Synopsis
Many different doors hide many different landscapes. Somebody opens and closes, changes direction, goes on and comes back, until finally he reaches the labyrinth, a mysterious area, whose silence is broken from time to time by strange scratchings and scaring rumblings. A sweet and melancholic melody is prisoner inside this labyrinth, protected or threatened by a monster. After the killing of the monster, the melody is liberated, and brought out the maze. But in the meantime, outside everything has changed and become unrecognizable. The melody itself starts playing rough and unpleasent riffs; the real labyrinth is outside.
LABIRINTI is a metaphor on the human being and on the loss of mankind’s baricentre; everything which appears safe becomes unsafe, the elements change their position in a sort of surrealistic sound-journey, a dangerous game where we may get lost.
Structure
The piece can be easily divided into 4 sections:
from 0’00” till 5’42”: in this section several different doors are opened and closed. Several different soundscapes appear and disappear, a crowded street, a sea shore, a churchbell, a windscape, a wardrobe with bottles containg a frozen “I can’t get no satisfaction”, some barking dogs and a forest; the forest changes into a threatening force, disclosing a dark buzzing choir which reveals itself as an army of attacking bees ; scared, we look out desperately for the right key to open the next door; but unsuccessfully. And then, suddenly a real gate opens and finally we enter a real traditional labyrinth, eluding the the bees.
from 5’42” till 19’50”: inside a silent and empty labyrinth we discover a beautiful melody lost somewhere. Slowly we approach that sound until the monster (the choir of bees) comes out again. We fight against the monster using “I can’t get no satisfaction” as a weapon. Finally we kill the monster and we can set the melody free, carrying it inside a bag, out of the labyrinth.
from 19’50” till 47’54”: as we are out of the labyrinth the viola melody gets crazy and changes into “contemporary music”. All the landscapes hidden by doors become unrecognizable and a long labyrinthic section develops through scratching viola patterns and electroacoustic textures, transforming all that we have heard before into a chaotic magma. The viola itself is probably the monster. With a very strong effort we are able to get back to the beginning, that is, to recognize time and places. All the landscapes found out previously reveal themselves at the same time like in a sort of universal acoustic garden. And then the last door is closed.
from 47’54” till 51’38”; the monster hasn’t been killed at all. It rises up in the darkness and develops quickly. It has the form of “I can’t get no satisfaction”, it inquires and threaten us again.
Music and direction: Stefano Giannotti
Carlo Andrea Malanima: viola
Stefano Giannotti: recordings and treatments
Daniel Velasco: mastering
Produced for Deutschlandradio Kultur between 2004 and 2005.
Executive producer: Götz Naleppa