GIOVANNI DI DOMENICO / RUTGER ZUYDERVELT –
PAINT A PICTURE – PICTURE A PAINTING
Giovanni Di Domenico and Rutger Zuydervelt first met in 2019 for a short live improv set. Later, in 2022, Di Domenico also performed live with the Hydra Ensemble. As things go, the two decided to work on a collaboration project
Paint A Picture – Picture A Painting are the titles of the two tracks on this album. With their relatively short length (13:10 and 17:46) they are perfectly fitted for a vinyl release (there is no CD version this time).
On the first track, Zuydervelt reacts to Di Domenico’s improvised piano. On the second, it’s the other way around but also a continuation: Rutger manipulates sounds from the first piece, laying the foundation for Giovanni to improvise over.
With some 225 releases as Machinefabriek and 70+ under his own name, I’ll simply skip the introduction and assume his work is familiar. It shóuld be, anyway!
Giovanni Di Domenico is also quite a prolific artist himself: his discography also boasts no less than 70 albums released since 2010. By far, most of them are collaboration projects or appearances in groups: he has previously worked with artists like Arve Henriksen, Nate Wooley, Jim O’Rourke, Okkyung Lee, Toshimaru Nakamura – and many others.
Both artists are eager to experiment, cross borders, and defy expectations. But without their music becoming incomprehensible elitist ‘avant-garde’.
The album (vinyl and digital) will be released on June 13 but can already be pre-ordered. During the pre-order period, a t-shirt with a stripped-down version of Christiaan Kuitwaard‘s cover art is also available.
HARA ALONSO – TOUCH ME NOT
Hara Alonso is a pianist, composer, and sound artist born in Spain, but currently based in Stockholm. ‘Pianist’ doesn’t really cover her work:
“In the last years she has expanded the timbral and performative possibilities of the piano through extended techniques, somatic practices and signal processing. Her sonic universe, described as a ‘gloomy bubbling electronic power ambient’, navigates between granular landscapes, minimal beats and hypnotic layers with a strong micro lyrical presence.”
The music on Touch Me Not is inspired by Emanuel Swedenburg‘s concept of ‘correspondence’ (‘the events of the sensual world as a proof of the spiritual world’) and Baudelaire’s poem Correspondances, “in which the senses are confused, immersed in a synaesthetic hallucination”.
Hara Alonso crafts her music with a focus on this concept of synaesthesia, taking us “on a walk not far away from the path Baudelaire strolled, through meadows, symbols, light and perfumes, entering a dimension of inverted senses”. She does so with the help of Ryan Packard (percussion), Ville Bromander (double bass) and Ellen Söderhult (voice). The music is perfectly mastered by Stephan Mathieu.
Touch Me Not is available on vinyl and as a digital download.