Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - Tripudiis Sonis Variis (2026) [Hi-Res]

The Melbourne trio HYPERBAROQ — Italian-Australian multi-instrumentalist and composer Mirko Guerrini, vocalist Ilaria Crociani and guitarist Stephen Magnusson — is releasing the album Tripudiis Sonis Variis, which reimagines music by Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Carissimi, Strozzi, Purcell and other masters from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries through jazz improvisation, electronics and sound art. The musicians start from the Baroque idea of the affetti — the direct expression of human emotion — and from the fact that ornamentation in that era was itself a form of improvisation, with the performer always shaping a piece "in real time." The album's title ("a jubilation of varied sounds") is taken from a 1504 medical treatise by the physician Gaspare Torella, in which music was prescribed as a defence against plague — and for a project born during Melbourne's pandemic lockdowns, the coincidence proved symbolic.

It all began one foggy evening when Guerrini and Crociani, having heard a recording by Teresa Berganza that day, sat down at the piano to play Carissimi's 1664 cantata No, no, non si speri, with its refrain about extinguished hope. That marked the start of a six-year journey of research and experimentation. The album's ten tracks combine dense electronics with acoustic transparency: the ancient plague hymn Stella caeli extirpavit sounds with computer-generated sound, Moog guitar, and Chinese and Bolivian flutes; Scarlatti's O cessate di piagarmi is treated as a jazz standard; Monteverdi's Lamento della ninfa moves from electronics to bare acoustics; Cesti gains a propulsive rhythm, Rontani drifts toward Brazilian chorinho, and the medieval Galician song Ai ondas que eu vin veer meets electric guitar. The palette is completed by duduk, chalumeau, Chinese flute and moseño.

The emotional centre of the record is Barbara Strozzi's Che si può fare, the only piece by a female composer on the album: in a dark, spacious arrangement the duduk answers the voice, and the question "What can be done?" sounds like despair of our own time. For Guerrini and Crociani, who grew up in Florence and later settled in Australia, the project is also a return to the Italian language and their roots, while Magnusson, with his poetic improvisation, became "the perfect travel companion" between eras. The album's central question is how much human feeling changes across five centuries. The trio's answer is that it barely changes, and so the task is not to reconstruct the past but to hold a conversation with it.

Guerrini was born in Florence, graduated from the Cherubini Conservatory and studied with Dave Liebman; he has made more than 20 albums as a leader and over 50 as a sideman, collaborating with Stefano Bollani, Enrico Rava, Billy Cobham and Caetano Veloso. He has lived in Australia since 2013, has composed for the Aztecs exhibition and the VR film The Passenger, and teaches at Monash University. Crociani, also from Florence, began as a lawyer before returning to music; she has performed at Umbria Jazz, recorded the album Connecting the Dots for ABC Jazz, and works with Paul Grabowsky. Magnusson is one of Australia's most distinctive improvising guitarists, a winner of the Wangaratta and Melbourne prizes, who has played with Charlie Haden, Sinéad O'Connor, Meshell Ndegeocello and Archie Roach.

Tracklist:
01-01 Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - Stella Caeli Extirpavit [6:12]
01-02 Hyperbaroq, Mirko Guerrini, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - O Cessate di Piagarmi [5:35]
01-03 Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - Lamento Della Ninfa [7:52]
01-04 Stephen Magnusson, Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Ilaria Crociani - Disserratevi Abissi [4:02]
01-05 Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - Che Si Può Fare [5:37]
01-06 Ilaria Crociani, Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson - Music for a While [4:32]
01-07 Ilaria Crociani, Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson - No No Non Si Speri [6:57]
01-08 Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson, Ilaria Crociani - Caldi Sospiri Ch'uscite Dal Core [5:10]
01-09 Ilaria Crociani, Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson - Ai Ondas Que En Vin Veer [3:16]
01-10 Ilaria Crociani, Mirko Guerrini, Hyperbaroq, Stephen Magnusson - Have You Seen But A White Lily Grow [3:24]