Profondo is a piece which aims to depict the profound connection between men and the oceans, in solemnity and contemplation.
What’s your connection with nature?
My connection with nature is firstly a connection to the sea. I was raised in Crotone, a city on the Ionian Sea, then to studying and working I had to move to more industrialized cities of the North, northern and northern. Almost a year ago I started my descent to my homeland, because my body was trying to tell me that I missed the sea and the mild mediterranean climate. I realized that I always felt a little bit affected by city life, although it was always fun and culturally exciting. But the recent general situation has awakened bucolic dreams in me, as in many I know as well.
How does your music connect with nature?
Music is in general first of all sound. I think of sound as a physical object in space, in which, through air, it’s able to create a language, as the most recent science is showing. On the human brain is the only type of art that is able to connect directly with our affective sphere, beyond
mind and language, it connects with the emotions. An experience that could be compared to the direct contact with nature. Music has always been with men. Humans seem to be born to have infinite songs and stories to sing. For me personally music is a way we try to connect with
something higher, or sublimate, which is in first place a prerogative of poetry. This way music becomes a way to discover the soul, through a spiritual bond with mother earth. Honesty in music means then more than style, genre or rank. Because by being a journey to the soul, it’ll
be a tool for liberation. I actually believe that music, especially if courageous and free, could have a massive impact in making people more sensitive to the problem of taking care of oneself environment.
Which is the most powerful sound have you ever heard in nature?
Earthquake, when I was a child, but because of the low frequencies I felt it more than heard it. Waterfalls in Dorrigo Forest. And the windy ocean in Australia.
What has been your approach when preparing the theme? Have you discovered something that caught your attention in this process?
I first listened carefully to each field recording. I spent a long time by listening them in detail, it was very pleasant and made me feel connected. There’s something really deep in the voice of the whales. Apparently the sounds they make essential for the balance of the entire planet… To me, it sounds like they carry a message. So the Sperm Whales sounds were the ones to first catch my attention. I created samples that I made run through midi arpeggiators and delays, they are quite percussive and short sounds, so the mechanical effect was oriented to create a rhythmic that sounds really organic, almost like watery. I used most of the recordings and just a few synthsizers to underline with pathos some natural movements. The field recordings of the landascape, like the ice breaking, has been drastically effected to become deep and enveloping.
I imagine the Polar soundscape deep and mysterious, also very sharp, but slow, because of cold and surrounded by silence, but rich and new at the same time. I didn’t find any part of the process difficult, even to begin, which often requires an effort, was very smooth and natural. I for istance immediately understood that I wanted to keep the original sounds instead of creating a proper piece of music. Because these sounds eventually represent the real meaning of music, life in frequencies.
How does this topic relate to the context of your career?
As I said already, a few months ago my return to the sea has started. Because I felt the call, that I belonged to something and could never be happy away from that. It’s a feeling that all people who grew up by the sea can understand. The sound of waves, which calms you and the absence of which makes you sleepless, the feeling of the moisturized air, the lack of which, after a while, makes you sick. To understand all of this was a process for me, because for a long time, other priorities, which in reality were more futile have ruled my life. I feel privileged to be part of this project, it has a profound meaning to me really and I stand for the safeguard of the sea.
