experimental piano

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The moon is full, but it is not the moon in Luxembourg

Is it possible to dream together, and, if so, to create something concrete from it?
Happy to say it seems so, and excited to be part of the multimedia installation “The moon is full, but it is not the moon“, taking place in Luxembourg at Rotondes from June, 30th to August, 28th.
The exhibition is in collaboration with artists Gioj De Marco, Karolina Pernar and Andrej Mircev and software engineer Loris D’Acunto and produced by Rotondes. We spent several months in literally dreaming together, writing our dreams and “feeding” with them an Artificial Intelligence. The dreams the AI gave us back in exchange were the basis for our work and for my compositions for the dreaming soundscape of the exhibition.
The entire process of moving from dream experience to language, and from language to real experience has unveiled interesting insights into the nature of all these states of consciousness, and the fluid role of language and sound in the transition from one to the other. Last but not least, it helped to focus on one of the possible roles of so-called-but-not-so-much artificial intelligence in our human lives.
Below some pics and press review; the advertising material quotes some suggestive phrases from the “dreaming” AI.
The video trailer and some notes about the music are at the end of the article.

“But their work goes far beyond the mere physical concretization of the dream. … The impression of a “psycho-oniric” experience is reinforced by the absence of a narrative inscribed in the space and the very compelling music composed by Agnese Toniutti.” Tageblatt 30.6.2022 – Jérôme Quiqueret

“Et dans un paysage sonore, conçu par la pianiste Agnese Toniutti, une tritureuse d’instrument, fan de Cage. Son paysage évoque à la fois un égouttement de stalactites, «un tremblement de Terre sur Mars ou des échos radar de la surface de Titan.» Atmosphère étrange.” En mode rêveur 7.07.2022 – Marie-Anne Lorgé

 

The trailer of “The Moon is full, but it is not the Moon”

The Music

I created four piano pieces, for the most part using extended techniques, synchronized to the huge screen projection at the centre of the hall, which was running and standing still alternatively. Four different “promenades” interconnected the pieces, interweaving field-recordings taken in nature in different seasons of the year to sounds produced with extended techniques on the piano, so to possibly create a strange natural/unnatural sound perception. Some of the sounds of the piano in the promenades served as “themes” developed in each of the piano pieces. Almost-silent moments alternated to music to guide the public towards the “couch video” with dialogue, which was at the very end of the huge gallery. The overall duration of the work is around 45 minutes.
The sound work was conceived to immerse the visitors in the Collective Dreamworld, and also to isolate the space from the outside soundscape (train station, bus station, traffic) and guide the audience through the different visual installations placed in the very big space of Rotondes.

The Moon is full but it is not the Moon

The moon is full, but it is not the moon is a multimedia installation which allows the audience to travel through a surreal landscape composed of sounds, images, sculptural objects, and textual traces.

For six months Gioj De Marco, Loris D’Acunto, Agnese Toniutti, Karolina Pernar and Andrej Mirčev recorded their dreams in collaboration with The Collective Dreamworld Project, an online dream-weaving experiment that uses an AI language prediction model. A sensorial collage emerged, recreated here in a series of atmospheric chambers where sculptural forms, video projections, soundscapes, musical compositions, and staged performances take turns appearing and disappearing. Moving through the space as if in a dream, visitors explore the connections between science, the arts and deep learning.
Production: Rotondes / Photo credits: @ Lynn Theisen

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Spring 2022

Delighted to take up the challenge of ERT/Piccoli Palchi and bring my experience of piano experimentation to the very young. After a workshop in classes with kids from 6 to 11 years old, and one with their teachers, I will play in concert for them. The program will include one of their compositions based on selected extended piano techniques along with pieces by some of the distinguished experimenters of their times: Debussy, Cowell, Bartok, Kurtag, Cage.

From kids to adults, very happy to have accepted a teaching position at Conservatorio “G.Tartini” in Trieste.

Here a new review of Subtle Matters by Paolo Carradori for Le Salon Musical: “I don’t know if courage can represent a useful category that can be spent in music criticism, but one thing is certain, this album is a courageous work. … Subtle Matters not only tells us how the piano not traditionally played, far from the bourgeois living rooms, can still give us surprising sound panoramas but also reminds us how the artist, whoever puts his hands inside the instrument, must necessarily put back into play, courageously re-discuss role and visions.”

Below some pics from the last colourful concert on March 26th at Moroso showroom – which in addition had an excellent acoustics. Music by John Cage, Tan Dun and Philip Corner for prepared piano, string piano and… regular one.