Monday, March 21, 2016

2016 - The FOUNDLAND interview with Alessandro Monti

photo: Luciano Fiori

http://foundland.us/archives/1681

(english translation)

1) What is the relationship between you and Masin & Pizzin; for example, from the viewpoint of each role and talent in studio (active or brain.) job / life / influence / respection etc.

Well, I think we originally started to work on new material for a follow up to 'Wind', the first GM album and we rehearsed some songs at home together as a duo before going to Bunker studio; the early sessions were released on his Sub Rosa Lp: we did not play as a trio but I remember we helped during recordings. Then we started quickly to develop a group project trying to catch a collective feeling, listening to each other as much as possible. We also wished to capture free improvisations on tape: some of those free moments are well documented on this new double edition. We didn't give credit to Alessandro Pizzin on the original vinyl version because of some misunderstanding about publishing/management at the time, but we decided that the new remaster should be credited to all 3 members of the group and produced by all 3 labels. Alessandro Pizzin's role as producer and arranger was crucial and he added brilliant ideas on every track: I knew him since high school, he was one of the few students who owned different records and we recorded together before The Wind Collector with previous bands. He's an amazing archivist and he kept all the original reference cassettes so he was the right person to compile the 2nd cd of unreleased music on this limited edition. Gigi was popular among music lovers for his radio shows and we decided to play together after a fantastic concert by Oregon in Padua. We all had different jobs and never went pro, but I remember that Alessandro was seriously working as a full-time producer in the same studio with different bands and musicians. Our musical influences were too many, we were all music fans: we loved jazz, electronic music, experimental, contemporary classical, early music, folk, new wave, krautrock, 80's dance and soul: I think that all those styles are somehow reflected in our work; the lyrics on "Almanac" for example were inspired by my favourite folk-prog bands (Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band and Art Bears) and placed totally out of context; I decided to follow that road years after with my Unfolk Collective. We included a selected discography in the booklet of the remaster to show the different directions the trio took after The Wind Collector.
2) Why the 'Wind project' ended in 1991?

For too many reasons and all kinds of issues... I remember I was disillusioned with the Italian scene and I went to the States in 1992 to produce Caveman Shoestore's first cd, a prog/grunge band: it was a financial disaster... last but not least we decided to release The Wind Collector on vinyl only while people was beginning to look for cds, not a good move in retrospect... but we couldn't afford to release both formats. I produced 1000 copies of the vinyl edition but cds were too expensive at the time. It was also a matter of bad luck: some distributors went bankrupt and returned boxes of records, there was no interest and we received no ecouragement for our music. So I stayed away from music for some years, because of personal and health problems and started my Unfolk project.
3) What's the meaning of 'Wind Collector' ?
The meaning of the title is obscure even to us... but in the process of listening to all the unreleased material, I discovered a rehearsal we did of a beautiful Terry Riley's tune: on the same T.R. album there was a song called "Dream Collector" or something... I remember it clicked and it sounded ok for a free improvisation. Later on we decided to call the entire album with that 'Wind' reference...I suppose you could find different meanings behind that title.
4) Gigi said that 'Wind' means 'Change'.

Well, it's a rather strange way to translate that word (even if change is always good in music and life in general), but for me it means 'sound'... I've always thought that Gigi's drawings were the actual score to help decoding sounds coming from a parallel inner universe. Today I got mixed feelings about the music on The Wind Collector: frankly I never felt it to be so special although there were some interesting moments... but history proved I was wrong. Sometimes musicians prefer to look onwards without going back too much. After selling the last copies of the original Lp last year, we had many requests for a cd reissue... and I must admit that this compact disc version has finally the best sound available with a complete collection of unreleased stuff.

Friday, March 11, 2016

2016 - "BLOW-UP" MAGAZINE REVIEW (Christian Zingales)



































“ (...) Attesa ristampa della jam veneziana targata 1991, perfetta di secondo CD extra. Con i tre cavalieri atmosferici a dividersi tra tastiere, piano, voci, l’eventuale basse e chitarra elettrica, “The wind Collector” è un viaggio che si apre negli stridenti, celestiali alti di campane in risonanza di ‘Satellite’, e subito lacrima nella classica ‘Stella Maris’ su paterne scansioni basse, sparsi fraseggi di piano, prospettive, in un moto emotivo che esonda nel raggelante ‘Ghosts’, la voce di Monti con i suoi occhi fissi nella caduta del tempo, tutto un disincanto di armonie attorno. ‘She Wears Shades’ stacca, Masin su corde di cetra, luminose panoramiche etniche, ‘Kingfish’ è un bordone minimalistico, ‘Almanac’ è un’altra song sospesa su una moviola wavey, ‘Blue Weaver’ una partitura per piano, acqua e cucù, ‘Wind Collector’, lanciata su organo, accumula e dispere tensioni, in ‘Snake Theory’, ‘Valentine’ e ‘Random Security’ è Gigi a cantare distanze.
Il secondo CD “As Witness Our Hands” è basato su materiale d’archivio, tracce sparse e versioni, tra le iridiscenze fioriture e cristalline note di piano dell’ormai mitologica ‘Clouds’ (campionata ai tempi dai To Rococo Rot e da qui da Bjork e tanti altri), e poi le trame dissonanti e noisey di 'Improvisation 1' e 'No Mistake', la sceneggiatura gabbiani tremolo e drama di ‘Swallows’ Tempest’, una out-song in equilibrio sul vuoto come la strepitosa ‘The Letter’, due brillanti interpretazioni di un pezzo strumentale e una canzone, rispettivamente ‘Medusa’s Refrain’ di Terry Riley e ‘Know’ di Nick Drake, a individuare due perfetti tumi tutelari del viaggio che culmina nel baluginio investigativo de ‘La Luna’ … ”
— Christian Zingales

Sunday, February 28, 2016

1989 - RANDOM SECURITY (unreleased working session)



... something extremely rare from the original
WIND COLLECTOR recording sessions archive 

GIGI MASIN - piano, vocals
ALESSANDRO PIZZIN - keyboards and noises
ALESSANDRO MONTI - bass guitar
very very rare live session in studio recorded while
working on the arrangements of this song still without
what will be the definitive lyrics
recorded Summer 1989
at Bunker Studio (Padova)

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

2016 - THE WIND COLLECTOR / AS WITNESS OUR HANDS (Othermusic review)
























“The last couple of years have seen an explosion of interest in the music that the Italian composer Gigi Masin and his compatriots Alessandro Pizzin and Alessandro Monti were quietly making in Northern Italy in the late '80s and early '90s -- first with Music from Memory's fantastic Masin career retrospective, Talk to the Sea (which made our end of year best list in 2014), and last year's reissue of his impossibly rare ambient debut, Wind. This latest two-CD venture combines my favorite record of his, The Wind Collector, with an additional album's worth of studio demos, rehearsals, ambient sketches, and even covers of songs from the unlikely pairing of Terry Riley and Nick Drake(!). At times wholly ambient, at others led by melodic piano lines, the songs will even occasionally combine ambient soundscapes with the kind of low-key, late-night introspective tune you find on peak John Martyn albums. I don't know if it's a case of synesthesia or what, but it's remarkable how adept these guys are at conjuring the mysterious light of Northern Italy in song. Think of the chiaroscuro of Caravaggio (also from Northern Italy), and it's basically what this music sounds like: a warm, enveloping glow emanating from darkness.” 

(February 18, 2016)
Reviewed by Michael Klausman


2016 - SOUNDCLOUD page

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