Long Story Short
This is an improvised music album. The sound is that of Hans Zimmer's organ in Interstellar. The inspiration is clearly ecclesiastical. I tried to imagine melodies based on the track titles and develop them by (poorly) mimicking contrapuntal style.
Short Story Long
My first job as a musician came quite early. I think I was in sixth grade when my piano teacher proposed that I take his place as organist in the village church.
I had never studied music theory properly, my reading ability was really rudimentary and this made me nervous, but church music doesn't require great performance skills: just a bit of an ear for chords and you can easily manage most hymns.
My job was to accompany the choir during Sunday morning service. Sometimes I would do afternoon rehearsals with the choir during the week, but this habit was short-lived due to teenagers' predisposition to engage in activities like fights and clumsy attempts at sexual reproduction.
My activity as an organist didn't last long. Once, during confirmations, I had the brilliant idea of using the synthesizer to play some melodies and this didn't please the bishop at all. The parish priest explained to me that only acoustic instruments and the organ were allowed in church. Could I ever tolerate having my artistic choices questioned? That's how my collaboration with the parish abruptly ended.
I also remember once punching a choir boy in the face because he dared to inappropriately comment on the LPs I was carrying that day: Invitation by Jaco Pastorius, 8:30 by Weather Report and something by Larry Carlton if I remember correctly. Then I apologized and borrowed his Fronte del Palco CDs to attempt a completely fake musical reconciliation on my part.
Anyway, for at least two or three years I actively participated in the parish community's musical activities. I knew the most popular songs and knew when to insert them in the various sections of religious services. I was a decent church boy, but I always viewed with detachment the many aspects of Christian practice that visibly clash with reality and my skeptical and rational approach to life's matters.
Already at that time, the idea had made its way into me that there is no god and that the many senseless things about religions are such not because I'm unable to understand them or for lack of faith, but simply because they are and remain senseless and contrary to logic and reason available to any minimally educated person.
All this to say that somehow this music is a return to origins for me. I had fun going back to the organ bench, albeit a virtual one1.
The album is released on all digital platforms Friday, September 20, 2024 at five in the afternoon:
the instrument is The Legend HZ and the preset is called Interstellar