A few weeks ago, I had the chance and opportunity to have my hands on the Strega, the new instrument born from the collaboration of Make Noise and Alessandro Cortini.
During the sonic exploration phase, I realised how deep and powerful this instrument was. Filling the entire sonic space in an instant, and transporting you to other reality’s dimensions.
I have the same sensation when exploring huge abandoned industrial sites.
The entire visual space is filled, leaving no trace of your existence, creating this « out of reality one » experience. The limitation and the perception of time change.
The impacts of light passing through the multitude of holes in the damaged roofs give the impression those places have their own self consistent physics.
That’s where I knew I had to link the Strega to this place.
Listening to the place story
We came back to a site we already visited months ago, a huge one.
It was a very different sensation than when visiting it for the first time.
The entropy process never ended when we left.
Things moved around, new things were broken, graffitis were covered and recovered by new ones.
The entire invisible eco system seemed altered.
The chosen space
When I connect with a place, I receive informations, mainly in the form of emotions and what we can call energy.
I then translate them in the composition.
This day I received different bubbles rather than a continuous evolving energy.
I started the composition process directly with the Strega, and quickly found this « wall of sound », epic line that corresponded exactly to the strongest emotion I quickly lived there.
It became the starting point of the composition and quickly found its place in my sonic orchestra.
Session Day
When we come back for the sessions, there is always this excitation, in between ultra positivism and extreme nervousness.
Like a natural way to exteriorise and neutralise our own emotions and connect once again with the place.
At this moment, after a long installation which acts like a type of meditation, the release of the long process is near, and finally happens.
Adding Strega at different levels of the creative process was a really interesting experience.
Pairing its sounds and player’s experience to the choice of the place, and as a starting point of the composition really impacted the whole process and guided me to different compositional and sonic spaces.