Last September, at the invitation of the independent label Costello's Records, we participated as media partners in the creation of a beautiful (and necessary) exhibition at BASE Milan curated by the talented twenty-two-year-old Milanese artist Simone Matteuzzi entitled ELECTRIC – A thousand acrobatics in the space that surrounds us.
Two evenings in which the artist gave space to some of the peculiar characteristics of his repertoire: the relationship with instruments and music on the one hand, and that with words and poetics on the other.
In the first, which took place on 10 September, the Milanese cultural hub hosted four projects selected by the singer-songwriter in line with the themes and of undoubted quality – the FAZ Trio and Marco Scipione on the “instrumental music” front, and Vittoria Sciacca and Simone Famiglietti, on that of “songwriting”; in the second, on 11 September, a small musical masterpiece was staged: “Invito per Breakfast”, the debut album by Simone Matteuzziplayed live with an arrangement for string quartet entirely curated by the artist.
Today, three months after those days of absolute beauty, we are proud to premiere on our pages the video of the entire concert of the second evening, accompanied by the exciting story of the same Simone Matteuzziwhich we leave below.
Happy reading and happy viewing!
As often happens in life, what later turns out to be authentic and necessary arises in the beginning from a very unromantic, I would say practical, need.
Small premise: that this does not take away poetry or emotion from the story we are going to tell, as a great fatalist I actually believe that it adds it.
Last June, thanks to the work with Costello's Records and Simone Castello, the opportunity arose to organize a small event, a two-day event under my artistic direction from BASE Milano in the name of expressive freedom in music and words, free from any gender coherence or single direction.
I remember a summer breakfast with Simo (editor's note: Simone Castello from Costello's), in which we began to give shape to everything: the event would be called: “ELETTRICO – A thousand acrobatics in the space that surrounds us”, title and subtitle extrapolated from the second piece of the my debut album: “Invito per Breakfast” and it would be performed at BASE on 10 and 11 September.
In the first evening I would have left space on the stage to four projects worthy of attention selected by me, swaying between instrumental impressions with experimental courage (Marco Scipione and FAZ) and innovative and sincere songwriting pens (Simone Famiglietti and Vittoria Sciacca).
For the second evening the initial idea was that of my concert, my usual band set: synthesizers, vocals, bass and drums.
Unfortunately, or fortunately I would say in retrospect, this option was not contemplatable as the same concert would have been staged in the same venue shortly afterwards on the occasion of Linecheck, music meeting and Festival.
I remember Simone looking at me and saying: “If I didn't do exactly the same concert, maybe it could even be done, maybe with a different formation… I don't know, like with a string quartet…”.
Idea thrown away there. As was said before, not due to who knows what creative leap on the part of the two Simoni loose in a provincial bar, but for a practical need.
Ok I thought, this is a good challenge.
For those who don't know my project, I invite you to listen to my debut album to make you aware of the fact that rearranging that material, so twisted, electronic or as we say in jargon “spippolato” for string quartet and voice is not a It's an easy task, it's a challenge indeed.
Luckily for me, I really like challenges: I like to throw myself out of the bubble, out of the comfort zone, to make myself uncomfortable, to question, to be in crisis, at least musically speaking.
I remind you that we were in June, and so my summer began: instead of umbrellas, a computer and musical notation software, instead of the sea, “La mer” and the string quartet
op. 10 by Claude Debussy, instead of fresh and fruity drinks, some packaged ice cream in the breaks between one arrangement, one idea and another.
On the morning of the August bank holiday, I celebrated the end of the arrangement of the last song for the concert.
What seemed to me to be a challenge beyond my technical, theoretical, musical reach, seemed to begin to exist or to be able to timidly idealize doing so, I say this because there is
a big difference between what came out of the speakers of my computer on mid-August and how that thing would have been brought back into reality by a string quartet in flesh and blood, or should I say in wood and horsehair.
I could spend rivers of ink telling you about the emotion, joy and personal satisfaction I felt the first time I heard those arrangements performed and working.
I could spend as much to create the sea that I saw very little of last summer in telling you about the emotion of the evening in which all this took place, but perhaps I would take away the pleasure of discovering it for yourself.
Thanks to a wonderful, completely independent team effort, we managed to edit the most intense moments of that evening into a video.
In conclusion, before leaving you to listen and watch, I feel like adding just one thing: for me it was yet another encounter with Music.
It may seem trivial, but it sometimes happens that, in our ten-year relationship, one of us gets lost along the way or plays pranks on the other.
Then situations like this concert happen in which we find ourselves in emotion, in fun, in play and then it emerges clearly how much I am in love with music, truly in love, and there is nothing more beautiful.
If you have an idea in your drawer, make it happen!
This concert seemed to me something impossible, beyond my possibilities, how nice to be proven wrong, to change your mind, to grow!
Thanks:
BASE Milan.
The wonderful string quartet: Violin I: Margherita Pelanda, Violin II: Rosita Tristano, Viola: Giulia Sandoli, Cello: Sofia Volpiana.
The excellent presenters of the evening: Philip Grasselli of Rockon and Benedetta Fedel of Musichetta Benedetta.
Video shooting and editing: Camilla Matteuzzi
Sound Engineer and audio recording: Giuseppe Messineo
Mix and Master: Daniele Spatara
Production, organization and management: Simone Castello
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
