Caroline Kraabel e Steve Beresford sono tra gli intervistati da Guilherme Peluci per la sua bella serie Conducted Improvisation Talks condotta da remoto nel periodo della prima ondata di Covid: ventiquattro episodi, tutti su YT.

Conducted Improvisation Talks is a series of interviews made by Guilherme Peluci in the beginning of the world lockdown in early 2020. Talking with conductors from different countries, it addresses history, techniques, systems, spiritual and social aspects of many practices of Conducted Improvisation.

Conducted Improvisation can be seen as a set of collective (group) improvisation practices where a conductor/director/prompter gives cues, either by signs, gestures, text or images, with the intent of creating music/art/performance in real time. Practices such as Conduction, Soundpainting and Rhythm with Signs, are some of the examples included in a much larger group of innovative practices.

https://www.youtube.com/GuilhermePeluci/videos

 

Altri preziosi inediti provenienti dalla vivacissima scena del jazz britannico degli anni Settanta riguardano il quartetto fondato da Henry Lowther e Phil Lee assieme a Dave Green e Trevor Tomkins, Henry Lowther's Quaternity, all'epoca piuttosto attivo in concerto ma rimasto privo di documentazione discografica. A ripescare alcuni estratti da loro concerti londinesi tra il 1974 e il 1978, cui presero parte alternativamente anche Art Themen e Alan Wakeman, provvede Jazz in Britain compenendo il doppio cd Never Never Land: "I think the music on this album comes over as a perfect picture of those times from the 1970s onwards - commenta Lowther - and it certainly goes to somewhat fill in some of the many gaps that exist in the history of British jazz."

https://jazzinbritain.co.uk/album/never-never-land

British Progressive Jazz offre a tutti un breve riassunto delle proprie recenti pubblicazioni - preziosi inediti d'archivio con protagonisti Keith Tippett, Graham Collier, Don Rendell e Michael Garrick tra gli altri  - lanciando per chi vuole un servizio di sottoscrizione su base mensile o annuale per ottenere materiali in aggiunta o in anticipo rispetto alle future iniziative: Sampler #1.

https://britishprogressivejazz.com/album/sampler-1

 

Le travagliate esperienze maturate tra casa e lavoro in tempo di Covid da Billie Bottle stanno per sfociare nel primo album con il quartetto Temple of Shibboleth costituito assieme a Viv Goodwin-Darke, Roz Harding e Anna Batson. Sarà pronto agli inizi del prossimo anno, ma si può aiutarne la realizzazione già ora.

https://www.billiebottle.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/BillieBottle
https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/billiebottletemple
https://www.youtube.com/c/BillieBottle/videos

 

Un'ora con Mike Westbrook al pianoforte, un recital solitario presentato come The Piano and Me anche in altre recenti occasioni, qui introdotto da una breve conversazione con Marcus Vergette: i più fortunati potranno goderne di persona recandosi stasera nella magnifica sede del Dartington Trust, istituto educativo e artistico appena fuori Totnes, nel sud del Devon. Altri da casa lo potranno almeno un po' immaginare, aiutandosi con Piano, Paris e Starcross Bridge...

https://www.dartington.org/event/mike-westbrook

 

A conclusione di un nuovo ciclo di iniziative dell'attivissima In Situ Art Society a Bonn (Germania) - The Dissonant Series - oggi è il turno di Phil Minton che in assenza di Veryan Weston si propone in trio con John Butcher e Roger Turner. Il concerto si tiene negli spazi artistici e culturali della Kreuzung an St. Helena e viene trasmesso in diretta streaming su YT a partire dalle ore 20.00.

https://tinyurl.com/bddb5esz
https://www.youtube.com/In-Situ-Art-Society

 

Appuntamento in centro a San Francisco domani pomeriggio per farsi autografare da qualcuno dei Residents la propria copia di A Sight For Sore Eyes e dare un'occhiata alla mostra di alcuni loro celebri manifesti. No?

Melodic Virtue and Haight Street Art Center, along with partner Amoeba Music, are delighted to announce an exclusive book signing for The Residents: A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 1 with notable San Francisco artist Homer Flynn, head of The Cryptic Corporation and creative director of Poor? NO! Graphics. Flynn will be joined by the book’s author, Aaron Tanner. This event will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Residents, San Francisco’s most provocative and innovative music group.

Fans can purchase copies of Tanner’s new book, have it signed by Flynn and Tanner, and tour an exhibition curated by Flynn of rare Residents posters from their half-century history. In keeping with the Center’s mission to honor the city’s rich history of poster art, the event will be commemorated by a new poster, designed by noted Bay Area artist Zoltron, which will be available for sale.

“We are proud to host Homer Flynn and Aaron Tanner and celebrate the new book as well as The Residents’ half-century career of groundbreaking music, art, and mystery,” Kelly Harris, Executive Director of the Center, said. “Art, community, and music represent the best of the city and the heart of our mission, and this event honors those ideals with a celebration of these San Francisco institutions.”

June 25 at Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight Street (at Laguna). Doors will open at 6PM and the exhibition will be open to the public.

Public Book Signing and Exhibition

Nel novantesimo anniversario della nascita di Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) le sue idee e convinzioni a proposito di ascolto e consapevolezza sonora sono richiamate in una breve pubblicazione curata per Ignota dalla compagna Ione, Quantum Listening, sorta di lascito teorico con indicazioni utili per praticare attenzione e concentrazione in modo autentico e profondo: "A champion of the underserved and underrepresented, Pauline dares us to embrace change, the unfamiliar and even the unknown. She wants us to be bold enough to imagine a benevolent society that can embrace technology to create a sublime music. Pauline has given inspiration and instructions through the depth of her listening. Her music is still resonating in quantum universes. We receive guidance from her books and essays, her keynote addresses and talks. Her graphic scores are our guiding maps."

http://paulineoliveros.us
https://ignota.org/products/quantum-listening

 

Botta e risposta fotografico/musicale tra Christian Marclay e Steve Beresford, in una pubblicazione che rimanda all'inquietante scenario delle strade deserte di Londra nei primi mesi dell'esplosione della pandemia: Call and Response, per la statunitense Siglio.

Known for his ability to locate music and sound in the most unexpected contexts, artist Christian Marclay began photographing the emptied London streets when the world shut down in the spring of 2020. He found the quiet - the absence of all the city sounds - both haunting and peaceful. On his daily walks, he began to imagine that there might be music in the landscape. He snapped a photo of an iron gate adorned with decorative white balls as it reminded him of a musical score. He sent it to his friend, the composer Steve Beresford and asked: “How would this sound on the piano?” Beresford responded with a recording. Over the course of that spring, they connected virtually across the locked-down city: Marclay took more photographs which inspired Beresford to write more music.

In his introduction, Marclay writes, “I realized that all my pictures were of enclosures: gates, fences, windows, closed stores. A view of the world behind barriers.” The music both embodies and serves as counterpoint to these images of confinement, expanding space and, in its notation, reconfiguring the visual correspondences between image and sound.

Collecting twenty of Marclay’s photographs with twenty of Beresford’s scores, Call and Response reproduces the pairs of images and scores chronologically in an elegant, pared-down, and tactile volume reminiscent of a music notation book. Particularly for those who cannot read music, they are magical pairings in which the imagination fills the quiet and the eye conducts the music. For those who can hear Beresford’s scores, they reveal the possibilties of the musical imagination translating the visual world into the aural. In both cases, Call and Response is one answer to the question of how to connect in a world of dislocation and isolation.

http://sigliopress.com/book/call-and-response

 

Tra gli ultimi gioielli editoriali di casa Lenka lente c'è un personale contributo di John Corbett alla conoscenza e alla comprensione dell'improvvisazione, accostandone le storie e gli interpreti principali in forma di breviario tematico: Improvisation libre-Manuel d'écoute.

L’histoire de l’improvisation libre est complexe. Elle est apparue comme un genre distinct au milieu des années 1960, à partir du jazz américain, de la musique expérimentale et de la musique contemporaine européenne. Elle a ses figures héroïques, ses méchants, toute une équipe de pionniers, de cow-boys et de cow-girls, de colons, de magnats, d’affrontements entre frères, de shérifs et de libertaires – une véritable saga du Far West... C'est à cette saga que ce manuel d'écoute ouvre le lecteur avec une intelligence et une fantaisie qui raviront experts comme amateurs en devenir.

http://www.lenkalente.com/improvisation-libre-manuel-d-ecoute

 

Il primo album della Mike Westbrook Brass Band - For The Record - tornerà presto in circolazione, e lo stesso farà Love/Dream And Variations della Mike Westbrook Orchestra, entrambi titoli Transatlantic del 1976 malamente riportati in cd da Line sul finire degli anni Ottanta. Alleluia!

https://www.facebook.com/westbrookgroup

 

E tra i primi documenti del bel concerto di domenica scorsa di Jonathan Coe con l'Artchipel Orchestra diretta da Ferdinando Faraò c'è un estratto pubblicato su YT dal Torino Jazz Festival: un po' di Erbalunga con un po' di Looking for Cicely. 

https://www.youtube.com/erbalunga-looking-for-cicely

 

I primi commenti sugli attesi appuntamenti londinesi dei Magma nella nuova formazione a undici dicono di concerti caldissimi (in tutti i sensi): un estratto da quello di ieri è su YT.

https://youtu.be/TlYg2tb3mOc

 

Inizia domani a Esch-sur-Alzette (Lussemburgo) e prosegue poi senza interruzioni per ben 100 giorni Radio Art Zone, la nuova maratona multiartistica ideata per il medium radiofonico da Sarah Washington e Knut Aufermann, in continuità ideale con l'analoga iniziativa con cui per l'intero mese di ottobre 2016 animarono ogni angolo di Halle (Germania), irradiandone gli esiti nell'etere e nel web: Radio Revolten. Il programma prevede ogni giorno due trasmissioni, una di ventidue ore affidata nella scelta del tema e del montaggio sonoro a specifici curatori artistici e una di un paio d'ore da trascorrere in modo più informale e conviviale in cucina a ora di pranzo. Tra l'affollatissima lista di partecipanti si scorgono i nomi di People Like Us, dieb13, Haco, Chris Cutler, Otomo Yoshihide, Felix Kubin, Lepke B, Xentos Fray Bentos, Ed Baxter, Caroline Kraabel con John Edwards, Meira Asher e Viv Corringham. Oltre che attraverso il web i collegamenti internazionali saranno sostenuti da una rete di emittenti con sede appunto a Esch, Bruxelles, Parigi, Berlino, Kassel, Londra, New York e altri luoghi ancora.

Radio Art Zone is a joint project by the artist duo Mobile Radio (Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann) and the Luxembourg community station Radio ARA, broadcasting for 100 days from 18th June to 25th September 2022 as part of the European Capital of Culture Esch2022. The schedule consists of two daily programmes: a 22-hour radio art production, and a 2-hour lunchtime live radio show from a local kitchen. It also features two month-long artist residencies and a programme of public events. 

Each day the radio sounds different from the next: 100 international and local artists and groups have been invited to produce a durational programme, requiring them to fully immerse themselves in topics and production techniques of their choice. Taking form through performances, compositions, installations and interventions in public space, from the point of view of the listeners Radio Art Zone is a kind of audible lucky dip. Every day a distinctive concept is offered, a new experience of sound, a novel idea of radio. 

The lunchtime shows bring a domestic scenario to the radio: people cook and talk, relax with guests and laugh. This framework makes space for spontaneous discussions about the radio art works between artists, invited guests and passers-by, all involved in cooking together on air, without agenda or formal interviews. Some live lunches will be hosted in Radio Art Zone's publicly accessible studio, others broadcast from private and workplace kitchens in and around Esch, anchoring the project in the everyday life of the audience. 

For 100 days Radio Art Zone will be broadcast within the Esch2022 Capital of Culture area on FM radio. It will also be available online and via simultaneous broadcast on a host of international partner stations which enable the programme to be widely accessed across the globe.

https://radioart.zone

 

Torna disponibile per iniziativa dell'austriaca Klanggalerie l'album di Annie Lewandowski e Fred Frith registrato in concerto al Mills College di Oakland (Stati Uniti) nel maggio 2010: Long As In Short, Walk As In Run. Rispetto all'edizione precedente su Ninth World Music qui c'è un brano in più.

http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg385

 

Un importante documento su Keith Rowe e il suo innovativo approccio alla chitarra, ideato e filmato da Bob Burnett e Alan F Jones, particolarmente toccante ora che la malattia gli impedisce di suonarla: What Is Man And What Is Guitar?

What Is Man And What Is Guitar? is a profile of musician and composer Keith Rowe's relationship with the instrument and how he uses it to understand himself. Directed by Bob Burnett and Alan F Jones, the short documentary delivers passages of Rowe’s ongoing journey, from “playing jazz through early years of poverty in Britain, to exploring the unexplored with the ensemble AMM, to his groundbreaking solo, duo and ensemble work from beneath the small umbrella of fringe music.” The film also zooms in on Rowe's current practice and explores how Parkinson's disease affects his work and performances.

 "Rowe decided that he can no longer perform solo concerts on guitar because of the tremor in his right hand", writes Matthew Blackwell in his review of the film. "The moment he made this decision can be heard on Absence, as he explains in its sleevenotes - but still the instrument informs his practice. We watch as he dims the lights at a concert, playing only a metronome. Rowe and the audience sit in darkness and silence between each click. ‘The performance becomes a performance of what I cannot do, and a recognition of my own vulnerability,’ he explains, and in that sense ‘the guitar is still there.’"

https://www.thewire.co.uk/what-is-man-and-what-is-guitar

 

Nell'anniversario della scomparsa dell'amico Hugh Hopper - son già passati tredici anni! - Jeff Sherman sente di poter ora divulgare, con rispetto e massima stima, il lavoro condotto insieme successivamente all'album del 2003, Home. Si intitola 'Branes e lo si trova in digitale tramite Bandcamp.

"Some years ago, I was privileged and fortunate enough to make an album of original music with the legendary Hugh Hopper. Entitled ‘Branes it was inspired by a reading I had been doing about an area of science called ‘M-Brane’ Theory. I had previously worked with Hugh on my second Progressive Ambient CD Home with great results and looked forward to rekindling our working partnership. Working with Hugh was joyful to say the least. He had the kind of mind that always seemed to know what I was going for musically, without a word. Then, sadly he passed in 2009. We in progressive music were shocked and deeply saddened at the loss of our friend. So long story short, this our last album, got shelved for the time being. Over the years I’ve had several offers to release ‘Branes but had always felt a little weird about doing so. Not wanting to appear in any way opportunistic, I waited for “the right time”. And now that time has come. . ."

https://jeffreysherman.bandcamp.com/branes

 

L'appuntamento dal vivo con Dave Stewart e Barbara Gaskin (e Beren Matthews) è più che mai atteso dopo i ripetuti rinvii e cancellazioni degli ultimi due anni: lo speciale evento si intitola Time's Arrow-The Concert, ed è in programma a Londra al Kings Place il prossimo 9 luglio. Con qualche biglietto ancora disponibile (anche in prima fila): "This is our only concert appearance this year, so this is a rare opportunity to catch us live. Due to the unavoidable cancellations and postponements of the last two years we understand many of you will have got out of the habit of attending concerts, but now we're able to play live again. We do hope you'll be able to join us in our 2022 summer celebration."

https://www.davebarb.com

 

E si rinnova anche l'appuntamento dal vivo con le musiche di Jonathan Coe eseguite assieme all'Artchipel Orchestra guidata da Ferdinando Faraò. Al Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Torino questa sera alle 21.00, per il Torino Jazz Festival.

https://twitter.com/jonathancoe
https://www.facebook.com/ArtchipelOrchestra

 

Si rinnova oggi l'appuntamento con le imperdibili dirette casalinghe di Bob Drake, ultima occasione prima della pausa estiva dedicata ai lavori di completamento di un nuovo album (uno dei due in predicato). Su Twitch a partire dalle 19.00.

"There are two separate solo album ideas percolating currently. One is looking like a "guitar instrumental" album, a bit rock-ey and more in line with the natural progression along the same road as Arx Pilosa - L'Isola dei Lupi - Planets and Animals, only with no singing... the guitar takes the melodies. The other will be very sparse: a suite of pieces about mysterious springs and wells, for organ, piano and voice, composed more in the "modern classical" vein like The Gardens Of Beastley Manor and Suite For Notation Software only very much less busy, and full of quiet and space. Which of the two albums I'll start recording first depends on which one has enough material first, as of this writing, it's leaning towards the latter, and the months of long, hot, quiet Summer days to come seem like just the right time to get going on a calm, quiet and spacious album..."

https://www.twitch.tv/bob_drake

 

Esce oggi in cd, dopo molte presentazioni in concerto nel corso degli ultimi quattro anni, il lavoro di Steve Reich ispirato allo studio dell'artista tedesco Gerhard Richter sulle immagini divise, riflesse e ripetute condensato in Patterns e filmato da Corinna Belz in Moving Picture (946-3): Reich/Richter. Lo pubblica Nonesuch Records, che per l'anno prossimo ha in programma un'edizione completa delle opere del compositore.

https://www.stevereich.com
https://www.gerhard-richter.com
https://www.nonesuch.com/reich-richter
https://youtu.be/l2-KxAT2iDs

  

Dagli archivi personali di John Tilbury - accessibili in digitale nella sezione download del sito web di ReR Megacorp - proviene l'album Keyboard Studies, ora pubblicato in cd da Another Timbre, che oltre ai due celebri Studies contiene anche Dorian Reeds: tutto frutto di un autentico tour de force eseguito e registrato da Tilbury in un solo giorno ad Amburgo negli anni Novanta (probabilmente).

Terry Riley and John Tilbury are both giants of experimental music. They were friends from the late 1960’s onwards, and John has performed Terry’s Keyboard Studies several times in concert, as well as recording them for BBC Radio in 1971. However, the recordings on the CD are not the BBC recordings. In fact John can’t remember exactly when the recordings were made, though he thinks they took place in Hamburg, Germany, probably about 30 years ago. He can’t recall the details, except that everything was recorded in one day - which was quite a feat given the amount of over-dubbing in Keyboard Study No.2. What is clear is that John was at the height of his considerable powers at the time the recordings were made.

https://www.jtilbury.com

 

Dagli archivi privati di Derek Bailey esce per Scatter Domestic Jungle, una curiosa collezione di esercizi chitarristici casalinghi compiuti assieme - e contro - le emissioni notturne di stazioni radio pirata londinesi di inizio anni Novanta votate esclusivamente a jungle e drums 'n' bass. Dall'esperienza sarebbe poi nato, con altre premesse e non piccolo travaglio, l'album Guitar, drums 'n' bass (Avant, 1996) con D.J. Ninj.

Recorded in the 1990s onto cassette by Derek Bailey at home in London, these are private home recordings which were copied (on Derek's frequently idiosyncratic cassette duplicator) and posted out to interested individuals, except for a couple of tracks, which were originally released on David Toop's compilation Guitars on Mars. The collection here comes from two different tapes and the sound quality is - inevitably - wildly variable, but does allow a fascinating and valuable historical insight into a particular period of Derek's domestic practice routine.

Scrive David Toop: "A long, long time ago I had a conversation with Derek Bailey in which he told me had been playing along with local pirate radio stations, specifically the stations specialising in what was then called jungle, later drum 'n' bass. John Zorn was keen to release this material on Avant but wasn't happy about the lo-fi aspect, so a studio version was made. When I was putting together my Guitars On Mars compilation for Virgin in 1997 I wanted to include some of the original recording and Derek happily supplied two extracts. Now, finally, thanks to Liam Stefani and Karen Brookman, these recordings have been made available in their entirety (including the two tracks from Guitars On Mars). Whatever their technical shortcomings, they are thrilling."

https://scatterarchive.bandcamp.com/domestic-jungle

 

Dagli archivi fotografici di Didier Ferry, di cui compare in copertina il nome di battaglia (Mephisto), nasce la pubblicazione Magma che invita a lanciare un nuovo sguardo - grazie anche alle molte immagini inedite - al fantastico mondo di Kobaïa. Da settembre presso Seventh Records. 

Didier Ferry est un photographe bien connu des amateurs de jazz, sous son nom et celui de Mephisto. On ne compte plus les nombreux clichés capturés sur ces 40 dernières années. Entre 1975 et la fin des années 1980, Magma a collaboré à de nombreuses reprises avec Didier Ferry. Seventh Records et Didier Ferry sont fiers de vous présenter aujourd’hui une rétrospective photographique. Plus d’une centaine de photos, pour la plupart inédites, réalisées pendant ces années de collaboration. Photos de scène, backstage et en studio, instants intimes capturés en couleur et noir et blanc, ainsi que quelques bonus d’images d’un imaginaire Kobaïen revisité sont ici présentés dans un ouvrage exceptionnel de 176 pages, avec couverture souple, format 22 x 26 cm.

https://www.seventhrecords.com/magma-photos-par-didier-ferry

 

Agli archivi in digitale resi via via accessibili da Bill Laswell - la serie si chiama Bassmatter - si aggiunge il concerto dei Massacre tenuto a San Francisco nel febbraio 2019 nei giorni del Bill Laswell Manifestation Ontological Sound System. Con lui Fred Frith e Charles Hayward: San Francisco.

https://billlaswell.bandcamp.com/album/san-francisco

 

Un'antologia di brani dal vivo a sostegno delle vittime di guerra in Ucraina: Вони не пройдуть - No Pasaran! La produce la viennese Trost, con il contributo dei musicisti di maggior spicco tra quanti pubblicano per l'etichetta indipendente o le sono vicini, come Sven-Ake Johansson e Alexander von Schlippenbach, Barry Guy e Agusti Fernandez, Peter Brötzmann e il figlio Caspar, ma anche Jim O'Rourke e Joëlle Léandre, oltre naturalmente ai beniamini Gustafsson, Nilssen-Love e Vandermark.

They Shall Not Pass / No Pasaran! Live on planet earth - in the spirit of freedom, peace and solidarity. As we saw the horrible events going on in the Ukraine, we wanted to do something as a label as well beside donating on a personal level. Many (Trost related) artists answered right away and were enthusiastic to participate. The material-collecting and mastering took some time, but sadly it is still an issue and no-one knows how long this despicable war will last. Big thanks to all artists, bookers, venues and helpers involved. All proceeds of this compilation are donated to an artist-run Ukrainian aid organisation helping victims of the war, recommended by Ken Vandermark.

https://www.trost.at/various--no-pasaran.html

 

Si è tenuta un paio di settimane fa l'assegnazione dei premi agli studenti del Royal Birmingham Conservatoire per le migliori interpretazioni in solo o in duo di composizioni del compianto Phil Miller: i riconoscimenti sono andati a Leo Morland per Phrygian Blues e a Oliver Canham con Adam Roberts per Eastern Region. A incoraggiare tutti i partecipanti - e a dar loro il buon esempio - c'erano Fred Thelonious Baker con Mickey O’Brien e Mark Fletcher, a loro volta impegnati in solo, duo o trio con God Song, Calyx, Above and Below e Truly Yours. Resoconto dell'iniziativa e documenti video sono al Phil Miller-The Legacy.

https://philmillerthelegacy.com/phil-miller-guitar-prize-2022

 

E Radio 4 della BBC ha iniziato a trasmettere Mr Wilder and Me (2020) di Jonathan Coe, dieci episodi giornalieri con la lettura di Jasmine Hyde nell'adattamento di Florence Bedell. Intanto si inizia a parlare di una futura versione cinematografica, diretta addirittura da Stephen Frears...

In the summer of 1977, naïve Calista Frangopoulou sets out to venture into the world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history. At once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a Hollywood icon, Mr Wilder and Me explores the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017t9f/episodes/guide

 

Tornano disponibili negli archivi della BBC i sei episodi di King Cutler (1990), una delle serie più amate e più frequentemente ritrasmesse tra quante a suo tempo prodotte per la radio dall'impareggiabile Ivor Cutler. Qui con Phyllis King.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b00fjccd

Prende il via oggi ad Helsinki per iniziativa della Sibelius Academy, massimo ente di studio ed educazione musicale in Finlandia, un convegno internazionale di tre giorni dedicato alla storia e alle vicende di vari soggetti - istituzionali e non - impegnati nella diffusione delle musiche in diversi contesti socio-culturali e nel corso di diverse epoche. Si intitola Agents and Actors: Networks in Music History, e tra i relatori invitati c'è anche Jacopo Costa, che interverrà domani per parlare del Mongezi Feza e di Musiche (e un po' anche del Circ.a).

The History of the Mongezi Feza Collective, or how to Keep Underground Music Alive in Italy through Networking (and Arguing).
"Active in Italy from 1987 until 1997, the Mongezi Feza collective (of which Robert Wyatt was one of the honorary presidents) dealt with concert organization, radio broadcasting, as well as in the publishing branch with a magazine called Musiche. The heir to networking experiences such as Rock In Opposition or the Italian cooperative l’Orchestra, it perpetuated their artistic activities and ideological orientations, was the main Italian referent of a widespread “underground” music scene between the two decades, and represented – at least chronologically – the link between the organizations already mentioned and the circuito autogestito Circ.a, a more structured and comprehensive underground network. Mongezi Feza stood as an important reference point for many musical outsiders on the Italian territory, consolidating or creating links between numerous “heterodox” artists, an audience of curious listeners (both immune from the marketing schemes of the record industry and from most underground trends) and several daring music programmers. My speech, supported by an ad hoc interview with the founders of Mongezi Feza, will describe first of all the way in which the collective was created, how it operated, and the evolution of the Italian underground music network in the years in which it was active. This historical account will be the basis of a reflection on the cultural characteristics of the aforementioned network: while privileging underground and heterodox artistic expressions, the different actors of this network did not identify with any specific musical scene: instead, they committed to any music that would challenge tastes and ideas, without indulging in snobbery or superficial eclecticism. Finally, and with particular reference to the magazine Musiche, I will address the “polemical edge” of the collective through the criticisms it made about different aspects of underground music management (especially its promotion and media coverage): in retrospect, we can affirm that those criticisms proved to be far-sighted in exposing several weaknesses of the underground music networks."

https://sites.uniarts.fi/web/networks2020/program