Sgt. Pepper’s 40th birthday

Today is Sgt. Pepper’s 40th birthday.

Forty years ago the Beatles issued their 8th album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the world of popular music was changed forever. You will read or hear everywhere why it was so, as every radio, newspaper, magazine, blog, TV will celebrate the event.

There are so many reasons why it was so innovative… a bunch of beautiful songs, the Beatles being at their peak as artists and riding the rising psychedelic era; the novel recording techniques — a stereo album! the phantasmagoric cover; the unifying concept that runs through the whole album; the absence of interruption between the tracks; the incomprehensible ghost track at the end after a long silence; the cracking, endless, final loop; the cardboard with the cut-offs (among them, the Sgt. Pepper’s moustache!)…
It was a real treat.

I own the original vinyl, pity that my brother and me actually cut all the cut-offs that got subsequently lost…
I remember going almost everyday to my local record shop to check whether the new Beatles album was finally out — Previous year’s Revolver was the very first record I bought in my life!

And then running home to play it on my rudimentary, mono record player…

It opened new horizons, it made me dream, it changed my life, too.

The Chieftains

I love Irish music. It’s a love that came sort of late in my life, but it is nonetheless a very strong love.

Here’s a video of the Chieftains talking about their famous collaborations with rockstars, but it starts with an incredible session in Matt Molloy’s pub (Mr Molloy has been the Chieftains’ flutist since their 8th record).
Four fiddles, two flutes, pipes, harps, bodhrans and pints and pints of Guinness…

Enjoy!

RadioRockTo, the PodRadio that – ehm – rocks!

RadioRockTo, your trustworthy internet PodRadio bursts with activity. Every day there is a new one-hour podcast, brought to you by the 12 “official” DJ podcasters, which are, in strict alphabetical order: Franz Andreani, Marco Artico, Flavia Cardinali, Gianpaolo Castaldo, Gianni Ciaccio Giampiero Crisanti, Massimo Di Roma, Michele Luches, Stefania Modugno, Stefano Santoni, Fulvio Savagnone (aka Avatar DJ Flux), Aldo Semunuk).

Our friend Francesco Cauli, God blesss him, hosts on his server a streaming of our podcasts, so you can also listen to us at this URL: http://62.110.175.189:9100/listen.pls

In addition to the daily podcast, you can also download some periodical columns of more thematic subjects, structured as shorter podcasts.
At the present the available columns are, still in alphabetical order:
Buongiorno Rock Compact 2007, by Aldo Semenuk, that comments almost daily the news or simply the thoughts occurred to Aldo when waking up in the morning.
Il Korriere Kosmico, by yours truly, which presents news about events, concerts, tours, records and books issuing, and everything else in the world of music and audio-visual arts in general, all selected according to my very personal taste.
LivePod, by Perez, that provides emergent Italian bands with a showcase that includes interviews, live and recorded music, etc.
La mente che cancella, by Sergio De Vito (ex Epsilon Indi), an extraordinary mix of voices, sounds, noises and music that builds every time a new sonic organism.
Piccola radio dell’aria, by Gianni Ciaccio, that comments political events, with special attention to what happens in the Third World, to globalisation and environmental issues.
Prova d’orchestra, by Franz Andreani, that presents classical music with an in-depth comment.

Finally, in the hope of wetting your appetite, here follows the song list of my podcast, which will be available for download tomorrow 13 January and the day after tomorrow:

The Gladiators, Bellyfull, from Trenchtown Mix (1974, Virgin)
Sínead O’Connor, War, from Throw Down Your Arms (2005, Rocket Science)
Ben Harper, Diamonds on Your Side, from Diamonds on Your Side (2003, Virgin)
The Band, I Shall Be Released, from Music from Big Pink (1968, Capitol)
Cressida, Cressida, from (ehm…) Cressida (1970, Vertigo Records)
Robert Wyatt & Friends, Sea Song, from In Concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane 8 September 1974 (2005, Hannibal)
Rachid Taha, Barra Barra, from Made in Medina (2000, Ark21)
Various Artists, Kaninba, from Mandekalou 2 (2006, Syllart)
Oumou Sangaré, Saa Magni, from Oumou (2003, World Circuit)
Devendra Banhart, Ay Mama, from Niño Rojo (2004, Young God)
Joanna Newsom, The Book of Right-On, from The Milk-Eyed Mender (2005, Drag City)
Midaircondo, Could You Please Stop, from Shopping for Images (2005, Type Records)
Andriy Kyrychenko, The Scope of My Perception, from True Delusions (2005, NexSounds)

See you all on www.radiorock.to, then!

The PFOH that celebrated the Winter Solstice

Last Wednesday 20 December Il Bisbigliatore held a Pataphysical Freak-Out Happening dedicated to the Winter Solstice. The event has been kindly hosted by the Rockodile, a pub and wine-bar in via delle Tre Cannelle 9 in Rome, Italy. The Rockodile is quite nice and perfectly equipped from the audio point of view.

Music for the event has been selected and mixed by Stefano Carbutti, Fulvio Savagnone e Aldo Semunuk (the latter two are dj podcaster of Radio Rock TO). There was the exhibition of the strong, matter-made and highly fauve paintings of Alberto Antonucci and of Stefano Carbutti’s pictures of suburban landscapes, plus selected video and all the rest.

There should have been a reading of poetry and prose with Michele de Vitis, but a sudden flu caught his one-year old child so Michele couldn’t be with us. Best wishes for a prompt recovery!

Below I’ve put some photos of the evening. You cannot hear the music, but rest assured of its high quality: we went from psychedelic rock of the ‘60 to German cosmic rock of the ‘70, from the ‘80 dark forth to the contemporary avant-garde.

Aldo Semenuk. The bat seems to rest on his shoulder with the greatest ease.

Myself proposing the darkest music, contrary to my usual style…

Alberto Antonucci (the green checkered shirt distinguishes the contemporary artist) turns his back to his portrait of Gregory Corso, painted in occasion of the event that celebrated the poet’s death.

Stefano Carbutti (il Bisbigliatore himself) entertains the audience.

Another work of Alberto.

The evening was closed by the Bisbigliatore himself at the console.

Pataphysical Freak-Out Happening – Winter Solstice

On Wednesday 20 December 2006 Il Bisbigliatore will organise a Pataphysical Freak-Out Happening dedicated to the Winter Solstice, @ the Rockodile, a pub and wine-bar in via delle Tre Cannelle 9, right in the centre of Rome.

The event will consist of poetry and prose readings with Michele de Vitis, music selected and mixed by Stefano Carbutti and yours truly (and maybe by some other podcaster of Radio Rock TO…), improvised painting with Alberto Antonucci, video projections and all the rest.

Winter solstice is a very strong symbol in the whole ancient world, from Celts to Scandinavians, from Germans to Romans. Celebrated under many names (Yuletide in the north of the world, Saturnalia among the Romans) it has been swallowed up by Christians, that have put their celebration for Jesus’ birth on top of it.

Be it as it may, the shortest day of the year is therefore also a symbol of rebirth: we have reached the bottom, it will still be cold for a couple of months, but the sun will shine a little longer every day that passes… Such will be our theme. Music, as in every PFOH, will be rather on the psychedelic side…

Come, all ye of good will!!!

UPDATE
Aldo Semenuk, dj podcaster of Radio Rock TO as myself, will be part of the event with his musical selections

77 Million Paintings

Brian Eno has just released a DVD by the title of 77 Million Paintings. It is the first release of a large-scope project: in Eno’s own words, it is “Two things in one – it’s firstly a software engine that allows things to be configured and shuffled, and secondly it’s a stack of images that I have made that are then manipulated by that engine”.

In this first release there are 300 images, scanned at high resolution from Eno’s paintings, that the software fades randomly in succession, layering four of them at the same time. The visual effect is stunning: colours, drawings, modified pictures and images that slowly morph one into the other, all this on top of a beautiful soundtrack obviously produced by Eno himself. The artist states that the projection of the result of such manipulation is something between TV, painting and cinema. Personally I would think it is something far beyond…

77 million is the number of all the possible combinations: the software allows the morphing speed to be changed, but such number is so large that even at the fastest speed it would take 9000 years to visualise them all…

This piece of art is already very much enjoyable – one could spend hours being lulled by sounds and lights (veeeery psychedelich… ) but the next steps of the project would foresee the distribution of the morphing software, which would allow users to manipulate their own images.

But the nicest thing is that buying the DVD allows you the free use for non-commercial purposes of Eno’s compound images, as long as the artist and the title of the work are given credit. In practice the copyright is on the DVD and on the single images. Eno is on the path of saintliness…
Below is the copyright note of 77 Million Paintings:

COPYRIGHT© 2006 All Saints Records / Wordsalad, under license to Rykodisc.
All rights reserved.
Please do not copy this software.
However, you are welcome to use the compound images 77 Million Paintings generates for any non-commercial purposes you wish BUT PLEASE CREDIT THE ARTIST AND 77 MILLION PAINTINGS.
All compound images © Brian Eno

Your favourite PodRadio is growing…

RadioRockTo, your favourite PodRadio of which yours truly is one of the podcasters, has a renewed site. It sports, among other new features, the first issue of a regular “column” of news (called “Il Korriere Kosmico”, the Kosmic Kourier…) that  is available for download with the same modalities of the music podcasts.

There will be other audio columns (interviews, thematic issues, etc.) pretty soon, so stay tuned!

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World Flashiest DJ

DJ Peedie is having a blast at my Podcast DJ Set…

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Tatty Bogos in the House of Dun

Back to our travel to Scotland.
When I was looking in the Net for interesting events in the Fringe I searched for a concert of Emily Smith, who is one of the most beautiful voices in Scottish modern folk.

She wasn’t performing in the Fringe, but she had a gig in Montrose, in another festival called The Hairst. She was supposed to play in something called “Ballads and Bothy Ballads” together with other artists. As she’s really good, we bought the tickets.

The venue for the event was a place called the House of Dun – I didn’t look any further about it. We were expecting a “normal” concert in a “normal” venue so we were in for a big surprise when we got there in the evening of August 16.

The House of Dun is a stunning Georgian House with fabulous Victorian gardens, designed by William Adam in 1730, enlisted in the National Trust for Scotland!

We went from surprise to surprise: we were welcomed by the owners, complimentary glasses of wine were offered, the audience was no more than 50 people, the event was taking place in the Saloon and Dining Room, which had a big fireplace, was hung with family portraits and decorated with the most magnificent plasterwork on the walls and ceilings…

Then the artists came in, and simply sat on chairs facing the audience. One by one, they stood up and told a story or sang a song with voice alone, except a guy who accompanied himself with acoustic guitar and mouth harp. No mics, no amplification.
Only every now and then the singer was somehow accompanied by the others that hummed harmonies almost by themselves.
It was amazing! It was just like being among friends on a cosy and carefree night, and hearing the perfect intonation of all those solo singings was such a treat…

Stories were told or sung about lost and found love, hard work and frolics and drinks, ghosts and charmed tatty bogos that become beautiful lads when kissed by beautiful lassies…
I must say that I had some difficulties understanding everything, as when it wasn’t Gaelic from the Hebrides it was pure Scottish…
Funny stories set the audience roaring with laugh, sad tales produced more than one quicly hidden teardrop on many eyes…
What an evening! We just wished it never ended!

And now, let me introduce you the artists:

Scott Gardiner
A young guy from Forfar, who was the Master of Ceremonies and who sung funny and sad ballads from farmlands of the North East Scotland. If I understood correctly, one of the songs was about one of the very first combined harvester, boldly painted in yellow and red, that in the end killed its proud owner…

Margaret Bennet
A lady with a beautifully pure voice, singing songs, mostly in Gaelic, from her home island of Skye. Love, emigration, hard life… the lives of fishermen in joy and sorrow.

Emily Smith
She was the reason why we were there – we were just lucky that searching for a piece of gold we found a whole treasure.
She’s oh so good, at her ease both in strictly traditional ballads and in more modern songs.
Really, you should get some of her recordings!

Jim Malcolm
The guy with the guitar.
What astonished me was the ease of his voice, warm and expressive. We didn’t know then, but Jim is quite famous in Scotland, having also been the singer of the celebrated band Old Blind Dogs. In 2004 he won two awards by the Scots Traditional Music Society, as Songwriter of the Year, and as Scottish Folk Band of the Year with Old Blind Dogs.

Stanley Robertson
To some extent, the most astonishing number. Close to his seventies, Stanley is a tall, imposing gentleman with a powerful voice and a funny glint in his eyes. A natural storyteller, he also sung with unflinching assurance through some really harmonically and melodically difficult Gaelic tunes.
His were the ghost stories and the one about the poor Tatty Bogo that said “I loooooooooove you” to the beautiful lassie…

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RadioRock.To, your favourite PodRadio

As of next Monday, September 18th, RadioRock.To, your favourite Pod Radio will start posting a new Podcast every day. There are currently 12 podcaster, each one of them with her/his musical tastes, so that the range of musical offering is really wide. Pretty soon we will tackle classical music only.

Not only that, there will be regular features on a number of subjects, forums in addition to the current Guestbook, and other things…

Just stay tuned!