lunedì 24 agosto 2015

Interview with Mauro Tonolli (Oltre Duo) by Andrea Aguzzi


Hello Mauro, how are you? It's a long time that we don’t have a talk but I have seen that your music never stops, tell us a bit about this new project Oltre Duo ..

Hello Andrea, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you!. Oltre Duo has a base formation, classical guitar and vibraphone; for a few more passages we play duo solo guitar -cajon.
But Oltre Duo was born with the desire to expand "beyond" the duo and to collaborate, depending on the concert we play, with other musicians.
We try to play with instruments that can accompany with soloists or singers of many different kinds, it is a continuous stimulus.

How did you meet Alessandro Bianchini?

Alessandro is a talented percussionist and vibraphonist especially, we played together for the first time a year ago and we enjoyed it,  so we started the idea of Oltre Duo.

Your combination between classical guitar and vibraphone is not something so simple and obvious, there are references in jazz but with different guitars, as you solved the problems associated with differences in the volumes of sound? Did you boost your classical guitar?

The diversity of the volumes between our instruments has forced me to search for an amplification that could not distort my guitar sound. Many people opt for an already amplified instrument (there are excellent ones) but the sound is not the same, you can feel it especially in duo and for the classical repertoire. I'm lucky to have a beautiful Philip Woodfield 2011 guitar, amplified with two Neumann microphones TML 102 large diaphragm condenser, also when I play live. I use an Audient preamplifier. It's not the fastest and simple solution but it is very natural.

Which repertoire do you played mostly? I saw in your youtube channel that you play music by Heitor Villa Lobos, Joao Pernambuco, Celso Machado and Astor Piazzolla, what kind of  audience do you hope to achieve?

The video and audio on our youtube channel and on our website are part of the first session in a recording studio, then we recorded music by Nelson Cavaquinho ("Luz Negra" in the version of Bollani), Antonio C. Jobin Jim Hall and Chick Corea. In autumn will be released on CD with our many partnerships.
The repertoire is constantly moving, we have no restrictions, our public enjoy  the music we play.The element of improvisation that we insert in classic scores and revisiting some standards have given us the opportunity to find dates in environments dedicated to jazz music.

I know you're planning a series of events extending your duo to quintet, quartet and trio, do you want to talk about these events and these lineup changes? They will also change the music that you play?

Whenever we can, we like to invite one or more musicians or accept external collaborations. This approach is challenging and it change the music to be proposed at the concert, sometimes we change the songs we have in the repertoire, and sometimes we change them.
In recent months we have worked with Emilio Galante (flute), Shanti K. Roat (voice), Stefano Bianchini (double bass), Thomas Samonati (drums). The next concerts are in trio quartet and quintet, with voice we will play several songs by Antonio C. Jobin, with the flute, for example, we play more Piazzolla.

One last question and then I'll leave you to your guitars .... electric guitar and contemporary music ... do you think you will play again?

I still play electric guitart, even when we play in a quintet with Oltre Duo.
I left contemporary music for the moment but by the next year the intention is to commission original works for Oltre Duo, guitar and vibraphone. If there is any composer who want to experience this formation we are ready to add his music in this project!

I saw that you are organizing a music festival in Trentino, am I right?

Exactly, it is entitled " Rassegna concerti del Baldo " and this is the first edition. For this year we have organized three concerts and a master class with Pacassoni Trio, Mosaiko Ensemble and Oltre Duo as a quintet, in Brentonico and Mori towns between late August and early September.
Although the music world in recent years is suffering there are still institutions that believe in art, I have to thank the Cassa Rusale di Mori, Brentonico, Val di Gresta for their trust and finance.

http://oltreduo.wix.com/oltreduo

Nessun commento: