the harp
I met the celtic harp almost twenty five years ago…quite late for an academic approach.
As a musician I was used to play the piano since I was five.
As soon as I got close to the celtic culture I discovered this instrument which is its bearer.
And it’s been love at first sight.
By instinct I turned my hands and started to play it taking advantage of my previous piano studies, probably in a very unconventional and makeshift way, but developing my own distinctive style.
In the following years I found the need to own an instrument fitting at best my playing technique and matching “a sound” that was very clear in my head.
I asked Paolo Canetta, a gifted luthier even more unconventional than me, to stop making amazing electric guitars and basses and spend his time to work on creating Atlas, the electric harp that I play for many years and that became the vessel of my music.
speak
SPEAK is a journey during which the sound of my harp and the human voice talk to each other surrounded by a blend of ethnic and electronic soundscapes.
Choosing which “kind of voice” has been nothing but a matter of finding something intriguing to deal with:
●
radio communications between airplanes and control towers
●
a lullaby whispered to elephants by and old Thai woman
●
a passionate speak by Leonardo di Caprio to save our ecosystem
●
a beautiful poetry by Pablo Neruda recited by a young Spanish student whose voice is so fragile and gentle to became one with the words of that poetry.
●
The Konnakol chant which is based on the rhythmic divisions of indian percussionists
●
…and many more.
38chordae
Thirty eight is the sum of the thirty six strings of my harp and the two vocal cords of Laura Valente, singer and musician, which I met a few years ago led by a strange sort of serendipity.
We spent time in discovering and experiencing each other through music.
As soon as we found we were on the same wavelength we decided to share our favourite songs reshaping and giving them our personal soundprint.
Soon we found ourselves surrounded by paper sheets filled with ideas, words and music that we decided to share at first with our closest friends and then, encouraged by them, to bring this songs to a larger audience.
