Giovanni Di Domenico / Arve Henriksen / Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Distare Sonanti (February 2022 Off - record label)

Following the release of the highly acclamed album Clinamen in 2010 ( see also: ORT002: Giovanni Di Domenico - Arve Henriksen - Tatsuhisa Yamamoto / Clinamen ), Giovanni Di Domenico started in the beginning 2012 to listen back to the recordings of the sessions and decided to publish some unreleased tracks. You can now discover them on the new album Distare Sonanti.

Originally released in digital on Off and on cd by either/OAR record label ( USA)

1. Mlouk 06:07

2. Charivari 07:05

3. Alma Venus 07:32

4. Naked Skin Of Empty Spaces 02:09

5. Sahel Glace 10:38

6. Sensire 05:27

Arve Henriksen : Trumpet, Voice

Giovanni Di Domenico : Piano, Fender Rhodes, Electronics

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto : Drums, Percussions

PRE-ORDER

Giovanni Di Domenico / Arve Henriksen / Tatsuhisa Yamamoto - Clinamen (February 2022 Off - record label)

Pianist/composer Giovanni Di Domenico formed this trio because of the extremely special quality of the sound he wanted to achieve within a musical group, and the choice of the musicians involved in it is extremely related to that special quality.

Clinamen, in ancient roman philosopher Lucretius’s ‘De Rerum Natura’, is the magic force that makes an atom to change direction during it’s fall and thus be able to hit other atoms and ‘create’ Energy and Life.It’s not a law, it happens by ‘chance’…

This new exploratory musical unit takes inspiration from Lucretius’s theory to create melodies and sound scapes, to play with the inner and most special matter of the “sound” of each and all of the 3 members. Di Domenico’s open compositions will be integrated by Henriksen’s and Yamamoto’s extreme transparent approach to their instrument, making them breath and have an extra special quality.

1. Hyrje 05:28

2. Aide 04:48

3. Silence Is Twice As Fast Backwards 06:29

4. Nakizuni 00:56

5. Mask That Eats Water 05:46

6. Vatos 08:35

7. Idiot Glee 06:57

8. Aether Talk (For Joao) 03:12

9. Fanno il deserto e lo chiamano pace 05:43

10. Clinamen 04:21

Arve Henriksen : Trumpet, Voice

Giovanni Di Domenico : Piano, Fender Rhodes, Electronics

Tatsuhisa Yamamoto : Drums, Percussions

PRE-ORDER

Giovanni Di Domenico - Nero Assoluto

1. Untitled 17:02

2. Untitled 14:04

Giovanni Di Domenico: Fender Rhodes

Recorded on September 8, 2020 at Outside Inside Studio, Volpago del Montello

Mixed by Matt Bordin and Giovanni Di Domenico

Mastered by Matt Bordin. Drawings by Ericailcane

PRE ORDER

Akira Sakata & Giovanni Di Domenico - And Life Also Same (November 2021)

Music can be learned on the road. And life also same.

A mind-blowing collaborative artefact from the long-standing, prolific partnership between the seminal Japanese saxophonist Akira Sakata and the Italian pianist and composer Giovanni Di Domenico.

Born in 1945 and trained as a marine biologist, for decades Akira Sakata has stood at the forefront of Japanese jazz and improvisation, first emerging during the early '70s as a member of the Yamashita Yosuke Trio, before venturing out as a solo performer, recording widely and collaborating with a vast number of distinguished players from the global scene.

Giovanni Di Domenico, currently based in Brussels, over the last two decades has emerged as a definitive voice, bridging improvised music and advanced forms of electroacoustic music, producing a discography of critically heralded solo efforts, and intimate collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, Arve Henriksen, Alexandra Grimal, Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, and others. His collaboration with Sakata began during the 2010s and has since produced nine releases with numerous configurations and line-ups.

While most of Di Domenico’s recent releases have veered toward the electronic and electroacoustic realm, "And Life Also Same" - stretching across a full LP and a 7" - refreshingly encounters him returning to his roots as an absolutely brilliant pianist. Recorded in May of 2018 at Studio 107, Radio France, both players are in top form, firing out complex arrangements and clusters of tonal interventions that collide in a stunning display of conversant artistry, ranging from restrained passages within which Sakata delivers beautiful primal vocalizations backed by the patterns of Di Domenico’s notes, to full on hard blow free jazz fire. 

1. And Life Also Same 生活是即人生 08:03

2. Mahmah まあまあ 07:57

3. As Usual いつも通り 06:06

4. Gionsyoja / Hondo No Hunauta 祇園精舎 / 音戸の舟唄 09:31

5. Forest Fire 03:47

6. Go To Sleep 04:27

All music by Akira Sakata & Giovanni Di Domenico

Akira Sakata: alto sax, clarinet, vocals

Giovanni Di Domenico: piano

LP tracks recorded in May 2018 in Studio 107, Radio France

Mixed and mastered by Giovanni Di Domenico

PREORDER

Giovanni Di Domenico - Musica Per Insiemi (April 2021)

If it were possible to relate images with Giovanni Di Domenico's music, the most plausible would be those of forms painted with perfect balance and purity. Absolutely versatile and eclectic, the Italian composer has long accustomed us to sounds full of ecstatic tension, but pervaded with a refined and cyclical harmony of the parts. Musica Per Insiemi is the result of three recordings with three different ensembles, two more varied in terms of orchestral tones, one for organ only and female voices. In their different physiognomy, the tracks retain a common denominator of beauty. Di Domenico has firmly established the frame of reference in his compositions, the spine of ethereal movements of the piano and fender rhodes.

The mood of the other instruments are attached by subtle stratifications, like a river from which its tributaries wind. In this way, the sound matter advances with the solemn calm and brilliance of the individual fragments. The variety of influences remains in the perennial expectation of minimalist whiteness, of contemporary arias with a Nordic flavor or scents of cosmic drones, but always results in a personal and mysterious overview.

1. Kyu-u-ri 15:22

2. Go-Bo 17:03

3. Slides 09:33

All music composed by Giovanni Di Domenico.

Mixing by Giovanni Di Domenico at The Nest Cellar, Brussels.

Master & lacquer cut by Frederic Alstadt at Angtrom Mastering, Brussels.

Kyu-u-ri was commissioned by Bruno Letort for Ars Musica Festival 2018 and premiered at BOZAR (Brussels) in November 2018.

Played by Giovanni Di Domenico (Fender Rhodes & electronics) and Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles: Jean Paul Dessy (conductor), Berten D’Hollander (alto flute), Charles Michiels (clarinet), Adrien Lambinet (trombone), André Ristic (piano), Pierre Quiriny (vibraphone/crotales), Hughes Kolp (electric guitar), Claire Bourdet (1st violin), Laurent Hoque (2nd violin), Karel Koninx (viola), Jean-Pol Zanutel (cello).

Recorded by Jarek Frankowski.

Go-bo was recorded by Giovanni Di Domenico during a residency at Theatre 140, Brussels, in April 2018.

Is played by: Ananta Roosens (viola stringed violin), Benoît Leseure (violin), Jean Philippe Feiss (cello), Manolo Cabras (double bass) and Giovanni Di Domenico (piano, Fender Rhodes, electronics).

Slides was also recorded by Giovanni Di Domenico during the same residency at Theatre 140, Brussels, in April 2018.

Is played by Giovanni Di Domenico (organs) and Patshiva CIE (voices): Charlotte Couturier, Dorothée Dassy, Céline De Vos, Dounia Depoorter, Manuela de Tervarent, Amélie Dieudonné, Bérengère Dupuis, Mathilde Henkinbrant, Roxane Lefebvre, Virginie Pierre, Fatou Traoré.

Pre-order

Giovanni Di Domenico - Insalata Statica (SILENT WATER 2018)

The new solo LP by Giovanni Di Domenico, Insalata Statica comprises a single album-length composition, initially a suite of six distinct parts that have been weaved together to form a kaleidoscopic whole.

Composed and performed almost in its entirety by Di Domenico himself, the music takes listeners from passages of melancholic introspection through to fuzz-laden melodic exuberance. The subtle, shifting harmonies, rhythms and textures are deftly arranged – often blurring lines between a wide variety of acoustic and electronic instrumentation – to form a coherent arc from beginning to end. Moving through delicate motifs for horns, woodwinds, percussions, harp, guitar and electronics into more stately piano-led choruses and even hectic, Hammond-led jazz sections, Insalata Statica will appeal to fans of O’Rourke’s The Visitor.

The material for the album originated in studio recordings composed for a separate band project five years previously.Through techniques of overdubbing and editing, Di Domenico searched to find a common musical frame in which the different ‘songs’ he had quickly laid down could exist – and by the same means, finding a way in which to fuse diverse influences. Although the result of meticulous editing, Insalata Statica nevertheless retains a sense of spontaneity and lightness that gives the music an organic quality.

Insalata Statica, which translates in English as ‘static salad’ derives from a joke – a friend’s playful description of Di Domenico’s music. As the pianist says: “I prepared the salad fairly quickly, then took five years to ‘dress’ it. I thought it was perfect to have this more static beginning that slowly unfolds into different twists and tricks, to reach a much less static end.”

While largely recorded in the studio in his current city of residence, Brussels, it seems only fitting that for a peripatetic musician such as Di Domenico the album should suggest the experience of travel throughout its ever shifting movements. Listening to Insalata Statica, one can easily imagine the character of different landscapes – and their effect on mood and energy. The music seems to convey the haze of early departure; the romance of new climates; sleepy intervals and the hectic rush of transit; the feeling of sudden inspiration and the lasting traces of memory.

In the album’s changing moods, colours and tempos there are evocations of the melancholy of Franco Battiato’s 70s albums, Brazilian folk flourishes, the spacious, harmonically rich jazz of ECM recordings and oddball pop. Ushering such influences into a vibrant whole, revealing a skilful ear and an ability to blend instrumental timbres and melodic lines in surprising ways, Insalata Statica has a compelling, melodic charm all its own. Yusef Sayed

1. Part Ia

2. Part Ib

3. Part II

4. Part IIIa

5. Part IIIb

6. Part IIIc

7. Part IV

8. Part V

9. Part VI

www.silentwaterlabel.com