adEIdJ – Associazione delle Etichette Indipendenti di Jazz

Press Release

Born about a year ago to pay tribute to the art without borders, with an exciting concert of music and images (multivision projections) in that 2024 when it was 80 years since the death of Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky, in addition to the 70 since the disappearance of Henri Matisse and Frida Khalo, the duo formed by Maurizio Camardi and Francesco Ganassin, multi–instrumentalists who, although separated by a generation, have a common musical sensibility, not anchored to belonging to specific musical genres, founds in this recording his first and so far highest meeting point. The figurative arts return both in the title and in the object of this "concept album" – expressive form that the compulsive approach to streaming of our times seems to have now abandoned – that in the wonderful context in which it was recorded, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, frescoed by Giotto and since 2021 became, with an unexplainable delay, among the "UNESCO world heritage sites”. The two musicians use the most different wind instruments, even if Ganassin prefers clarinets and Camardi saxophones and duduk, and they combine all with a clever use of electronics. Complicit also the magic of the place where the music was recorded, everything seems to work wonderfully, and from the short but enunciative opening prologue of Il respiro dell'arte to the long finale Il respiro di Giotto, enriched by the narration of Massimo Carlotto, which also gives the title to the album, the eleven selected tunes seem to be part of a suite. Giotto not only dominates in the beautiful images of the booklet that completes the album, but is the protagonist of the short story that the famous writer from Padua wanted to give the duo, and which is reproduced in the booklet in Italian and translated into English. The sublime and unreachable blue of Giotto finds in the evocative melodies of the reeds of Camardi and Ganassin unexpected sound declinations.

Track List

01) Il respiro dell’arte (M.Camardi, F.Ganassin)
02) Traditional Albanian Song (traditional)
03) Garnir (M.Camardi, Mauro Palmas)
04) Darlene (F.Ganassin)
05) Sabbia (F.Ganassin)
06) Black Danube (Hamiet Bluiett)
07) Il viaggiatore incantato (M.Camardi)
08) Izmir (F.Ganassin)
09) Witchi–Tai–To (Jim Pepper)
10) Armaduk (M.Camardi)
11) Il respiro di Giotto (M.Camardi, F.Ganassin, M.Carlotto) *

* story by Massimo Carlotto

Personnel

Maurizio Camardi (soprano and tenor sax, duduk, harmonic flute, live electronics)
Francesco Ganassin (clarinet, bass clarinet, ocarina, ciaramella, live electronics)
special guest:
Massimo Carlotto (narrator) on track n. 11

Recording Data

Live recorded on 15^th April 2024 at Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padova, by Francesco “Franz” Fabiano; mixed with Massimo Carlotto’s voice and mastered in September 2024 at True Colours Studio, Padova, by Francesco “Franz” Fabiano. Artistic production by Sergio Cossu.