Songs
for a desert island
Marco
Castelli_saxophones:::Marco
Ponchiroli_piano
Listen
'Songs for a desert island' on Spotify
From
the album notes:
Songs for a Desert Island is an extraordinary work. We are not just listening
to excellent musicians playing good music but to a production that blends
high-level research with a performance style rich not only in taste and
elegance but also in brilliant insights. Saxophonist Marco Castelli and
pianist Marco Ponchiroli have embarked on an intense and evocative journey
through some of the greatest composers of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
After a long exploration, the two musicians selected twelve pieces, compositions
of various genres, differing in time and geographic origin. The performances
reveal two strong artistic personalities and a sort of elective affinity,
developed through numerous collaborations and shared projects. The music
effortlessly shifts from Beethoven to Chopin, from Tchaikovsky to Schumann,
from Scriabin to Verdi, from Händel to Ellington, from Jobim to Piazzolla,
from Morricone to John Williams. The duo's jazz is evocative and lyrical,
unafraid to borrow pieces from European classical traditions, famous soundtracks,
or the great South American music, with one exception—the magnificent
but seldom played Ellington theme, "Azure."
Songs for a Desert Island is ultimately a visionary production, the result
of a search for a consistent sonic and expressive dimension that eliminates
the differences in space, time, and genre of the chosen pieces, introducing
continuous variations in harmonic, rhythmic, and narrative elements—always
inspired, never gratuitous or conventional. It is an album to treasure
and take with you, each to their own desert island
'Space Age'
Marco Castelli New Organ Trio
from my liner notes:
It
is, after all, always "the space age". From Galileo to Salgari or from
Apollo 11 to Perseverance, the urge to imagine or explore other places
in our reality has always been a necessity. In music, too, it is always
"the space age". Imaging and exploring other places and newworlds is a
state of artistic necessity which becomes nourishment, good "fuel", a
state of the being that makes us live in a positive tension with music-making.
In composing or improvising, this "lifeblood" is necessary to be effective
and able to convey emotion. The aim of this album was originally to bring
back the history and content of a few years of concerts, but, due to the
forced stop brought on by the pandemic, it took on a different form. It
was created through long streaming sessions - Marco Vattovani (my travel
companion, not only as a drummer) in his Bunker Studio in Trieste and
myself in Venice. Paradoxically, the 'suspended time' of quarantine projected
us into research and exploration of other spaces. We worked by letting
ideas flow freely, experimenting with solutions, playing with electronics
and developing, thanks to the contribution of Matteo Alfonso at the Hammond,
the possibility of a new sound for an Organ Trio.
Enjoy listening!
listen the album on Spotfy
here you can buy the CD
