Wasamix: ciao Marco, grazie per esserci

Marco: Thanks to you. You’re welcome!

Wasamix: While doing research on the net about your work, I could only find tracks from 2006 and 2009 with your latest LP “Yves Klein Blue”, released on the netlabel Kahvi collective (kahvi.org). Is this a new start in music production after what seems like a 3 year break?

Marco: As a matter of fact three years are not exactly passed, since in 2007 i released another Ep, always for Kahvi  (a uk/finland indie netlabel), titled “The Thing from Another World”, that received positive feedbacks . While in 2008 i took part with a single track (”Moon Kiss”) to a various artists compilation, always promoted by Kahvi and distributed by the most-known digital music providers, such Beatport, iTunes, mTracks, etc.
In any case, your question effectively put in evidence my production slowness (mixed with a sort of sluggishness),  substantialy due to the fact i’m not a pro musician and therefore I need to balance real-life demands with artistic creativity stimuli. However I can confirm that 2008 was for me a year of stagnation, reflections… at least till September, when I composed all the “Yves Klein Blue” EP under a good creative impulse, except for the main title track, composed at the end of 2007.

Wasamix: In this new LP, the track “Saturn Orange and White Chalk” is a tribute to Harold Budd. How was this track conceived? Did you reminisce on the music you listened to growing up? Can you tell us about your inspiration for this track? Did you aim for something particular, other than simply showing your gratitude for what Harold brought to the field of experimental music?

Marco: I discovered Harold Budd’s work in the early 80’s, through his collaborations with Brian Eno.
I was immediately charmed by his compositions, his arpeggios on piano, and the elaborate sounds of his treated pianos. And it was a spontaneous consequence some melodies of mine were influenced at that time by those arabesqued evolutions, that made me dreaming during listening. And i really owe a poetry creation to Harold Budd, that tells of a orange-red sunset, when houses lights begins to sparkle and flicker far away on some distant hills, while above the sky colours with blue and cyan shades (just for curiouses, Budd’s evocative tracks is “Failing Lights”). During that period a couple of short melodies were born, kept inside me along all these years, because i felt they would be of use in one way or another. And so it happened.
One of those melodies was used in the second part of my track called “Music for No Audience” (from my first EP “The Garden” – 2006), while the other one was used recently in “Saturn Orange and White Chalk”.. and this time the tribute was rightful. Moreover this last track has a peculiar meaning for me, because it conceptually contains all the three creative sides that  characterize me: musical creativity (the track itself), poetic creativity (the inspiring source), pictorial creativity (”Saturn Orange” is an oil colour name, widely used in a canvas of mine, not the planet colour ;)

Wasamix: “Icarus’ Feathers” refers – in part – to the story of Icarus falling and ending up, like a feather on the shore, to be swept away by the waves. Inspired and sensitive, is that  “Gold Monochrome” and  “Yves Klein Blue” ideated by the same way? Is your approach to composing music always literary, refering to history and poetry, or do you also put in some of your personal experience?

Marco: Inspiring sources are manifold and never independent the one from the other. At the end it’s just a personal re-elaboration of a shapeless amalgam of feelings, moods, sensations, words that find after some time a way to express, to realize, under the form of poetry, painting or music. And it seems this last form of art is the one I’m able to find a compromise with what I feel.
And if the result is able to communicate emotions to someone other than me, I can only be really pleased by that.

But one thing is clear: I am never inspired by a specific theme. On the contrary, I join/find a theme to a track, once finished.

Regarding “Icarus”, it all began with the backbeat arpeggios. I was enchanted since a long time by marimba sound (I’m
grateful to Peter Gabriel for let me love them) and I wished to compose a “processual” piece of music as a personal tribute to the minimalist musician Steve Reich.
Every time I played such melody on my keyboard, I dreamed of flying high above fluffy clouds.
And from there to the figure of Icarus, the step is quite immediate: I began to compose the remaining part, trying to visualize in my mind what Icarus could have perceived on freely librating with wings of wax sticked feathers.
But, as mythology teaches us, Icarus was so inebriated by such a lightness sensation he flew so close to the sun that the wax began to melt, collapsing and disappearing into the sea. I imagined only a feather then, dandled and took away by waves, as witness of Icarus’ desire for freedom. And my vision was so strong (a lucid dream?) that I even made a videoclip for “Icarus”, now viewable on YouTube and on MySpace personal page.

Wasamix: I really like the track “Yves Klein Blue”. There’s a familiar sound in there, typically 80’s, that some will recognize. Can you tell us how you went about composing it?

Marco: I could say you hit the mark. Or the track has reached its aim ;)
Joking apart, i really consider “Yves Klein Blue” to be one of my best compositions. Everything began with that fragment of melody perceptible at the start of the second part, a melody that reprises “The Persuaders” TV-series theme, a series I loved so much in my youth. The first part of “Yves Klein Blue” could be considered a slow chillout continuation/re-elaboration of that melody. Afterwards I created the second part, with arpeggios and sharp rhythms. Initially those two parts were completely distinct one from the other, or better two analogous tracks, but with different titles, then mixed together to create the title track that you know.
An early version, poorly arranged compared to the actual one, was played in the spring of 2008 by a well-known female dj at a couple of her gigs in Belgium and Switzerland. Who knows if one of your readers may have attended one of those parties :) I believed so strongly in this track, but I felt at the same time that it needed further arrangements.
And so the “final” version was born, freely released thanks to Nik, Kahvi manager, who always supported and esteemed me, which I express my thanks to.

Wasamix: What can we expect for 2010? What could influence your future work, after having reached the current level of quality with this latest release?

Marco: I hope to compose some new tracks during this year. I’ve already some ideas, but at the moment my creative energy is not at the top. And when I try to compose by force, the result shows clearly the forced effect; so I can only wait for the right time. Regarding the quality, I’m very glad you noticed it. Because I’ve used a different mastering approach with the “Yves Klein Blue” EP. As regards to my previous works and I’m quite satisfied for the obtained result.