Vito Ricci - A Symphony for Amiga (2016)

A Symphony For Amiga is an immersive, imaginative suite of ambient themes made using Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse software, by Vito Ricci - the celebrated downtown composer whose Music From Memory (1985) LP lent its title to the eponymous label, and was subject of their 2LP retrospective, I Was Crossing A Bridge in 2015.

It’s the response, or result, of a commission from Sanna Almajedi and Invisible City’s Gary Abugan to participate in the exhibition, Intelligent Instruments, which places a necessary focus on the Commodore Amiga PC’s history and influence over a whole generation of artists working with electronic music in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse software was written with a “built-in knowledge of chord and scale convention and stylistic restraints” which was meant to allow the user a more intuitive compositional process and place more “focus on the other aspects of music in real time”, effectively freeing the user for improvisational purposes.

In Vito Ricci’s hands, the results of his time spent with Spiegel’s gadget sweetly live up to her intentions, offering 12 succinct yet dynamic pieces riddled with Ricci’s painterly flourishes and invitingly warm melodies, flitting between quick osinatos, Nancarrow-like discord and tonal depth with seemingly effortless ease and agility.