Andrea Pandolfo / Paolo Pandolfo / Michelangelo Rinaldi KIND OF SATIE

Every once in a while Paolo Pandolfo likes to slip away from the world of Baroque-era manuscripts brimming with virtuoso compositions for the viola da gamba in order to create a free-form improvisatory programme surrounded by like-minded musical spirits: and so, away from stylistic rules and regulations, Kind of Satie has come into being for Glossa.

Subtitled “new music around Erik Satie”, Pandolfo embarks on a journey around the eccentricity-laden life of that “transcendent idealist”, in the company of his brother Andrea, and with Michelangelo Rinaldi. Andrea Pandolfo, who has worked with Paolo on the Travel notes programme, is a trumpet and flugelhorn player as well as a composer (in world music, contemporary, folk, jazz and early music), whilst the multi-instrumentalist Rinaldi acquits himself admirably on this new recording in playing piano, accordion and toy piano. Paolo Pandolfo is to be heard on both his usual and on an electroacoustic viola da gamba.

Satie’s musical scores frequently bore marking designed solely for performers, but in some of the pieces included in Kind of Satie these are openly presented for listeners by the Pandolfo brothers. The music for the Trois Sonneries de la Rose+Croix and Sports et Divertissements provide the trio with starting points for their own modern-day musical compositions, as does Baroque music also (Marin Marais). The draughtswoman Tinka Volaric provides a series of illustrations created specifically in the context of this innovative project. (GLOSSA)

Paolo Pandolfo TRAVEL NOTES

Pandolfo is a musician committed to his instrument and his time. His is an alert mind, at times even tormented, always grappling with the idea of his role as a viola da gamba soloist three centuries after the instrument’s virtual disappearance. In 2003 things fell into place and the realization ofan idea with a vague and uncertain outline became possible…

At first conceived as a solo recording project, a few days before the sessions were to begin, and almost by coincidence, the singer Laura Polimeno and Paolo’s brother, the trumpet player Andrea Pandolfo, joined the adventure. The stage was set for two real surprises: on the one hand, a viola da gamba CD comprised entirely of new, modern works, and on the other, the creation of a new and fascinating sonority, produced by combining the viola da gamba with trumpet and voice.

The result is profoundly and unusually beautiful. Recorded in Spain (Robledo de Chavela) and Belgium (Namur), this is a truly important CD. It is one of those discs which defines our label’s commitments, not only to the painstaking reconstruction of the sounds of the past, but also and above all to the projection of this immense treasure into the future, so in need of intelligent aesthetic statements. (GLOSSA)