Teardo, Teho
Plays Twin Peaks And Other Infinitives
A few years ago I resumed making night time field recordings in the woods on the border between Italy and Slovenia. At night I stand still in the middle of the woods, turn up the volume on the preamplifier, and my hearing is artificially enhanced like a superhero who, thanks to technology, can perceive what the ear cannot: a sound dust populated by micro rhythmic patterns, verses, noises, distant howls, wind rustling leaves, and inevitable fragments of noise pollution traveling through the valleys and wedging themselves everywhere. Birds are the creators of an endless swarm of melodies. I transcribed some of them and played them until they found a place in the compositions of my new album. There is a form of perfect harmony in the invisible soundscape of birds, free of discordant notes. This magnificent balance moves me to the point of evoking a feeling similar to falling in love. I wondered if, while I was there immersed in the darkness of the forest, I was falling in love with something, without knowing what it really was. I've found that question in a song by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti, Falling, which is why it opens the album. And so the melody of the Twin Peaks theme seemed to reach me through the songs of the birds. I looked for other melodic fragments like birdsongs and found them in the compositions of Barbara Strozzi, Henry Purcell, Angelo Badalamenti, and even Bach. Those elements were like infinitive verbs I could decline into a new harmonic context that was just mine. Stefano Bollani helped me explore these universes. His piano was a tool for deeper understanding, a support in my research. I am grateful to him, to the voices of Keeley Forsyth, Abel Ferrara, and the nine year old Vito Bondanese who sang on Falling, and to all the musicians who played on this album for what we discovered. Teho Teardo