Il Cavallo Spaiato released!

I uploaded final release on Bandcamp and Last.FM yesterday around 11.00 PM. Right now I'm putting tracks on Jamendo.

Il Cavallo Spaiato is about schizophrenia, music is quite lunatic and moves continuously from avant-prog to glitch/jungle/hardtek, like two clashing identities in same body. Song Flipback is inspired by italian showgirl (and icon) Raffaella Carrà and her far above-the-mainstream songs, particularly "Ma Che Musica Maestro". Of course results are less commercial. I also made a bebop/avant rework on Jeux d'Eau by Maurice Ravel.

Record is available for free on

Bandcamp · Jamendo · Bittorrent · Youtube playlist

Marcel Duchamp, 2nd videoclip from Dada (Cabaret Voltaire)

Yes, second videoclip from Dada LP, this time for Marcel Duchamp. I built that track taking some interview parts I found on youtube and glitching/fatboyslimming 'em.

To make this videoclip, I sync/adapted original footage to track treatment, added some pics of Duchamp's most famous art pieces, plus a few small animations floating around to give a joyful mood (Duchamp was a provoking guy, needless to say), or sometimes underline his concepts.

I believe it's like a documentary in music, so I found it quite apt for his duty.

Apskaft's Battleship Potemkin is online

In Apskaft we decided one year ago to rebuild Battleship Potemkin soundtrack. Things floated in limbo until last autumn, when we reached to split movie in scenes - still not a real taxonomy :D, but enough to start - and random assign parts. I offered myself as video editor, so in end of october the project started, actually.

This is my part:

I finished to mount final movie on 13 february, and we uploaded it on Youtube (HD 1080p) and Internet Archive (640x360) the day after, so 14 february is the official release date.

We also released the album as usual on Last.FM and this time also on Internet Archive.

Mock Thrill released

Mock Thrill is a record about suffer, solitude and hypocrisy, and it's dedicated to people who are or feel stump.


Mock is a guy who's born with a malformation: it has no limbs. So the only happy moment of his life is into the womb, when floating in limbo (first track), and it makes no difference for him having or not legs and arms. His birth ends in a metallic clang: life entering shock.

At the restaurant he's still a baby, but perceive people pretending they're not noticing his deformity. A taste of false piety.

There is a brief episode when aunt Jamima don't realize he fell from the electric wheelchair - he's desperate because he can't get up, feels stuck and helpless, useless.

Then in Abandoned Dog Afternoon he lives one of the innumerable afternoons lying on the couch like a broken doll, ridiculously bored and slowly going mad.

In one of these afternoon, he's catched by a butterfly flight, so he has a beam of simple beauty and somewhat forget for a while about him, forced by solitude to face himself day by day he quits his (sad) solipsism.

He refuses to see the new false friends when he's a teenager (Please Do not Want to Know Nice Fake New Friends), distrust of others who obviously consider him a "monster".

But one day he knows Eddie, a friend who does not seem to think he's an "useless stump", as bad kids called Mock.

They become rapidly friends, and start to have experiences together: they have a trip (Eddy Gave me a Coriander), then they go to see an art exhibition (Me and Eddy at an Art Exhibition), in short, everything's great now.

Suddenly, Eddy knows a brasilian girl cruising nightlife and start to get "unavailable" , too busy... and while he's busy, Mock start to become paranoid. He's right, Eddy disappear forever.

So Mock get back to his bloody couch again and again.
And we see, at the end of this record, when Mock's mind collapses and goes nut (Blast of Fury).

DOWNLOADS:
BANDCAMP · JAMENDO · BITTORRENT mp3 · BITTORRENT Ogg

New videoclip from LaGuardia, 3:00 AM

A small story of not-so-ordinary rebellion from Outskirt.

Meanimal released on October 28

Very fast record (12 tracks for 18 minutes), minimal in song duration, but also an admixture among mean and animal, primitive, sometimes solar tunes.

There are 4 ska/reggae/dub tracks (Alaska, Anaconda, Kind Titan - hommage to Gentle Giant - and Epifonema), a pereubian waltz (Il Valzer di Paolo), avantprog (Gestalt, Roundabout), exerimental (Ammutinamento!, Glasgow Coma Score, Entropia), a strange stomp& harmonica endless startup (Catfight) and a drama number (Panic in the Elevator).

You can listen / download it directly from Bandcamp, Bittorrent (booklet included) or from Jamendo (no booklet).

Loki by Andrea Ferrantelli

My friend Andrea is a guitar/bass player and composer born in Turin and living in Helsinki. He started to play the guitar at the age of 17, in 1994.
He played in dozens of bands, ranging from Black Metal to Thrash, Technical Death Metal, Heavy Metal and Rock. Andrea recently started to play also the bass, both fretted and fretless.

He liked my intention to let replay Mjöllnir by (or with) other musicians (and change it if needed, according to their skills and attitudes), so he chose Loki. He first worked on a light keyboard + bass + drum version to add guitar layers, and I utterly remixed and deleted/changed some keyboars, to fit at the best Andrea valuable fretwork.

I'm really satisfied by this version of Loki, and Ferrantelli as well. He changed accents and mood, and even ranged into eastern scales, which is a common ground -as I indulged myself many times on it as well.
I believe it's very likely we'll further collaborate in next future.

Final track is already online on Andrea Ferrantelli MySpace page and Last.FM (in ./root: the Singles).

Dada (Cabaret Voltaire) is available now!

This record is a brief journey through Dada art movement. Opening track is dedicated to Cabaret Voltaire, a swiss nightclub where all started by a group of european artists. First founder, and subject of second track, was Hugo Ball (he wrote the small poem I-Zimbra, which was subsequently used as a lyrics by Talking Heads in their namesake song). Hence continues the portrait gallery of Dadaists, interrupted sometimes by three small tracks called Shiver.

To people with few, or no knowledge about dadaists, booklet here is strongly recommended.

Downloads:

Bittorrent
http://www.mininova.org/tor/13195590

Jamendo
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/76024

Bandcamp
http://hoxvox.bandcamp.com/album/dada-cabaret-voltaire

Dada EP released

This EP includes first 4 tracks from forthcoming new record Dada, a concept album about Dadaism art movement seen through famous Dadaists' points of view.
Hugo Ball and Tristan Tzara are two electronic ballads, winding between kraut rock and trip-hop. Hans Arp is a tragic cabaret piece with a war scenario on the background, George Grosz is quite Motown meet Stockhausen.

Downloads:

Jamendo http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/72821
Bandcamp http://hoxvox.bandcamp.com/album/dada-ep

The Wanderer track on Dandelion Radio show july schedule

The schedule for this month's show on Dandelion Radio (with its special Apskaftian section) is now available http://www.dandelionradio.com/schedule.htm. Playing almost daily through July.

The aforementioned apskaftian section is an experiment by Greg Healey (see HealeyIsland; also member of Apskaft collective). He asked if someone would create on purpose a track for his Dandelion radio show with these boundaries:

• Each song must be exactly 3 minutes in length.
• The songs must be an original Apskaftian interpretation of POP MUSIC.
• All songs must be original material. No cover versions.

I joined the project with The Wanderer from The Wanderer EP.

The results will be analyzed in Greg's show second part.
Pay attention: schedule is in british summer time, so UTC +1

The Wanderer is out

It's seventh record in Hox Vox discography, a story about a doped killer on the way to catch his victim, during a whole night in Savannah (GA). Five scenes including an introduction (The Wanderer, genre alt. pop), where the killer wake up from drugs effects, and the subsequent route through the latin area (La Posada de Joaquín Ortega, latin jazz), downtown (Downtown Strut, funky), and actually on Savannah waterfront (Port of Savannah, avant prog). Last three minutes of blistering hysterical chase are enclosed in ending track, Gotcha (hardtechno).

Downloads:

Jamendo (mp3 only) http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/68437
Bittorrent (+ booklet) http://www.mininova.org/tor/3193717

New videoclip for It's the Loveliest Thing I Ever Heard (Eight-Bit Deboned)

I made a clip from this old track because its theme was domestic violence, loneliness within a couple, and women discrimination issue. I pointed directly to domestic violence and related despair ("legal" raping - which isn't in any way true, except in a known abetment among machos). It can be disturbing for sensible people.

Mjöllnir released

Mjǫllnir (also spelled Mjöllnir or Mjölner, pronounced /ˈmy-oll-nir/ or /ˈmjɔːlnər/ in English) is the hammer of Thor, a major god associated with thunder in Norse mythology. Distinctively shaped, Mjöllnir is depicted as one of the most fearsome weapons, capable of leveling mountains. Though generally recognized and depicted as a hammer, Mjöllnir is sometimes referred to as an axe or club. In the 13th century Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson relates that the Svartálfar Sindri and Brokkr made Mjöllnir at the command of Loki.

The Prose Edda gives a summary of Mjöllnir’s special qualities in that, with Mjöllnir, Thor:

... would be able to strike as firmly as he wanted, whatever his aim, and the hammer would never fail, and if he threw it at something, it would never miss and never fly so far from his hand that it would not find its way back, and when he wanted, it would be so small that it could be carried inside his tunic.

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This record was finished during night between 4 and 5th of April, and uploaded on Jamendo. Assignment of Safecreative cose and acceptance by Jamendo staff on April 7.

First part is made by eight portraits (Jörð, Odin, Sif, Thor, Baldr, Loki, Freyr and Heimdall), plus two finals tracks:

• Ragnarök ("final destiny of the gods"), in Norse mythology is a series of major events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Freyr, Heimdall, and the jötunn Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water.
• Epilogue, referring to the afterwar.

Music is avantprog, loosely inspired by Magma, Frank Zappa, Faust, King Crimson, EL&P.

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This record, as usual, is released with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, so it's free to listen, download and share.

You can download it in mp3 192 Kbps format directly from Hox Vox HQ official Hox Vox website (booklet included) or from Jamendo (without booklet). Also available via Bittorrent (booklet included).

Mjöllnir - passed track Hermóðr to Eros Zabeo

Today I gave to Eros, a skilled guitar/bass player form Venezia (he played in Ugly Duckings, a rock band in the city) Hermóðr scheme. He'll work on guitar and arrangements.

Mjöllnir - passed track Loki to Andrea Ferrantelli

Andrea Ferrantelli is an italian young mad (but very elegant) scientist living in Helsinki, who started to play guitars and basses 15 years ago in avant/jazz/prog/extreme metal area. He was interested in cooperate in making Mjöllnir, so I asked him to work on Loki, a track from first record half, and on 6 february I sent him a few waves.

Released Harry Up Harry part 1

Uploaded on Jamendo and Last.FM Hurry Up Harry part 1, first record of three in Harry's breakbeat-trip/hip hop-chillout saga.

It's a series of songs clocking 2 minutes, except a couple of 30 seconds ghosts tracks and Rusty Nail / Cruisin' in El Monte "twin tracks" (one 1:00 @ 180 bpm, the other 3:00 @ 60 bpm). Scheme is very strict and the overall impression is a fast, brief record, with a series of short hooks one after the other.

The trilogy is dedicated to my friend - drummer in Death in Venice - Marco Bianchi aka Mark Winnipeg. This first part is about his hyperactive youth, expressed through an hysterical travel among California, Panama and Jamaica.

Update to HD for three clips on Youtube

I rendered again Belief: Wrath, Belief: Greed and Thar Desert in HD 720p and uploaded on Hox Vox Box channel. I also added some variations.


Belief: Greed got no blue tint now, and it's tighter to original "Peyote" animation.



In Belief: Wrath I added sparkles when hammers land on the anvil and a couple of motion blur fx. Few and small retouches.



Last was retitled Thar Desert 2.0 because I added circa 150 new animations. Essentially is the old Thar Desert populated by many other moving elements.

Jeanne d'Arc clip is online now

Just uploaded last videoclip from Étoile, Jeanne d'Arc. This time I worked with paint effects on some footages about Crusades, Jeanne d'Arc and east europe (looking like a little middle east) singers. Track is, briefly, about the juxtaposition of western guitar arpeggios and middle east vocals.

My intention was putting together women from both sides in Cusades: a western woman, the "étoile" in this case, which dared to act like a male soldier in a demented inquisition environment; and docile eastern singers. They got no moments of glory followed by dying on a pyre, but a continuous subordination, so actually it's a pondering about women's troubles in western or eastern world. Different ways and degrees of cruelty, same patriarchism.

Clip simply follow this scheme and adds a movie picture support. I needed just a couple of days to finish it as it's a "punk" expression in videomaking. This time I tried to catch the result on the fly, without exceeding in refurbishing every single frame. Not a draft, but a quicker language. And a different subject, it wasn't the right place to unleash some After Effects frenzy quirknesses. At the opposite, I worked on slow motion footages, to achieve a relaxed but a little gloomy mood.

I found quite cruel in the last sequence to put side by side Jeanne d'Arc in flames and a smiling singer. It was not intended as a revenge of muslim on a christian, but the cruelty in life itself. While one is dying, the other is enjoying his art.

Зимний дворец recommended videoclip of the day at Jamendo

I received an email from Jamendo telling me Зимний дворец videoclip is recommended clip on their blog today. This is the review:

Hox Vox is a progressive rock project by Italian artist Gianluca Missero. His track “Zimniy Vorets (the Winter Palace)” is an experimental piano piece evoking the Russian revolution.

The video that goes with it is an interesting assemblage of old footage from the early 20th century and animated film made with collages, set in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Not your typical pop music video; then again, Hox Vox’s stuff isn’t your typical pop music either.

Enjoy the weird atmosphere emanating from the whole thing below. This is taken from the album “Outskirt“.

Source blog page is HERE

Hell if the guy was scared the music was too avantgarde! :-)) The small, but proportionally decent feedback says that dance people escaped as it was logical to expect, and the few adventurous listeners had a taste.

I made a videoclip for IfSounds

This time I had a new esperience: first time I make a clip for another band.

My friend Dario Lastella sent me some DVDs with IfSounds footages about Midsummer Raving, a track enclosed in their (then) namesake record If, a collection of songs from '93 to 2005.
They changed in these days their name from If to IfSounds, enrolled a couple of new bandmates (for singer Elena it's a coming back, plus a new drummer) and decided to give another spin to Midsummer Raving.

To me it was a double challenge: first of all, I had to assemble footages shooted without a storyboard. Second, I usually make videoclips from my most unlistenable / avant tracks (quite masochist, under a commercial point of view); while this track is a melancholic ballad about loneliness and abandon, with no bass nor drums - just voice, guitar, piano and viola. Very melodic and pop.

I pointed on a juxtaposition between B/W and color blasts by still images, slow editing with fades (just one dry cut in 6 minutes), a classical multi-splitted screen. Simple and plain.
I added a drummer video sequence, despite there are none in this track, as Ifsounds with this clip wanted also to present the new line-up enclosing new drummer Enzo Bellocchio.

Well, this is the result, I'm quite happy with it.