EYES SHOULD SURVEY THE WORLD

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás wrote: <A man’s feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.> This quote came to my mind as soon as I met Vancouverite songwriter Bocephus King at Ponkj bar in Milan.
That’s the reason I decided to take a bunch of shots before the live show began: I was curious to see what his eyes could tell me and how they kept surveying the world.
A few shots were enough to obtain amazing postcards from Bocephus King’s world.
Then there was a friendly chat – I’m a Vancouver lover.
The concert has begun and Bocephus King’s eyes have continuously surveyed and narrated the world. His feet were at the same time in Canada and in Milan when he started to sing Bonnie Dobson’s Morning Dew…

 

SURVIVE THE NINETIES

Surviving time is not an easy task. Tom Barman – a voice somewhere between Bob Dylan and Eddie Vedder – succeeded with the dEUS and then with TaxiWars. During their latest show in Milan, Mr. Barman and TaxiWars pushed post-rock into the arms of free jazz, bewitching the audience. On stage, the songs from the new album, Artificial Horizon, opened the window and cleared the air of rock music. The band did not give up to a desire to feed their fans; TaxiWars played loud to convince those who still weren’t convinced of their music. In a rainy Milanese night the magic came true. Everybody survived the Nineties.

 

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: WHEN BUDDY GUY’S BLUES MEETS GRATEFUL DEAD

What happens when Buddy Guy meets the Grateful Dead? The question may need to be corrected. Need to ask when does Buddy Guy’s blues meet the Grateful Dead’s psychedelic jam? The magic happened in Milan during the North Mississippi Allstars concert at Spazio Teatro 89. The band led by the Dickinson brothers – in the power trio version – performed a 2 hours and 15 minutes live show rejecting any “music label.” North Mississippi Allstars’ philosophy? Jamming, jamming and jamming. Following the mood of the evening, I started a photographic session interrupting myself often, to try to get even more in tune with the band’s vibes. Shot by shot I explored with my FujiFilm X30 the visual nuances of blues and rock. There is nothing better than frames supported by music, you know! Jamming, jamming and (photo) jamming!

AFTERHOURS: THE STORY OF A 2003 LUCKY FRAME

 

Storage could kill a frame. The mind of a photographer is always focused on shots to come. The shots then flee from memory until someone retrieves them. When Afterhours’ celebrative box set (book + 4 CDs) was released in 2017 I was deep in my photo projects so I hadn’t paid much attention to that record release dedicated to the band I had loved so much in the early 2000s. Two years later I bought the box set at a cheap price and I discovered that one of my shots had been included in the book.

smart

smart

The frame in question, taken in Milan, mid February 2003, portrayed the band in action at the Triennale Museum in Milan: it was a special live performance (2 sets) in the middle of an art installation inspired by Italian writer Italo Calvino’s book Città Invisibili. During the photo session (with a Pentax Espio) I took care to portray the scene comprehensively, showing the band really immersed in the art installation and in touch with the audience. Manuel Agnelli, the Afterhours frontman, appreciated my point of view and asked for prints for his personal archive. At the time I had some meetings and lunches with him because I was in contact with the indie label Afterhours signed with. That shot of the Afterhours’ Triennale performance is a lucky frame: it risked ending up lost in my photo archives but it was saved by a publishing project.

Below more pics from the Afterhours’ Triennale shows.

 

THE LATEST 2018 PN’P ISSUE

The latest 2018 Plug n’ play issue with my articles and pics. Thanks to Swedish progressive rock band Anekdoten and French rocker Nico Duportal (shots taken with Olympus OM-D E-M5).

MC5 50th ANNIVERSARY

<Kick Out the Jams… Motherfuckers!> On November 21 at night a sonic revolution was played on stage! People were ready to join Brother Wayne Kramer & Friends (Kim Thayil of Soundgarden; Marcus Durant of Zen Guerrilla; Brendan Canty of Fugazi; and Billy Gould of Faith No More). Militant riffs spawned from Kramer’s and Thayil’s guitars and exploded among the audience; in the background the rhythm section moved forward as a mighty tank on the battlefield; a voice cut the air screaming iconic songs. <Kick Out the Jams… Motherfuckers!> An army of eyes and ears recorded voraciously a piece of future . <Art and creativity will provoke Resistance!>, Brother Wayne said… [All shots taken with FujiFilm X30 during November 21 MC5‘s live performance at Alcatraz, Milan. Thanks to Margaret & Danny.]

A ROCK NIGHT

Friend composer and musician Paolo Ricca with John Etheridge of Soft Machine during an amazing music night at La Casa di Alex, Milan [shot taken with Fuji X100]