'The dominion of light', the call to the arts of Rodrigo d'Erasmo and Roberto Angelini

Rodrigo d'Erasmo presents readers of Rolling Stone His new musical-literary project with Roberto Angelini. The dominion of lightwhich will come out tomorrow, is an instrumental music album accompanied by a book with the paintings of Gianluigi Toccafdo, of which you find below two beautiful reproductions, and the writings focused on the concept of light in these dark times signed by musicians, journalists, artists, philosophers, writers, directors, actors, from Francesca Mannocchi to Filippo Timi passing through Vasco Brondi and Chiara Gamber. At the bottom of the article, in preview, the video of The eternal present.

The dominion of light It was born during the week of a Sanremo Festival of a couple of years ago when, not being involved in first person or Io or I Roberto Angelini, we decided to try to close ourselves in the studio in Milan and record all the material we had accumulated during our many tour and records together in our years.

The years of work and in -depth research on the music of the beloved Nick Drake, of which we are both big fans, have meant that Roberto and I, in some way, focused on a rather peculiar sound, unique in its kind I would say.

Also thanks to this historical period in which instrumental music is finally finding its dignity, not only in the classic or neoclassical field, but also pop and rock, we said that perhaps the time had come to carve out our space within this scene, being able to count on a sound in our opinion very recognizable and that tells a lot of our roots, not only geographical but also musical.

The result is an instrumental music album thought how it was the soundtrack of a movie that does not exist, of an imaginary film, of a film that people who want to listen to and go down on this journey will be able to write and shoot in their heads.

Peri. Illustration of Gianluigi Toccafondo, gives 'The dominion of light'

Roberto and I made a sort of call to the arts to compose this work, since it is not only a record, but also a book. We asked many authors and authors, friends and new collaborators, to try to share a reflection on the concept of light to try to contrast these dark times by taking a small responsibility from people who, thanks to creativity, bring somehow, each within themselves, a light.

It is not from everyone, it is a privilege, certainly a gift from a certain point of observation, but it is also, in my opinion, a responsibility. To give this light and try to help others illuminate the path when it is complex and dark, as happens more and more often in this period from a geopolitical and cultural point of view.

This call to the arts has now produced The dominion of lightbut it's a sort of Open Source Projected in tomorrow and as such remains open, precisely. The work will be published on April 25, but it will be nice to continue to share it with the people who want to accompany us as listeners, readers and protagonists of this adventure. Why not?

Among our intentions there is in fact to make the foundations available, as our Urban colleagues already do very well that share the beat so that anyone can freely write about the bars above or open tracks and share them so that they can be remixed.

Here, the same thing applies to these songs: anyone who wants to try to write us something, as the authors we have involved, or want to add words, a melody, a text to these music, or make a video, make a film using them as a soundtrack, feel free to do it. As Filippo Timi said, one of the authors involved, he has not just heard the music: “This must absolutely be the soundtrack of my next film, when I will do it”.

Vertical caminite. Illustration of Gianluigi Toccafondo, gives 'The dominion of light'

It is the spirit that we like about the project, which was born with this first chapter and that already has a second in the processing.

We hope that this somewhat magical object can animate other people who will want to devote some time to a more complex work to grasp with respect to a classic album, but I hope for this equally stimulating and also fun to approach. Because this music can be heard while reading the book inspired by it, made up of many small contributions, from poems to small essays, short stories, a little of everything even from the point of view of the literary form.

But you can also enter the magnificent world of the images of Gianluigi Toccafdo, who gave us the gift to paint this story with his visions, giving an expressive force further to our work and suggesting many new possible worlds that combine the book stories with the song songs.
In short, have fun, get excited and do as much light as possible.
Happy listening, vision, reading.