Valerio Tricoli (Palermo, Italy, 1977) is a composer and performer of electro-acoustic music. Since the mid ’00 is main instruments for live presentations is the Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder, used as a completely analogue / ergonomic device for live sampling and real-time transformation / editing / mixing of pre-recorded (field or studio recordings) and made-on-the-spot sound sources, the latter usually being vocalizations (including speech and singing), small acoustic and electronic instruments, objects, the amplified sound of the room itself in which the concert takes place and – in the case of group sets – whatever is produced by the fellow musicians.
On a formal level his sets focus on the impromptu creation of a narrative which takes into account the multiple relations intervening between reality, virtuality and memory during the acoustic event: sounds are always hovering between the “here and now” of the concert situation and the shady domain of memory – distant but at the same time present like in a deja-vu experience. Privileging fracture over continuity and by the use of a dynamic range that could often jump suddenly from near-silence to extreme blasts of sounds, an almost tactile feeling of brooding tension is often attained.
His electro-acoustic studio compositions, documented on few records, are aligned to the tradition of Musique Concrète and explore themes of the internal – represented both by the psychological and the physical – and of the occult, which together with the large use of spoken text makes them often deeply existential works, self- investigations of the psychological, emotional and irrational horror within.
Over the years Valerio has been active in some long-term collaboration with other musicians, composers, choreographers and multimedia artists. He is a founding member of the italian avant-rock group 3/4HadBeenEliminated and has been working extensively with Werner Dafeldecker, Anthony Pateras, Hanno Leichmann, Thomas Ankersmit.
FACTS:
1: Germany has, among aother things, really bad politics / laws concerning parental issues.
2: Political correctness is creating a world of paranoids, of subhumans, of submachines.
3: Poetry will save us from us.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Myself
2. How and when did you get into making music?
By the age of 14th. Playing bass.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Nirvana “In Utero”. And then some other 4 experimental music records.
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Today? a herd of hipsters with pants way too tight on the legs, walking around with a beer.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
I live in Munich, hence: my house / my studio.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I’d be a fish. I’d also be a fish with music in the world.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Anthony Pateras / Stephen O’ Malley “Reve Noir”.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Billy Corgan
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Spectator: Dean Roberts in Bologna, ca. 2006.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
As in the development of technology: around 0%. I mostly play with discontinued electronics from 30 years ago…
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
We are mediterranean people, we never talk about career. Art: they love it.
Valerio Tricoli will perform together with Hanno Leichtmann on Friday, 15th June at Kantine am Berghain.
