Odos eis Ouranon (La via verso il cielo)

In the last few years, I had been asking Antonin Artaud to give me strength, wisdom and a “supernatural” inspiration for reaching this state of consciousness, suitable to conceive the idea of such a deep performance. It is been a strong need of expression that has forced us to carry out that kind of show. To tell the truth, it wasn’t the first time we were performing in a church: in fact, this sort of place can offer you quite a different inspiration and enables the artist to form special plans about the arrangement of the scene, the acoustic strategies and facilities, a. s. o.

In fact, one can say it is the most natural thing for us to play in a fully acoustic set (we are used to listening to the music we play in its purest form…), since many compositions of mine are for an acoustic ensemble, either for a piano-cello duo or for a trio with the ennobling presence of the female soprano voice. I do think the day I knew Sonia Visentin was a lucky one indeed… She has given my music an absolutely special warmth and in fact both “weird” and delightful nature, filling up its atmosphere with nightingales and smiling flowers in bloom scenting an uneasy spring morning.

From the beginning, Autunna et sa Rose was intended to be a mainly acoustic band of contemporary genre, whose distinctiveness has been interpolating notes with acting and poetical recitations, always been fundamental to place the live performance in an atmosphere with no intention of offering an abstract musical connotation. That is why the planning of this show was focused on the central role of acting, considered from a more specifically theatrical view, where the weight of soliloquies and of gestures, mixed with dynamic movements on stage were devised to get the upper hand over everything else and so take the audience to a breeze drifting from the former context.

This performance was dedicated to the beloved memory of my grandfather Giuseppe, who passed away exactly four years before it took place, and who had always believed in me and partly paid for the recordings of the album Né l’être… éternel. Therefore there is a special reason explaining the title of this work, Odos eis Ouranon (The way to the Heavens): the music experience may become a means to an elevation of our spirits so that they can get into contact with the world of souls. This is even a conceptual cornerstone Autunna et sa Rose constantly ties itself to, the leitmotiv of the symphonic opus Né l’être… éternel.