, often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Field research and interviews build the basis for abstract compositions, along with electro-acoustic and acoustic collages, relational strategies, trained and untrained instrumental practices, vocal explorations and digital manipulations.
Bosetti created a series of highly compelling sound works where
relational aesthetics meets innovative composition and published more than a dozen of cd's of his own music along with countless other collaborations. Since 2000 he has been a key Ars Acustica figure, and created a vast body of electro acoustic and text sound works for institutions as WDR Studio Akustische Kunst, DeutschlandRadio and GRM among many other . Pieces like
Il Fiore della Bocca (Rossbin/DLR 2005)—a work on the vocality of the mentally and physically impaired— and
African Feedback—a collaborative scrutiny on experimental music in West Africa—(
Errant Bodies Press, 2004) have received wide recognition and are considered classic contributions to the genre. Alessandro Bosetti is an emotional performer that has consistently toured in Europe, Asia and the United States as a soloist, leading his speech ensemble Trophies with
Tony Buck and Kenta Nagai and in collaborations with fellow vocal performers as Jennifer Walshe and Tomomi Adachi and with pianist
Chris Abrahams.
