I finally bought a new classical guitar :)

The tightrope walker

I have the pleasure of presenting a collaboration with the great Georg Boehme: a speed jazzy funk.
Georg, with his 3 saxes, did a great work and a gorgeous final solo. I am really happy with the result!
Here his beautiful page: @georg-boehme

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Run! - with Georg Boehme

Blue

It never sleeps

Here we are again with @RosinDust for a folk piece full of rhythm and passion: a cold windy night, a dive in a remote port of the deep south, a night for daredevils, for temerari...

Here all our collaborations:
https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Temerario's - with Rosin Dust

Vertigo

Thanks, as always, to @rosindust on violin, it's our eighth piece together. Together as friends. 
Peace.

Here all our collaborations:
https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Enemies - with Rosin Dust

Birds and other creatures

The first time I listened to BoxTox's music, about a year ago, I thought that I would really like to play with him. Lately, when I wrote this piece, I immediately thought maybe it was the right one for his clarinet .. I proposed it to him and ... voilà!
In the photo, from left to right: me, the sound engineer, Boxtox and Mrs. Soundcloud.
We hope you enjoy it!

For his classy, elegant jazz here: @user-247600493

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Et voilà - with BoxTox

Year 1271. Marco Polo, still a teenager, leaves Venice with his father for a long journey along the Silk Road, a journey lasted years that will take him to China, crossing Asia, unknown places and ancient cities. Trebizond, Baghdad, Samarkand, Beijing up to Xanadu at the court of Kubilai Khan. Years later he will write "Il Milione", the story of that incredible journey.

Marco Polo

Ventotene, a small island in the Mediterranean. Under a breathtaking starry sky, waiting for the dawn.
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Thanks to @RosinDust for her gorgeous violins. I am always grateful for her willingness and enthusiasm.
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In the last period I worked a lot on things written some time ago, so I had not composed anything new for a few months and, as always happens in these cases, I was a little afraid of having run out of creative vein. That's why, with this new piece, I'm happy and ready for the next time when I'm definitely going to ask myself, once again, "oh my god, is this over?" :)

Here the other collaborations with Tatiana:
soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

In the photo, of course, Ventotene.

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

It's almost dawn - with Rosin Dust

A different version of a piece already released a couple of years ago. This is its first original arrangement.
In order of appearance and italianness: RosinDust on violin, Georg on clarinet and Boehme on flaute.
Yes because, incredibly, by dint of collaborating, Tatiana now speaks Italian, and even Georg understands it a little bit. Boehme instead firmly refuses. So far... :) Thanks, friends, you are fabulous, as always!

Here the splendid compositions of Georg Boheme: @georg-boehme
Here the magical music of RosinDust: @RosinDust
Here the previous, very different, electroacoustic version: https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/the-sunbaker?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

The sunbaker picture is from wonderful "The camping album" by Max Dupain and Olive Cotton, 1937, State Library of New South Wales, Australia.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryofnsw/albums/72157641630906725/

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

The sunbaker - with RosinDust and G.Boehme

I don't even remember when we started working on it, we were young ... so The NEP i.e The Never Ending Project :)
Thanks to dear @Georg-boehme, on the saxophones, for the great talent and above all for the tenacity with which he accompanied me in this long project

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

The NEP - with G.Boehme

Last days of summer. Two girls on the pier laugh excitedly braving the waves.

Here comes the wave

Thanks, once again, to @Rosindust for all the skill and passion she has put into the interpretation.
Here you will find other music in which I had the enormous pleasure of having her by my side:
soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Suspended - with Rosin dust

An orchestral piece,  with a deliberately retro arrangement, full of strings and horns, from another era.

The painting: Alex Colville, Couple on Beach, 1957

Do you remember when we met?

For a more dense rhythm section I needed agility on bass line so this time, instead of the double bass, I chose to use my old dear electric bass, an old Cort that's been with me since high school. I haven’t played it for a long time, it’s been fun, I think I will do it again soon.
About the picture: actually the place of the photo is not a station or an airport, it is part of a photographic work I made some years ago on the concept of non-place like the big malls. But a non-place is also, some way, an all-places, every places from which to leave or arrive...
The real truth is that I've always liked this photo, for the perspective plane and because it's full of lines with variety of lights and shadows... In short, I couldn't wait to find an excuse to use it :)

Have a nice trip!

Arrivals and departures

Alone together or together alone, in its many meanings. It is a piece mainly in major but with moments of melancholy, between hope and sadness. About existential solitude but also about brotherhood, the connection between individuals.
In many parts a series of 2 very long, slow, and therefore difficult, violin notes beautifully played for me by dear @rosindust. Here the other collaborations with Tatiana: soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Alone together - with Rosin dust

When I sent @Rosindust a very first demo, the piece still didn't have a name. She asked me on WhatsApp "Ok, how do you want me to play it?" and I replied "Nervous, furious like... like.. Wait!" and I sent her a picture of Medusa from the famous painting by Caravaggio. :)
Actually this piece is a kind of playful revenge: her last piece she asked me to play had guitar parts that were difficult for me and when I recorded them I swore revenge to her with a fiendishly complicated piece for 2 violins :) But, as always, she was so brilliant! We used 2 violins, a classical guitar, an electric bass and a piano. Here all our collaborations: soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Medusa - with Rosin dust

A small piece with the great BoxTox on clarinet.
It was supposed to be a little piece to celebrate the end of the rain on a rainy day, when you can finally go out for a walk, to smell the air. But these days there has been a terrible flood in my country, it has been raining for days, in some areas it has been a catasphrophe... I know, water is life and rain is indispensable but I really don't love it, I can't help it. Let's hope it ends soon..
Thanks to BoxTox for his splendid execution. Here you can find his wonderful music: @user-247600493
And here is our previous collaboration: https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/francesco-cartocci-boxtox-et-voila

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

After the  rain - with BoxTox

The village beauty.
I took this photo in Matera, an old city in the deep south of my country, a magical place, unique in the world. It's even hard to find the words to describe the beauty of this place.
Inhabited since the paleolithic period, the city, perched on a rocky slope, has developed on a system of millenary cave houses dug into the rock, called Sassi. With its small streets that go up and down, its thousand Escher-style stairs, cave churches, underground cisterns and rock houses, it looks like a neo-realist nativity scene or one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, a place out of time. The first time you see Matera you are speechless, its beauty takes your breath away.
After the war, in the 50s, the city, which had always been isolated from the rest of the country, lived in a state of extreme, desperate, poverty. Many of its inhabitants, dedicated mostly to sheep farming, still survived as their ancestors had always done, living in caves together with the same their animals. A heated national political debate arose which ended with the decision to build a new city next to the old one and move its inhabitants there.
Then, for many years the old city remained a ghost town but its recovery began in the 80s, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and is now a wonderful museum town. Matera is 10,000 years old, the third oldest inhabited city in the world. An absolutely must-see place.

La bella di Matera

I'm in my guitar-driven ethno-folk phase. It will pass... :)

Mother Nature

Another piece, the seventh, with dear @georg-boehme on tenor sax, one of the certainties of my life :)
This time, for the walking bass, I played an electric bass.
Here the other pieces together: soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/danke-georg

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Cat steps - with Georg Boehme

A little allegro for folk orchestra with a burlesque, circus flavor. On violin, as always, my dear friend, the fabulous @RosinDust.
From time to time Tatiana gives concerts in orphanages and asylums so she has promised me that she will play this piece soon on one of those occasions, hoping it will bring them some joy. I am very happy about it!
Here the other pieces together: soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

The flying circus - with Rosin dust

Yard time. A bittersweet piece built on small harmonic ambiguities. On violin my friend  @Rosindust. We played 2 classical guitars, 2 violins, an electric bass, a piano and an ostinato digital oboe. 
Here the other pieces together: soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana

The painting: Vincent van Gogh, Prisoners Exercising, 1890. An alienating round of prisoners. Above two small white butterflies, symbol of hope and freedom.

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Ora d'aria - with Rosin dust

Inspired by the novel by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

Il ritorno del ritorno.
Previous version here: https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/ritorno

In the photo, somewhere here, on the coast, a closed bathhouse, a winter evening.

Ritorno II

I'm very happy to present a collaboration with Rosin Dust for a new version of Time, in its original title "Sei mia" (You are mine). 
Many many thanks to https://soundcloud.com/rosindust for her amazing, touching performance on violin! 

Here all our collaborations:
https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

Sei mia - with Rosin Dust

A couple of years ago I was looking for royalty free video material for another tune when I found a old silent movie, Alice in Wonderland, from 1915. Those fantastic images, full of naif beauty,  inspired me a piece about dreamers. That old version is still there on YouTube. This is a new version for violin with a great interpretation of Rosin Dust. The more we collaborate, the more enthusiastic I am of her lyrical sounds.

Here her amazing music: https://soundcloud.com/rosindust  
Here the footage of the movie, with the old version:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJXapdM4GZ4

For all dreamers

Here all our collaborations:
https://soundcloud.com/francescocartocci/sets/grazie-tatiana?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Composition and all arrangements: Francesco Cartocci

The dreamer - with Rosin Dust

Hi!
I am a bass, double bass and guitar player but I like composing on keyboards too.
Thank you for listening!

Francesco Cartocci

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