Andrea Penso - Oh! Uomo (2022)

Oh! Uomo (Part I)
“What I love are not the pieces, but the repetitions, the protractions; to proceed slowly on my way, to come back, back to the same thing, being a litany, litany as life, to stay long there before ending, not willing to make music of a man – and above all of a composer, and and above all of a westerner – but rather music of a sparrow, a quite indecisive sparrow perched on a branch, a sparrow trying to call a man…” (H.Michaux)

"Oh! Uomo (Part I)" is a composition based on a fragment of Bela Bartòk "III Der Stampfer (Stamping Dance)" ; from his folk music studies. The opening sequence, recorded on magnetic tape, was cut and transformed into a tape loop, then manipulated analogically and digitally to change its tone and progression.

Oh! Uomo (Diaspora)

"It is a painful pace of women, elders, and children, donkeys and oxen-backed. They cross dusty roads, mountains, and deserts. A faceless people is moving towards exile, and dispersion."

This piece, deeply inspired by Angela Ricci Lucchi and Yervant Gianikian's work, is dedicated to them.

"Oh! Uomo (Diaspora)" consists of two overlapped and manipulated ​ tape loops: the former created from an Armenian folk melody for harmonium solo recorded in the early 20th-century; the latter from a modern dance audio-cassette, found by chance in a van parking lot in Turin.

Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi