Gigi Masin is an Italian ambient musician from Venice. He is best known for his 1986 LP Wind and as a member of Gaussian Curve, a trio with Jonny Nash and Young Marco.
A member of Italy’s underground electronic scene, Masin pressed Wind privately and only released it at a series of small concerts in 1986. Most of the remaining copies were destroyed when Masin’s house was flooded. However, it became a cult item after being sampled by artists such as Björk and Nujabes, leading to a revival of interest in Masin’s work. Music from Memory released the compilation Talk to the Sea in 2014, and the following year Masin reissued Wind on his own label The Bear On The Moon and formed a new band, Gaussian Curve.
Gaussian Curve’s first album Clouds was released in 2015. Its second, The Distance, came out April 17, 2017. Gigi Masin will perform at Festsaal Kreuzberg on Mai 5th 2018.
FACTS:
1: I’m a Venetian. It’s something about the sunset on the water, the sails, the food, our history and the blue sky in the springtime. Venice is in the World, not only in Italy.
2: I’m not religious. Most of all I’m a mystic, so it means I believe in nature, in the magic and in the mystery of the mankind.
3: I’d like to work in music by ‘subtraction’. Too much sometimes led you to a useless kaos.. To make a flower it needs just few petals and not a forest.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
‘Love’ could be a honest answer, but not always.. inspiration is not so clear and not so simple to say.
Sometimes it’s a flower, sometimes it’s a game of petals you have to paste togheter.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I’ve played a guitar for years, writing songs in a rock band.. but music really came out when I started to work with tapes, turntables and electronics, in theaters, for dramas
and readings. Making experiments lead me to create new sounds, that was the period I realized I was making my music.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
John Martyn ‘Inside Out’
Weather Report ‘Mysterious Traveller’
Nick Drake ‘Five Leaves Left’
Paul Bley ‘Closer’
Steve Tibbetts ‘Safe Journey’
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
The light of your sky, the trees on Kopernik strasse, the houses around Kurfurstendamm, the Tiergarten, the Sprea river…
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
It’s called ‘Zattere’, where the ships used to docking when I was young. It’s a incredible mix of water, sunshine and Venetian skyline..
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Go fishing or painting..
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
I didn’t really bought a record from a long time.. in 2007 I lost in a flood my hi-fi system and it was so expensive to have a new one. Occasionally I bought jazz cds.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
I’ve a lot to learn.. I’m really open to new projects but surely it will be a dream come true to collaborate with great artists like Paul Buchanan and Nina Cherry, share again time and music with Devendra (Banhart) or recording an album in Japan with some of the talented musicians I’ve meet there.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Back in 1979 I saw John Martyn on stage.. my hero got a little flou and was a little drunk, nothing shining or brilliant like a star, he seemed to be a summary of a Ken Loach’s movie. But when he started to play and sing…wow! the magic of his art was unbelievable.. goose bumps!
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Technology is my slave, not the contrary.. I still try to use the machines like old tape recorders (and sometimes I really use tape recorders!). In fact it’s nice and lovely to experiment new sounds with apps and softwares, but your soul has to remain the captain.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I got a sister… but in general here there’s a bit of indifference if you aren’t on the ‘mainstream’ of music or art in general.
To Listen: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QJ1NLJ9djVE
