Sun, May 31, 9:00 PM
MUSICIANS
Anyone who has attended a solo performance by the Sardinian musician Paolo Angeli – often presented as a single-act piece – knows they are witnessing a Homeric musical journey. It is a voyage of departures and arrivals, where composition and improvisation weave a narrative filled with haunting melodies and concrete sounds that evoke soundscapes ranging from post-industrial to those deeply connected to nature. At the heart of the concert is the prepared Sardinian guitar, conceived by Paolo Angeli between 1993 and 1996 and perfected over 30 years through three prototypes. This orchestra-instrument, a hybrid between a baritone guitar, a cello, and a drum set, currently features 25 strings, piano-like hammers, propellers for creating drone sounds, movable bridges, and various attachments—evoking the sounds of a harp, electric kalimbas, kora, and sitar. It is played using plucking, a bow, and percussive techniques. Thanks to his innovative approach – ranging from avant-rock walls of sound, desert-like adagios, flamenco compás, Middle Eastern phrasings, and echoes of minimalism – Paolo Angeli has forged a hybrid musical poetics that has allowed him to authoritatively renew the language of contemporary guitar playing.