nobody like everybody can  be somebody , enjoyed more than aall most

Suggestive and highly creative, rich and unusual...

These tracks contributed to create my poetry book and soundscape of the same name.

BOOK
https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/beginnings-tragedies

ALBUM
https://ilariaboffa.bandcamp.com/album/beginnings-other-tragedies-the-soundscape

Beginnings & Other Tragedies/ Inizi e Altre Tragedie

Midi Generators
Acoustic Pianos
Prepared Pianos
FXs


LOVE!

MAURA

Aerate

You never know how  loop's going to turn out. What surprised me about this one was the bell-like chime sounds, as this track is played on guitar through a couple of TC electronics  pedals. I used the TC electronic triple delay tape setting, which beautifully degrades the sound over time, smoothing it out like pebbles in water, polishing the string plucks into finger symbols.

loop 11111

Marco Lucchi : synthesizer

found sounds
https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/505094/

6 ottobre 2021

Ὁ Γὰρ Καιρὸς Ἐγγύς (mad version)

Sonopoetry by https://soundcloud.com/ilaria_boffa
Field recording taken at Teatro Cinema Astra in Padua (Italy) during the meet&greet with filmmaker Andrea Segre for the premiere of ‘Welcome Venice’ film as part of the ‘Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Venezia 2021’.

pic: 'Venetia', Map by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem & University Library

'Almost real

Why is there nothing rather than something? 
Why is there something rather than nothing? 
They say ‘knowledge that something is actually true 
is compatible with ignorance as to how it could be true.’ 
No thing, non-thing, the absence of a something
nonexistence, niente. Reductio ad absurdum 
in the maze of doubts.
Il nulla is subjectively unacceptable.

But what’s almost real quotes the third landscape.
It entices us to browse through the wreckage
of visibility. Leftovers from passages that no one
had the rashness to venture.
Whereas the straw, bland and ditched, avails
scarecrows and stuffed chairs.
These deeds of the might-be
stare out of people’s eyes and gnaw at us.

All of me wanted all of it. 
All of me surrendered.'

Almost Real

11Oct21

My naviarhaiku405 submission;
https://www.naviarrecords.com/2021/10/06/naviarhaiku405-a-day-of-rainbows/
:D

The damp days of autumn [naviarhaiku405]

Second Falls 3

Succumb

Another journey into the cosmos of experimental sounds
Thanks to my fellow guide and collaborator  @tea_are_sea  
Terry is a master of his craft. He is responsible for just about all the melodic elements and interplay of this piece. A real honor and pleasure to work with

We hope you enjoy!

just a tiny infinity - Tea Are Sea Collaboration

Neat Shape

Field recording taken in Vibo Marina (Italy) by IB
Violin improvisation and vocals on the beach by https://soundcloud.com/ida-di-vita
Sono-poetry, sound effects and mixing by IB

Excerpt #2 from my in progress new poetry book:

'And then there’s failure. Again and again.
A sandcastle torn down right before it falls.
Because it’s stinging to see it washed in with the tide
blown away or stamped over by someone else.
It’s always been an elsewhere with an unnatural
push to end.    

Failing failing failing and failing again.
It’s the cost of regret and choices
deferred that burdens us.
Getting old and realising that
we haven’t shared our lives.
The gusts of wind clearing fast
the air when fall starts.

Trying, trying, trying and trying again.
So mortal the doubt of being defeated 
the discomfort, the weakness.
If only guilt could make amends. 

Everywhere is an elsewhere.
Such region of possibility blurs behind 
the virtuality of this decade
the world’s several attempts to
decarbonise as fast as possible
chasing consensus at COP negotiations.
We should sign our own Paris Agreement
and write a consistent rubric.
We should lie down under 
an auburn skyline and kiss.

E poi c’è il fallimento. Ancora e ancora.
Un castello di sabbia distrutto giusto prima di cadere.
Perché è dura vederlo scomparire con la marea
spazzare via dal vento o calpestare da qualcun altro.
È sempre stato un altrove dall’innaturale
spinta a finire.

Fallire fallire fallire e fallire ancora.
È il costo del rimpianto e delle scelte
differite che grava su di noi.
Invecchiare e rendersi conto
di non aver condiviso le nostre vite.
Le raffiche di vento che puliscono l’aria
veloci all’inizio dell’autunno.

Provare, provare, provare e provare ancora.
Com’è mortale il dubbio del venir sconfitti
il disagio, la debolezza.
Se solo la colpa facesse ammenda.

Dovunque è un altrove.
Questa regione di possibilità sbiadisce dietro 
la virtualità dell’ultima decade
i numerosi tentativi del mondo
di decarbonizzare il più velocemente possibile
inseguendo il consenso alle negoziazioni COP.
Dovremmo firmare il nostro Accordo di Parigi
e scrivere un corrispondente protocollo.
Dovremmo stenderci sotto 
uno skyline ramato e baciarci.'

So mortal the doubt

Field recording taken by IB at the Antique Market/Mercatino delle Cose d'Altri Tempi, Piazzola sul Brenta (Padua). Group of college students' open air performance.
This market is one of the biggest in Europe.

Poem 'Make Me Ready' by IB from the in progress new book

'Make me ready for the arrival of the rain
which is expected heavy but needed.
Show me what I can get rid of
pruning shrubs along the fluvial corridor.
And if we must leave 
the fourth industrial revolution behind
its augmented social reality 
to repair our notion of mortality
help me not to falter.
We may remain one day, one last day.'

'Preparami all’arrivo della pioggia
che si prevede intensa ma necessaria.
Mostrami ciò di cui sbarazzarmi
potare gli arbusti lungo il corridoio fluviale.
E se dobbiamo lasciarci alle spalle
la quarta rivoluzione industriale
la sua aumentata realtà sociale 
per poter recuperare la nozione di mortalità
aiutami a non vacillare.
Potremmo rimanere un giorno, un ultimo giorno.'

Make Me Ready

I am delighted to give my contribution for 'Ode to Life', a project created by talented artist and friend Wilfried Hanrath. 
(https://soundcloud.com/flyingtonefish)

'Ode to Life' is a cry to be and remain human regardless of religion, land, present and future. A collection of various artists.
https://wilfriedhanrath.bandcamp.com/album/ode-to-life

Phonocene/Fonocene is an excerpt from my latest book 'Beginning and Other Tragedies/Inizi e Altre Tragedie'.
This track is voice only, a crescendo of pathos and anticipation, which I hope does justice to the theme.

Phonocene

We’ve recognised our sound
in this Phonocene.
We’ve shared significance
and a territory, a place to be.
While feeling and hearing
birds crashing into the sky
trees imploding, people
tearing apart and decomposing
we cry out our phonos
of pure joy and echoes of grief.

We walk this Phonocene
with our eyes closed, stuck
in between bewilderment and action.
What can we do but hold on
and be memory for one another?
What can we do
but belong to life?

Fonocene

Abbiamo riconosciuto il nostro suono
in questo Fonocene.
Abbiamo condiviso il significato
e il territorio, un posto in cui essere.
Mentre percepiamo e ascoltiamo
uccelli schiantarsi contro il cielo
alberi implodere, persone
andare in pezzi e decomporsi
gridiamo il nostro phonos
di pura gioia ed echi di pena.

Camminiamo questo Fonocene
ad occhi chiusi bloccati
tra stupore e azione.
Cosa fare se non resistere
ed essere memoria l’uno per l’altra?
Che cosa possiamo fare
se non appartenere alla vita?

pic Phonocene, story of a woman/Fonocene, storia di una donna, Anello dei Colli Euganei, March 2024.

Phonocene/Fonocene

Ode to Failure/Ode al Fallimento is an excerpt from my latest book 'Beginnings & Other Tragedies/Inizi e Altre Tragedie', Valley Press 2023.
Field recording taken with jrf hydrophone.

'Ode to Failure

Close all the windows
check for draughts.
Let it start and flow and pass through
the furniture and the basket of linen
the dying toothpaste tube
the dogs’ eco-bags.
On each visit, it seems it never left
talkative and judgmental, it lingers.
But when we sit surrendered
it crops and trims, it asks for mercy.
This is not about falling per se
rather, about the dynamics of the fall.
Like photon wave-particle duality
and the uncertainty principle.
We can never be certain
about the position of a body in space.
If we fall it’s hard to pinpoint us
figure out where we’ll land.
It says – don’t take all the blame
I can be irrational and unwarranted
over-ascribed to your life.
Contextualise your grief.

Ode al Fallimento

Chiudete tutte le finestre
controllate gli spifferi.
Che cominci e fluttui e passi attraverso
i mobili e il cesto della biancheria
il tubetto agonizzante del dentifricio
i sacchetti bio dei cani.
A ogni visita, sembra non sia mai partito
loquace e giudicante, si attarda.
Ma quando ci sediamo arresi
ritaglia e spunta, ci chiede comprensione.
Non si tratta del cadere di per sé
piuttosto delle dinamiche della caduta.
Come la dualità di onde-particelle dei fotoni
e il principio di incertezza.
Non possiamo mai essere certi
della posizione di un corpo nello spazio.
Se cadiamo è difficile localizzarci
capire dove atterreremo.
Dice – non addossarti tutta la colpa
posso essere irrazionale e arbitrario
sovra attribuito alla tua vita.
Contestualizza la pena.'

Ode To Failure/Ode Al Fallimento

Stay put | Resta fermo is an excerpt from my book 'Beginnings & Other Tragedies', which is included in the theatre work "Surviving You, Always' 2025 performed at LAC Lugano and SUDPOL Luzern by Swiss Collettivo Treppenwitz.

Field recording taken by IB in the Rhine w/jrz hydrophone in Basel in 2023 during the research phase.

'If I live with you
N latitudes and longitudes
simultaneous instants
before and after
my vertebral consumption
in between
we will rest.
Wherever you are
whenever you happen to be
stay put.

Se vivo con te
N latitudini e longitudini
istanti simultanei
prima e dopo il consumarsi
delle mie vertebre
in questo intervallo di mezzo
riposeremo.
Ovunque tu sia
in qualunque attimo ti trovi
resta fermo.'

Stay Put | Resta Fermo (part of Surviving You, Always performance)

Fall 2019
A soundscape for a landscape.    -   Swedish Lappland

Synthesizers:
Moog model D
Moog Voyager XL
Moog sub 37

Aurora Borealis

Poetry, Field recording and the Human Human

'I use this space to offer an experience of Sonopoetry, the voice of verses combined with field/sound recording and music collaborations.
Writing and composition marked the passage from pre-history to history for human beings. I firmly believe that writing&listening (active care/empathy and full attention to each and every sound from each and every living and non living being) could inform, guide and represent the Posthuman era that I'll call Human Human era -from sapiens sapiens to human human.
The contemporary alliance between the disciplines of Art, Science and Philosophy elicits the conceptualisation of the Posthuman that to me also implies the transition from the Anthropocene to the Age of Art as a driver of thought and vision. I advocate the responsibility to assign a 'more than human' meaning to the Posthuman concept, that's why Human Human, in order to emphasise the human core, the genetic connection to bio and non-bio diversity as per the Biophilia Hypothesis.
Are we listening?'

Born 6 January 1972, Ilaria Boffa is an Italian poet and sound recordist. 
She has published four poetry collections and she is one of the eight authors included in the North East American Association publication ‘Writing in a Different Language’ Vol XL 2018.
Over the last years, she has been experimenting with field recording, blending her spoken word with sound.
Publications:
Beginnings & Other tragedies/Inizi e Altre Tragedie, 2023, book of poems (Eng/Ita)
https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/beginnings-tragedies

About Sounds About Us/Di Suoni e di Noi, 2019, book of poems (Eng/Ita)
http://www.samueleeditore.it/about-sounds-about-us-ilaria-boffa/

Writing in A Different Language, volume XL NeMLA publications (Northeast Modern Language Association), College of New Jersey, 2018
http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/publications/nis/past/volume-xl.html

The Bliss of Hush and Wires/Periferie, 2016, book of poems (Eng/Ita)
http://www.samueleeditore.it/periferie-the-bliss-of-hush-and-wires-ilaria-boffa-2/

Almost Real

Ilaria Boffa

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