"Nine Feathers"… and a project behind it

The copies of Cut the Line are almost sold out (so, if you want yours, order it soon on the Inner Ocean Records website, where it's in streaming too) and, spying the work of Cory Zaradur, preparing them one by one, I'm really looking forward to enjoy my copy, also because, strange enough, I actually didn't listen yet to this album: I decided to save my first time for the good one, with loud speakers, lying down on my couch with closed eyes and letting trip my mind.

So, from Cut the Line, currently I know only Animal Insect, of course, and… another one…

The story of this track, so meaningful for me and Heidi Harris, is pretty particular again.
Once she watched my old short movie Perché lavori ai ferri?, in which there is my voice all the time as a stream of consciousness, in Italian, and this, somehow, brought her a flash. She had already the music track, somewhere, keeping it untouched, so the inspiration was imagining it with my words and my voice. But, pay attention, please, the too great part is about how we mixed together our lines… She suggested to operate ignoring what was going on to other side. So I recorded my voice completely without any information about the track and Heidi, that doesn't understand Italian, worked on my files without the translation. I'd like to remark that she also edited the order of my phrases, she really dares, you can figure it out listening to the track. And when she sent me what she made with all, it was an incredible strong emotion for me, I was sure about our connection, but some details went out so perfectly precise! Above all, I'm astonished by the end, that could totally let guess that she was feeling the core of the words for real – at least, that's what I feel, conscious of what I have behind that text.

This humble "empathy experiment", as someone described it, makes even more colourful my hopes about Human Communication.

(Sketch made during a brainstorm for Animal Insect music video)

Our good synchronicity doesn't stop here, has to do, indeed, also with what I have behind that text.

When Heidi told me her idea, I already had it.

Felice – Lettere d'amore sull'armonia

I do like writing and reading too, but for sure, taking a look to the projects that I made, you are not gonna find anything like this. I work on purpose trying to be conscious of each possible medium, for picking up the best one each time, but the kind of project that I'm introducing now, for sure, is not so common among what I'm mostly "used" to do. Because of this, I actually consider quiet interesting that Heidi asked me for a text written and spoken by me just when I had started these pages, Felice.

I almost finished this carnet and when it will be filled my text will stop too. That's the weird method that I decided. Everything happened the 3rd of March, with the simple intention of a private (loooong) letter. But in a few lines I understood that it was becoming something to share with anybody, for real.
So the private letter immediately turned into the bigger idea of a book that I would to print and read anywhere, you could call it "street theater" or whatever, I would do it in any public space in open air, to let it meet especially strangers.

And, well, currently the anywhere would be limited to Italy, because of its language, obviously.

One day, maybe, I could also think about do it in English or another language.

So, this is now one of the main project that knocks my life and, since I'm telling it here, if anyone there, to the other side of the monitor, feels like launch me any idea, anything is welcome (yeah, I mean: maleta [at] alice [dot] it); in a while I'll start to looking for interesting collective situations for let it run.


And typing "collective situation" now I would feel like to tell the other big idea that is going on recently. But it is not time for it, yet.


Once again, this is not everything and I go to let grow the rest in that psychedelic corner behind the wall: the pillow.

A kiss to each skull

Heidi Harris – Animal Insect /// THE MUSIC VIDEO

quando ti chiedono cos'hai fatto, non dire che hai fatto un video. perché sarebbe come se a uno scalatore chiedessero: "cos'hai fatto?"
e lui rispondesse "ho fatto un buco e ho spinto la bandiera più in giù che potevo".

when they ask you what did you make, don't say you made a video. because it would be as if a climber were asked: "what did you make?" and he answered "I made a hole and I pushed the flag down as deep as I could".

*

Working on this project, I often smiled thinking about how it was sweet that a song from the other side of the Ocean was making me discover so much more Utrecht, the town where I moved around one year ago and that I'm loving so intensely each istant.

Two nights ago, when Animal Insect was already going online, I was a bit contemplating on the Internet the place in which the inspiration found Heidi Harris when she wrote Animal Insect: Brooklyn. She lived on its roofs till some weeks ago (now she's in another zone of New York City). I already knew that first New York was New Amsterdam, well, this something commonly pretty known, as the Dutch people was among who started the city of the current New York, but I found out only that night that the etymology of Brooklyn is "Breukelen". I guess that for a lot of you "Breukelen" doesn't mean anything, but Breukelen is a small place right in the province of Utrecht.


So one day I'll go in Breukelen with the fish made of shells that found me some weeks ago in my favourite magic antiek, De Oude Pijpenlade. And with some white yarn. It could be useful.


Meanwhile, I'm glad to finally let run around our creature…

••••

Animal Insect is part of the new album by Heidi Harris, Cut the Line, available here.

Our deep collaboration has a lot to do also with the vinyl, for which I have the honour of seeing my artworks going around on such a lovely musical object.

••••

I would to thank once again here each energy that brought us here.


Thanks to Erica Lanzoni, that shared with me some of her visions, months ago.

Thanks to Vere Van de Meerendonk, for all the unbelievable intensity with which went into this idea, since the first time that I mentioned it to her. 

Thanks to Jul Jackalope, the custodian that guides my consciousness between all the different levels of reality.

Thanks to Dorotea Pace, that importantly fed the story and sweetly, patiently listened my brainstorming, even if it went like a psychiatrical examination («Doctor, doctor, I saw a strange creature and some yards and and and [endless mysterious vague gesticulate] and and I don't know maybe something else but I swear I see something more just over there keep letting me talk perhaps I'm gonna have I'm gonna have it I'm gonna see it wait wait wait Doctor here we go it's coming it's coming it's coming, Doctor Dò, I really some maybe mumble tomorrow a day and an eye and uh, a "rocket", did you say?»).

Thanks to Cornelis Plet, for the object number 890431, that I payed with the sticker of a Unicorn.

Thanks to my chabbi, Carolina Farina, that came directly from Paris, taking many photographs (that will be around soon) and helped me with any kind of fuckin' bothering problem, also when I was losing a little little bit my focusing and I was probably sounding as a very annoying silly troublemaker. And letting me repeat all the time to everybody that we were basically celebrating our great meaningful 10th anniversary of friendship, tolerating my violent joy overdose. (No, unless that you met me, you probably cannot imagine how I can turn exactly in this kind of phenomena; I can be tiring for real.)

Thanks to Pema Tigelaar, that opened herself to all my requests and also helped me a lot – above all realising the old hope that I had when many months ago I secretly written her name on my ideas notebook.

Thanks to Dirk van de Veek, for respectfully letting me interpretate.

Thanks to Rudi Bonfiglioli, for that absurd moment in which I saw him so shocked contemplating the shootings with himself with Masha.


Thanks to Masha Rozhnova, that after fitting so perfectly the picture that I drawn for her, turned in one of the best art-mate of my whole life.

Thanks to Elodie Clemence Romero, for all her interior process and for that question for which I deeply wish a proper conversation together, one day… in Montpellier.

Thanks to Wilma Kun, for the rare calm seriousness with which she worked and, of course, for letting me freely film her artworks at her home. (And for the tasty launch!)

Thanks to Siggy De La Blues, because when I explained to him his role, he said «I knew».

Thanks to Iggy Antoine Fornerino, for his enthusiasm, his suggestions and his spontaneous reaction when I saw him watching the video still in the timeline.

Thanks to Patricia Elders, because after my tale to the phone about the concept, when I was still a complete stranger, she then just said «It's like my life». And, in the end, she loved our strange experience so much, anyway.

Thanks to Mechelien, even if in the end she missed the shootings. For her sparkling eyes in the basement of her shop, that unique afternoon.

Thanks to the best special guest ever, the random dog in the park! And thanks to Simone Franceschini, that tried first to finding a-not-so-randome-one.

Thanks to a kind of "reluctant messiah" with which certain concepts started.

Thanks to Cory Zaradur and to Inner Ocean Records – how couldn't I love a music label with such an evoking name?


A special thanks to the Municipality of Utrecht and to the artists Jan Hein Daniëls and Willem Hoebink, authors of the artwork that I filmed at the Pausdam, an installation part of the project Trajectum Lumen, that makes even more psychedelic and magic walking through Utrecht, enlightening some meaningful spots of this historical city.

 – The etymology of Utrecht, indeed, is the Latin word for "trajectory". And I smile again every time that I think about this, because totally looks like that this place is exactly supposed to be on the way, also the way of the bunch of people that comes from elsewhere and will go somewhere else again. –

So, in the end, thanks to Utrecht, this intense place where I'm finding so many inspiring homes.



And thanks to Heidi,
 for all her whole harmonically behave into an idea of creative process so nicely closed to mine, in which the art itself comes first;
 for deciding to share so much with me;
 for being able to see I what I see too.


Thanks to the magic;
thanks to the synchronicity.


And thanks to all of you, if you will enjoy the wave or if you won't at all, if you'll keep what it will generate for your inner world or if you'll creating a new sharing with it.

*

This was what Enda told me a few moments after watching the music video for Animal Insect.

This post isn't supposed to be my perception of the hole and the flag.

This would be eventually up to you, to let me see how they look from your point of view – because the art keeps to work and grow in the eyes of the watcher, to hopefully turn in something new.

Here I just wanted to whisper a few things about all the long tripping on the mountain and the friends that came with me – even if not the whole tale neither.

The whole tale is called "Life"

and I'm exactly wishing you enjoy it.

"Cut the Line" /// Pre-order the 12" vinyl, limited edition of 100"

Past week Heidi posted this vocal message:

Pressed on standard weight black vinyl in recycled cardboard jackets, with full color printed front/back artwork. *All pre-orders will receive a free print of the artwork printed on matte paper using high quality archival inks. Includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

Go on the Inner Ocean Records page to pre-order it, read more and already listen to three tracks!

I don't want to tell too much about it, but… there is also a surprise inside… surprising even to me. Ok, I seal my lips and I go back to work…

"Cut the Line" is coming soon!

Some months ago, going through what they call "New Weird America", this kind of psych folk that I love to explore so much, once I found a lovely new yorker singerwriter, Heidi Harris, and I was glad to listen to her music like it is when you got a little discovery that for you it's so precious. You imagine that you're a collector of shells and you just stumbled in a very particular and rare one, thinking that you must be very lucky finding such a treasure that fits so well your mind… With these emotions, I seen that, somehow, through some social networks, she found me as well, probably scrolling her listeners, but the point was that after a while she shown many feelings for my art too. That's how we started to see how far was our reciprocal sensation that a magic connection was happening between our creative worlds. Exactly like the birth of a love, my creatures recognised themselves in her creatures. Obviously, an artistic collaboration seemed immediately necessary. So, as first step, now one of my illustration is the front cover of her new album, Cut the Line, that now is almost ready with her Canadian label, Inner Ocean Records.

When she told that this drawing of mine was the one that in the end conquered her, I was really surprised. At first because it's basically a self portrait and I felt a bit shy to be there, on her cover, with those my sentences included too (a rare extra text for any cover album, I guess). But above all I was surprised because that illustration is actually one of my favourites too, born just from my inspiration, but, "unfortunately", never used for anything. Now this work has its way and I'm pleased of it, still loving its charme, but also finally feeling really far from that moment (more then one year ago): now I don't have to try to be quiet – and if I look into my seascapes, after all… I go invaded from an orgy of happiness. But that's another story. That you will maybe enjoy in the second step of our collaboration –so, folks, stay tuned, as they say!