This song was composed as the first of three pieces of background music for a podcast while trying to keep it pleasant to listen to even on its own; instrumentation ranges from acoustic percussions to synths, also including electric guitars and bass, drums and a sample of the sound of the sea waves, recorded with the telephone along the seashore of a famous Italian island. The other two songs in the series will be released soon and all three will eventually be reunited in an EP.

Radio Bulletin

The title, apparently dramatic, refers exactly to the difficulty of finding a title for the compositions. After an initial arpeggio in 7/4, the main sound of which is obtained with a sound design process from a guitar harmonic, the piece stabilizes on a more traditional 6/4 arriving, after some moments of less tension, at a rather energetic final section which stops abruptly and then ends with an arpeggio similar to the initial one but in 6/4 progressively fading thanks to the use of a filter.

The Hardest Thing To Find

The hardest thing to find

Music composed for a podcast episode regarding a trial, tension mood

The Trial

EMU Proteus was an old MIDI expander, very famous in the nineties, that I exclusively used for producing this track, even if I created some new sound with a bit of sound design. 

Proteus is back

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@dvw157?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Dirk van Wolferen</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/group-of-men-riding-on-bicycle-zap4XjrfH2M?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>    

Esattamente cinque anni fa, in pieno lockdown, nel silenzio irreale di quelle sere solitarie mi accorsi del canto, una nota sola, ripetuta ad intervalli regolari, di un uccello che scoprii essere l'assiolo, una specie di gufo, che non avevo mai notato fino ad allora; quel canto, assieme a quello di altri uccelli che tuttora vivono sui tigli di fronte a casa mia, in particolare i merli, divenne il simbolo della libertà temporaneamente perduta e decisi di inserirlo nella registrazione della mia versione di un famosissimo brano, che della libertà è diventato ormai l'inno internazionale.
Il 25 e 26 aprile, staccai il telefono mi chiusi (...) in studio e registrai la prima versione, che però non ho mai pubblicato; quest'anno ho deciso di rimetterci mano, apportare alcuni piccoli ritocchi e caricare il risultato finale su una delle piattaforme in cui di solito pubblico i miei brani, come ricordo di quel periodo e promemoria del fatto che essere liberi non è una cosa scontata, oltre che spesso non 'gratuita'.
Avrei voluto pubblicarle il brano ieri in coincidenza con la Festa della Liberazione, ma non ce l'ho fatta, per cui lo faccio oggi - anche se con un giorno di ritardo - perché mi sono detto che in fondo ogni giorno dovrebbe essere un 25 Aprile.
Tutti i suoni che si sentono nel brano, compresi quelli percussivi (ad eccezione di una specie di shaker africano con conchiglie, verso la fine), sono stati prodotti esclusivamente dalle mie chitarre e dal basso, suonati da me, e in alcuni punti manipolati con procedimenti di sound design.
Verso la fine è presente la citazione di una famosa canzone, frutto della collaborazione di due dei miei musicisti preferiti: un cantante Inglese, purtroppo defunto, ed un famosissimo chitarrista Americano, tuttora in attività, che lascio indovinare a chi lo vorrà ascoltare.

***

Exactly five years ago, in full lockdown, in the unreal silence of those lonely evenings I noticed the song, a single note, repeated at regular intervals, of a bird that I discovered to be the scops owl, a species of owl, which I had never noticed until then; that song, together with that of other birds that still live on the lime trees in front of my house, in particular blackbirds, became the symbol of temporarily lost freedom and I decided to include it in the recording of my version of a very famous song, which has now become the international anthem of freedom.
On April 25th and 26th, I unplugged the phone, locked myself (...) in the studio and recorded the first version, which I never published; this year I decided to get back to it, make some small adjustments and upload the final result to one of the platforms where I usually publish my songs, as a memory of that period and a reminder of the fact that being free is not something to be taken for granted, as well as often not 'free'.
I would have liked to publish the song yesterday to coincide with Liberation Day, but I couldn't, so I'm doing it today - even if it's a day late - because I told myself that after all, every day should be a 25th of April.
All the sounds heard in the song, including the percussive ones (with the exception of a kind of African shaker with shells, towards the end), were produced exclusively by my guitars and bass, played by me, and in some places manipulated with sound design procedures.
Towards the end there is a quote from a famous song, the result of the collaboration between two of my favourite musicians: an English singer, sadly deceased, and a very famous American guitarist, still active, which I will leave to anyone who wants to listen to guess.

arturo.fornasari

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