On his latest RareNoise
release, the one-time Italian punk guitarist and current experimental
musician-producer-sound designer Eraldo Bernocchi joins Indian slide guitar
master Prakash Sontakke for a rare encounter on the sublimely beautiful
Invisible Strings. A melding of East and West, Bernocchi plays sparse guitar
lines behind the Hindustani lap steel virtuoso on this evocative collaboration
between the two. From "The Last Emperor Walked Alone" to
"Sublime Skies," "Bangalor Electric" and "The
Unsaid," Bernocchi and Sontakke strike an uncommon accord on this meeting
of the spirits.
"The first time I heard about Prakash was in a project
with Eivind Aarset where he played guitar. His name popped out again from a
journalist who suggested I should do something with him because we could really
get along. He actually was right. Prakash is such a sensitive person, able to
adapt to any style or sound environment. And he has an amazing way of mixing
Hindustani classical music with new technologies as well lap steel
guitar."
In shaping a sonic environment for Prakash to play in,
Bernocchi was mindful of letting things flow in the studio as the music took
shape. "It's difficult for me to start with a sound concept," he
says, "as sound lives by itself and blooms according to what's surrounding
it. I was intrigued by the idea of working with another guitar player,
especially one coming from a different tradition who was confronting himself
with a more western instrument. I have loved Indian and Asian music since I was
a teenager and for me to work with someone so skilled, so amazingly dynamic has
been a kind of dream fulfilled."
Bernocchi acknowledges that Brian Eno's 1983 ambient music
project Apollo (which utilized lap steel guitar) was a seed for his own work on
the Invisible Strings project. "I own Apollo on vinyl, CD and tape,
"he says. "It is one of my favourite records of all time. It's very
likely that in a silent way, when I had the chance to play with someone who
eventually reminded me of those moments, my brain reacted to it with a big
smile."
Add the fact that Prakash is Indian and Bernocchi professes
a special love for that place and its music, and you have the makings of
magical outing. Bernocchi, who co-founded RareNoise Records in 2008 with
Giacomo Bruzzo, has recorded with the bands Obake, Metallic Taste of Blood and
Owls and also collaborated with minimalist pianist-composer Harold Budd for the
London-based label. For Invisible Strings, he saw his role as a guitarist from
a couple of different points of view.
"The first approach was creating atmospheres around
Prakash's guitar magic. I used a lot of pedals and I completely reshaped the
sound of the guitar as we know it," he explains. "On the record there
are a lot of sounds that are made with guitar but they sound like from other
instruments. I've always been interested in using the guitar as a tool, as
something that could create sounds out of space or nowhere. There are pads,
drones, keys that are coming from my guitars. I mainly used baritone guitars,
especially a custom- made aluminum one built for me by Nude Guitars from Italy.
They're amazing instruments with such a sustain that sometimes you think
there's compression applied but it's just the aluminum neck dialoguing with the
wood body.The second phase was duetting with Prakash, creating something that
could be a sort of dialogue. This was much more risky as he is such a skilled
player and so sensitive that I was worried to spoil the magic of his melodies.
But I think in the end it worked well and everything was natural."
Bernocchi explains the process of carving out the evocative
soundscapes heard behind Sontakke throughout Invisible Strings. "Every
track starts with a melody, a harmony, a loop of something I had in mind that I
was sending to Prakash to record on. He was then sending me back his guitar
parts or his ideas for melodies and harmonies, and from that point I was
starting to build tracks. So every groove, beat, bass line or my guitar parts
are always dialoguing with what he was sending me. Sometimes we reversed the process
with me sending over themes, like on 'The Unsaid' for example. It's a
time-consuming process, especially because I'm a studio maniac and I'm never
satisfied. So ultimately it took one and a half years of sessions to complete
this project.
"It is a very emotional album," Bernocchi
continues, "as during the process of composing and recording it, we
exchanged a lot of personal stories, impressions, memories. A lot of small
stories surfaced during the making of Invisible Strings -- some happy, some
melancholic, some really sad. Prakash is one of those persons with whom I could
fully open my heart to emotions. I can't wait to play live with him."
Invisible Strings, Bernocchi's most genuinely heartfelt and
strikingly evocative recording to date, will be released on RareNoise Records
in November.
TRACKS
1. The Last Emperor
Walked Alone
2. Will You Stay
3. From Star To
Star
4. The Invisible
Ferry
5. Sublime Skies
6. Bangalor
Electric
7. Purple Yellow
8. Walking
Backwards Again
9. The Unsaid
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