“NON SENTO PIÙ TOUR” 2023-2024

A new frame for a new tour (Non sento più Tour hosted by Kashmir Music) with… the amazing The Bluebeaters… The photo session (see below) dates back to June 1, 2023, during the show date of Trinity Tour.

SUNBURNT PAGANS

Sunday afternoon. Three AJ’s Toy Boarders surf plastic riders; a black toothpaste; a toothbrush; and a black cardboard. In mind an expression used by William Finnegan in his bestseller Barbarian Days: Surfing Life… “Sunburnt Pagans”… Fantasy rides anarchic waves… (Shots taken with Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Zuiko Marco 30mm f3.5)

AN AFTERNOON WITH ZIGGY

Deconstructing David Bowie’s music to reconstruct David Robert Jones’s artistic legacy. Pierpaolo Martino (double bass, tapes) and Enrico Merlin (electric guitar) staged a show inspired by Karlheinz Stockhausen’s example but also by the pure joy of revealing the pop power of Bowie’s music. The spectators’ ears opened up towards new horizons when the duo revived Ziggy Stardust’s epic from those “dismantled elements”: everything that was not clear before is now recomposed and prepared for a sonic understanding. David Bowie was probably watching the performance at La Corte dei Miracoli and nodding his head.

IRENE AND STEWART

I’m really pleased with this shot I took in June… Irene Grandi and Stewart Copeland together for “The Witches Seed” rock opera.
More frames… And the full interview with Irene and Stewart in Plug n’ play magazine, December 2022 issue. ENJOY!

THREE YEARS OF ART RESISTANCE

This bunch of frames well represents almost three years of work to present High in the Sky, the new album by Swiss composer and pianist Frank Salis.
Three years of music, pandemic, repeated lockdowns… Three years of Art Resistance that brought me and friends Nicolas Gilliet/NicOLAsound and Frank Salis to the stage of Teatro Sociale Bellinzona for the November 26 “High in the Sky” live show.
Three years of dreams that have finally come true.
Three years that have seen the birth of new artistic liaisons.
Three years of rhythms, melodies and lyrics. And teaser… and b&w jazz photos (Thanks to Paula Seegy & Matteo Pacini – Artespressione Milano)

(All shots taken with old FujiFilm X-Pro1 and Fujinon 18mm f2)

STEWART COPELAND’S “THE WITCHES SEED” WITH IRENE GRANDI

Waiting for Stewart Copeland’s The Witches Seed première at Tones Teatro Natura (Oira Crevoladossola, July 22 and 23), you can read a preview of the interview with Mr. Copeland and singer and actress Irene Grandi which will appear in the autumn in the Swiss musical magazine Pnp. The soprano Maddalena Calderoni (artistic director of The Witches Seeds) and Veronica Granatiero will play alongside Irene Grandi the songs written by iconic Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.

From rock music to Opera. And what’s more, an Opera realized in Italy, the country of Opera. Stewart, what can you tell us?

SC: Writing and composing an opera in Italy is a dream, a daydream, it’s the best I can aspire to, it’s the dream that comes true. The Witches Seed is a rock opera? Mmmm, maybe it’s a “rockopera”… Maybe a “ropera”… it sounds better, don’t you think so? Something partly new.

Opera combines music and words but does so with a different approach than the pop(ular) song. What was your approach for The Witches Seed?

SC: Language is melody, any language is a melody in its most intimate essence. Music, if you notice, helps dialogue. The music guides everything, music is a powerful storyteller, and it’s always the music in a dialogue that passes and filters good and bad feelings. This is an experiment, I admit it, an attempt to bring rock music and a rock mood into Opera and perhaps bring young people and rock audiences closer to “cultured music”, to Opera.

Irene, on what occasion did you meet Stewart for the first time?

IG: I met Stewart Copeland just when The Witches Seed was in preparation and I must say that he has a truly sunny character, full of interests and vitality. Stewart is a vibrant person, a person who has a beautiful relationship with creativity, a man who wasn’t just satisfied of the success achieved with the Police but always wanted to evolve his music and art.

How did you find yourself interpreting the lyrics written by Chrissie Hynde for the Opera?

IG: I was delighted to interpret the songs written by Chrissie Hynde, a singer and composer I love very much, since her beginnings with the Pretenders. I have always found Chrissie Hyde a great innovator, a woman and an artist able to bringing female rock towards a great diffusion on an international level with very distinctive and original songs. I must say that her voice, well, it resonates quite well with mine, as it has low tones that are a bit “unusual” for female vocal standards. So it was a gift, a huge gift, to be able to try my hand at her songs.

STEWART COPELAND: INCLUDING A TOUCH OF…

<The curiosity and creativity that Stewart Copeland expresses go far beyond having been “The Drummer of the Police”. This couple of shots taken by Matteo Ceschi reveal Copeland’s art in a clear and direct way, including a touch of madness.>

(Giovanni Pollastri, author of The Police. Many Miles Away, 2018)

GERARDO BALESTRIERI: WE LIVE IN CORTO’S AGE

Gerardo Balestrieri invited the audience to follow Corto Maltese around the World … From Venice to the Far East … passing through Ireland and the Horn of Africa… Without forgetting the countries which are dear to himself… A set of sonic postcards to caress the rhythms of the dream…

From Venice to Far East

Find yourself in the mist

Nobody was at home

When mind climbed the dome

Away from the stage

We live in Corto’s age

ART NEEDS PEOPLE

Protest in front of the Piccolo Teatro Grassi, Milano, to ask politicians to support art during the pandemic. Young people, students, musicians and operators of the cultural sector (and photographers) together to ask for immediate intervention in support of theater, cinema and music. Art feeds us and will save us! (All frames taken with Fuji X100)

#parlamentoculturalepermanente

LIFT ME UP!

Waiting for another lockdown – fucking politicians! – I let myself be inspired by Róisín Murphy’s Take Her Up to Monto! It was a whimsical trip into the darkest bays of my mind, it was a trip without danger thanks to music… I didn’t want to maintain the focus… I was led by the rhythm… Shake, Shake, Shake … Snap! Until I rose.

(Session inspired by Charles Peterson’s grunge series; all frames taken with Olympus OM-D E-M5 + Zuiko 9mm f8 Fisheye)