Stefano Pilia is a guitar player and electro-acoustic composer based in Bologna. His work has become progressively concerned with researching the sculptural properties of sound as well as its relationship with space, memory and the suspension of time. His sound can aptly be defined ‘ecstatic’, in the purest sense of the term. His output has been released by Sedimental, Die Schachtel, Blue Chopsticks, Time-Lag, Last Visible Dog, Presto!?, Soave, Improved Sequence. Pilia is one of the founding members (alongside Valerio Tricoli and Claudio Rocchetti) of 3/4HadBeenEliminated, he has played with ZU, he’s a member of psychedelic quartet In Zaire and has been a focal contributor to the BGP trio, alongside David Grubbs and Andrea Belfi. Since 2009, he has been a member of Il Sogno del Marinaio, a trio made up of legendary Minutemen bassist Mike Watt and the drummer Paolo Mongardi. As well as these projects, he is lead guitarist for celebrated Malian singer Rokia Traorè and for the band Afterhours.
https://stefanopilia.bandcamp.com/
Valerio Tricoli is an Italian composer and performer of electro-acoustic music, born in Palermo and currently residing in Munich. Since the mid ’00 his main instruments for live presentations is the Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder, used as a completely analogue, ergonomic device for live sampling and real-time transformation, editing and mixing of pre-recorded (field or studio recordings) and made-on-the-spot sound sources. On a formal level his sets focus on the impromptu creation of a narrative which takes into account the multiple relations intervening between reality, virtuality and memory during the acoustic event: sounds are always hovering between the ‘here and now’ of the concert situation and the shady domain of memory, distant but at the same time present like in a deja-vu experience.
Cantor Park by Stefano Pilia and Valerio Tricoli, Improved Sequence, 2023
Cantor Park (IMP079) | Stefano Pilia & Valerio Tricoli | Improved Sequence (bandcamp.com)
*Pre-Order* ships March 2023
300 copies, 75 on LTD ED Blue Vinyl.
Sometimes records just vibrate with a magical aura propagating endless energy and timeless positionment. Stefano Pilia & Valerio Tricoli have been maestros in their respective careers when it comes to dancing between modern concrete, unimagined landscapes and electroacoustic experiments slowly creating and almost hand-sculpting two of the most singular paths in the European avant garde scene.
After their long tenure in experimental collective 3/4HadBeenEliminated (Häpna, Die Schachtel, Black Truffle) the two musicians reunited for ‘Cantor Park’ a new voyage that heightens their previous experience of instrumental improvisation, electroacoustic techniques and contemporary psychedelia. Inspired by the work of German mathematician Georg Cantor and his theorization of the infinite, the album was recorded for the influential Bologna cultural organization Xing during the second pandemic lockdown with an unusual setting: Pilia playing live with his collection of modulars and guitars and reacting to Tricoli’s revox tape machine dense manipulations. The material then moved from Bologna to Munich where Tricoli’s electronic processing completed the haunting sonic map. One of their most spontaneous pieces of work ‘Cantor Park’ travels through different infinities painting visceral and elegiac possibilities that perfectly match Pilia’s constant search for spiritual romantic and Tricoli’s austere meditations. Worlds falling into other worlds, frame narratives that open new dialogues and anticipate different perspectives, an amusement park where the sacred doors are always open: Cantor Park.
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