Carlo Maver - Volver (2019)

Recorded live in May 2018 in the small church of Casola (BO), solo for bandoneon and flute, this fourth musical chapter of Maver is the transformation of a feeling, where listening outside and inside is a goal, thanks to as a listener and performer they find themselves together in a total experience.
Volver is music that comes from silence and that is attracted by silence. The solo does not entertain, undress. The choice to play solo allows Maver to keep the sounds of the instruments pure, working in subtraction and leaving an almost decisive role to the pauses.

It is the bandoneon but even more the poetics of the Argentine master Dino Saluzzi, of which he was a pupil, who fascinated Maver and guided him to seek something other than the tango tradition of the instrument. Solo journeys in remote countries in search of encounters, smells, sounds, impressions, are sources from which this music is watered.
Carlo Maver is not only one of the leading Italian bandenoists but also a wandering traveler. In fact, Volver is only two years away from the book "Azalai: 1500 kilometers on foot in the desert" (published in 2017 by Pendragon), a travel diary on the routes of the Azalaï, the ancient trade route that Tombouctou leads from to the salt mines of Taoudeni, across the desert of Mali. An extreme, solitary experience, experienced by a musician who will discover at his own expense how difficult it can be to do without old habits, to question one's own convictions, to move in a completely alien universe, governed by its own laws. To find himself, almost two thousand kilometers later, a man and an artist different from the one who had left.
It is no coincidence, therefore, that this time has served to sublimate the musical feeling, also bringing the performance to a total experience, where self-listening, notes and silences are an integral and inseparable part.

The result of this synthesis, Carlo Maver explains it this way: This work alone was a profound experience. Experience your limits, your fears, sound and reverberation. I found it unique to be able to play with me, to listen to me. At times, I found myself in a state where I did not feel the fear of error. A state of acceptance, of abandonment where I could see what I was without judgment. A contemplation of the moment for what it is. Listening.

The choice of space to record the album is not by chance. For his concerts, Maver often chooses historical places, from medieval churches to Roman cisterns, where the vibration of sound propagates and completely envelops those present, including musicians. Places that can emphasize the drama of music and vice versa. Music, therefore, takes on a function and meaning in a way that is strictly connected to the space in which it is performed and enjoyed.

With Volver, Maver's life is confessed in music. We find everything: from the secular prayer "Solo Lunatica" to "Shardana", a tribute to the Mediterranean. It starts with "Departures", a necessary passage to create the appropriate atmosphere to follow these wandering music. Along the way, then, we find "Soledad" a tango revisited in a spiritual key, and "Una Llamada" melody that serves to evoke spirits in the shamanic rites of some country in the world. "Once upon a time", instead, allows us to travel, over time rather than in space, to reach childhood and the nostalgia of a purity now lost. And then "Until the end" which is a struggle, a challenge to life, indeed, a hymn to survival.

Carlo Maver is a Bolognese musician graduated in flute with maestro Giorgio Zagnoni at the Martini Conservatory in Bologna. To this first instrument, Maver supports the study of the bandoneon thanks to Daniele Di Bonaventura, perfecting himself thanks to the master Dino Saluzzi with long stays in Argentina.
Maver fits into jazz environments thanks to the collaboration with the master Teo Ciavarella, which allows him to collaborate with leading musicians such as Eddie Gomez, Hengel Gualdi, Javer Girotto, Cheryl Porter, Simone Zanchini, Di Bonaventura, Riccardo Tesi and many others. Later he formed his own ensemble, the Maver Quartet, with which the musician recorded "Spaesaggi" and "12 Nodi", participating in festivals and concerts of national and international level. Furthermore, his music has been used in various Rai and Mediaset TV programs, but he has also written for the theater, collaborating with actors Natalino Balasso, Angela Malfitano, Matteo Belli and director Paolo Billi. Since 2008 he is artistic director (supported by Marco Tamarri) of ‘Eco della musica’, the ecological-musical festival held every summer in various locations in the Bolognese and Modena Apennines. In 2015 he published the new album "Traces of Africa", fruit of the contaminations coming from the African continent. In May 2017 his first book "Azalai: 1500 kilometers on foot in the desert" is published.