Solyphony
Solyphony is the reinterpretation of a solo concert, performed live in 2016.
The improvised solo lasted 45 minutes and was conceived as the diachronic interpretation of all parts of a composition. The polyphony, due to the limitations of the solo performer, must become a sequence of parts improvised one after the other, without losing the sense of pulse.
The regularity of this pulse then allowed overlaying the audio and video of the various parts, recomposing polyphony synchronously.
The instrument follows the same logic. It should not be considered as a series of disconnected objects, but rather as a single musical instrument gathered surrounding the improviser.
Each of the objects comes from a journey, from a different part of the world I have traversed, from an object I have disassembled, from a job I had. I built the drums and the drum mechanics myself. The slate plates come from Liguria. The aluminum bells are tuned to the bells of old bicycles from Bologna. The glass bells from the Mercado de Sonora traveled from Mexico City in the cargo hold of an airplane, protected into the bass drum.
There would be much more to tell, but the most important aspect to note is what provides cohesion, on one hand to the conceived and played music, on the other hand to the organological composition of the instrument: the person of the improviser who conceived and built the instrument. Just as the parts of the instrument are gathered, the parts of the polyphony are collected, and the music is composed by inscribing it in the body of the instrument and the musician.
