ROMAN RUINS

Angelo Mai in Rome Italy, I would have said, “holy shit!!!” These people make music like the ‘soundmasters’ from my planet, you know planet “C73x19mLJP.” Furthermore I ask: who are these earthly creatures who know how to make sounds together, apparently based on nothing? Who simply pull the music out of the air we breathe, like magicians pull colored scarves out of a hat.

Some years later as a grownup earthling, I was listening to the selected tracks of that concert event, beautifully edited by Luca Tilli, again my impression was “whoah! holy shit!” I know they are improvising but it sounds like it’s all written down, like composed.

Then I figured it out; it was me standing there pulling out these instruction cards. In a piece later called SIGNAGE, engaging with the musicians like some kind of videogame avatar.

I have been making music professionally with people, nature, and machines since 1963… but never had I stood before a group of 30 or so musicians, armed with just a dozen cardboard signs on which are written some basic playing instructions: ranging from ppppppp, to unison on RE, to pointillist Dots, to Freak-Out – wildly selecting and sequencing those cards to urge this or that; this person or that person or group of people to do this or that, knowing only that we are all connected by an invisible bond of trust.  Human trust, musical trust on which our lives depend in every passing instant; moments where our technical-musical skills become secondary to our skills in listening, reacting, doing something or doing nothing. When by agreement, spontaneously produced, all 30 of us disappear from view and become fused into a single invisible sound – our universal system of transport, which provide connections to an from any points in space.

So this space-traveller thanks the day that he talked to Fabrizio Spera and made arrangements to for him to “play” this ensemble as If it were a beautiful conch-shell he’d picked up on some far-away beach.

Much has been written about improvisation… probably the most ancient of musical languages that Homo Sapiens has “spoken” in the last 40-50,000 years, and today collective free improvisation has become an art and musical field unto itself.  But like the grand gamelan orchestras of Bali and Java, the massive Alpenhorn orchestras in Switzerland, or our own great symphonic orchestras and choruses – bringing large numbers of people together to make music is nothing new, and practiced worldwide based on proven traditions.

So, to make music based on “nothing” collectively with many people may appear as an act of futility, even stupidity. Yet, knowing that anything can happen, even transcendent beauty, is for me reason enough to continue the pursuit of this evanescent magic.  On this recording, in my opinion, IATO proved it!

Alvin Curran, Rome, 20.10.2024

The IATO collective was formed in Rome in the early 2000s by a small group of musicians involved in organising the Controindicazioni festival founded by Mario Schiano. The group intended to continue activities related to improvisation beyond the festival’s time frame and to extend their contacts to different areas of experimental music: jazz, rock, electroacoustics, and contemporary music.

The subsequent formation of the orchestra, aimed at fostering relationships between musicians from different fields, generations, and levels of experience, then provided the opportunity to experiment with various compositional and organisational strategies: graphic scores, gestures, and conduction. Over the years, the orchestra has been conducted not only by members of the group itself, but also by musicians and composers such as Gene Coleman, Tim Hodgkinson, Mike Cooper, Giancarlo Locatelli, Giancarlo Schiaffini, and Alvin Curran.

Fabrizio Spera