Francesco Pellegrino and Lisa Cantini
Live electronics and live video
> Ecosistemi Effimeri (Ephemeral ecosystems),
a project by Francesco Pellegrino and Lisa Cantini on the IIC Melbourne Vimeo channel: click here
Ecosistemi Effimeri is a project that brings together the aesthetic and technical research conducted in recent years: it passes from the idea of musical composition as the creation of imaginary chronotopes, to technical research, both instrumental and digital. The work shapes time and space through tensive relationships that arise from the interaction of sound creatures, with their own will, and models of growth and evolution, which are crossed during listening.
The basis of the compositional evolution lies in the interaction between acoustic instruments and sound environments: the latter are generated through software developed by the author specifically for this aesthetic idea; this software allows the reorganization of the material recorded live through probabilistic maps that vary over time.
A map is the container of the possibilities that define sound: volume, timbre, position and all other characteristics are chosen within these maps, which describe the possibility of each event having certain characteristics.The composition is therefore partly based on the temporal development of these maps that can give sounds an organization that varies from deterministic to chaotic, imitating natural organizational behaviors.
For example, a percussive sound, such as a toy piano sound, recorded live during performance can create a “rain” of sounds where the original sample is a single drop. Great attention is therefore focused on the choice of sound materials, on their ways of evolution over time and on their possibilities of interaction within the same environment; around the central figure of the tenor saxophone revolve a set of other sounds, such as clarinet, ukulele, melodica and others, and these are blended with electronic materials and environmental recordings.
Each sound expressed by the instruments is not an object but a creature: an entity that in environmental development can take personal evolutionary paths, create habitats where the creative instrument becomes only part of a complex system of dynamic relationships over time.The acoustic instruments, which during the whole record are never modified by the electronics, remaining natural, therefore become part of a relationship of creation – home – interaction where the performance can take certain or improvisational paths in the interaction with the environments.
The compositional idea is strongly linked to the performance: in fact, everything that happens is played and generated in real time and structured to allow live performance; this leads to the possibility of creating ever-changing performances where large spaces are left to the improvisation of instruments and the evolutionary possibilities of sound creatures that create different environments each time. The result is an organic whole that manages to move between two opposite poles of listening, one of a narrative type, which follows a musical communication, and the other of a contemplative, immersive type, where the narrative points of reference dissolve and they lead to an environmental, meditative perception of sound.
The video project
The visual part of the work, created by Lisa Cantini, is built starting from the idea of contemplation and immersion in the musical material. In fact, video is based on the editing and manipulation of films made by sliding the camera lens on various types of surfaces: this technique allows the creation of visual textures where the references go from recognizable to completely abstract, where the characteristics of a given landscape as they flow, they become colors, timbres, rhythms and shapes that force the eye to abandon the search for the determination of forms to get lost in the flow of images.
This flow is managed live by imitating the musical compositional system; the macro visual composition, in fact, is decided by the upstream choice of materials for each part of the video, thus managing the general visual narration while, going into the detail, the material is managed in two different ways: on the one hand, the editing of the clips and the quality of the overlay is determined, as for the sounds, by probabilistic maps which this time manage the scrolling speed, the color and the mixing of the videos; a second way, which refers in particular to acoustic instruments played live, is the use of effects on the sound-reactive video: in this way, while the sound environments will create immersive videos, the sound characteristics of the acoustic instruments can go to directly change the characteristics of the video montage, definitively merging the narratives in the creation of a truly multimedia work.
Francesco Pellegrino studied at the Cherubini Conservatory of Florence in the class of “Music and New Technologies”. He graduated with a grade of 110 with honors in both the three-year and two-year periods with two experimental theses; the first sees the creation of an electromagnetic translator capable of transforming surfaces into speakers; with this translator he creates the piece “Colori e Lines” for classical guitar amplified by a gong and an orchestral eardrum.
For the thesis of the two-year specialist he creates his first interactive installation, “Little Trip”, a darkened room with 512 LEDs and a 6-channel spatialization system that create an immersive environment that interacts with the users. He then follows the master in Interaction Design at SUPSI in Lugano.
In 2008 his translator was used by the famous composer and artist Daniele Lombardi to transmit the sound of the piano to brass plates, in the piece “Le son de ténèbres”, created for the exhibition of the artist Roberto Ciaccio, at the palazzo fontana of Trevi in Rome.
In 2010 he was involved in the “John Cage: Music Exposed” event, in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence; for the occasion he created with Alessandra Panerai a reinterpretation of the piece “Cartridge Music” for theremin and live electronics.In collaboration with the multi-instrumentalist Luca DiVolo, the pianist Luisa Carpignano and the set designer Anita Barghigiani, she creates and plays the performance “Real Virtuality”, for guitar, saxophone, piano and interactive scenographers; the performance was presented at the “Sands of Time” festival in Florence in 2012.
In 2013 he created the “Inner waving” installation where eight pools of water transformed into speakers show sounds on a visual level, creating complex and meditative environments. The installation was presented at the National Sound Archives in Mexico City. Later the same installation was presented on other occasions: STOFF (Stockholm Fringe Festival, Stockholm), Semiottagono delle Murate in Florence, COMBAT Price (Fortezza Vecchia, Livorno). During his residency at the Tempo Reale research center, founded by Luciano Berio, he created through Max_MSP a software for the creation of complex and probabilistic sound environments starting from live samples.
Since 2015 he has been playing with the musicians and composers Maurizio Montini and Andrea Venturoli, in the 3D3 trio, creating immersive three-dimensional compositions for acoustic instruments and synthesizers, with various dates in Italy. In the trio he uses and renews his software for the creation of three-dimensional live sound environments.
In 2016 he won the call for the “Progetto RIVA”, of the MUS.E association and of Murate Progetti Arte Contemporanea of Florence with the work “Vivente”: an installation specially designed for the spaces of the Murate complex, where 128 reeds made of bamboo they sound like organ pipes and marimbas, controlled by a stochastic engine management algorithm, written in Max / MSP; the pipes are suspended, scattered in the exhibition space and the public is invited to walk through it, in an immersive experience that transforms the space of the former prisons into a space of emotional and spiritual involvement.
Since 2017 he has collaborated with the Tempo Reale research center for shows presented, among others, at the 2017 Venice Biennale and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in the production and programming in Max and Max for Live. As a multi-instrumental musician and composer he has played for various festivals with his pieces for acoustic instruments (trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, guitar, various small percussion and sound objects) and his software for creating sound environments in real time.Finalist of the TU35_Expanded competition of the Pecci museum in Prato. He plays in the MA / IN Matera Intermedia Festival, Tempo Reale Festival (with Marco Baldini) and others.
From 2015 to 2018 he held the Electronic Music course at the “Play Loud” music school in Florence.
In 2018 he created “Nidi”: a series of three igloo-shaped installations, each of a different material (paper, metal, wood), where eight transducers create a small multi-directional environment. The public can experience the installation by entering the small, intimate space of the work and find a profound perception of sound and material. The “Nests” were presented for “Florence of Children 2018” at the Murate Progetti Arte Contemporanea, in collaboration with the illustrator and set designer Anita Barghigiani. These three installations are places for contemplation, the highest level of human interaction. One of the three installations remains on permanent display at the Le Murate PAC center in Florence. He creates for the Tempo Reale center the interpretation of the piece by Giuseppe Chiari “La luce”, for electronic sounds and eight halogen bulbs; both sound and light composition is controlled through Max / Msp. Made specifically for the spaces of Studio Savioli, for the Secret Florence Festival.
In 2018 he won the call for the residency program offered by ToscanainContemporanea 2018 for Chongqing, China. During the one-month residency he made “Matter, Vibration. Space “, a performance on the research on matter through sound, where, playing with a double bass bow and with various knockers, two plates, one in metal and the other in wood, creates, through live electronics (Max / MSP), environments complex sounds. The piece was presented at the Dimensions Art Center in Chongqing.
He creates “Rain Drop”: a site-specific public art installation, created in the town of LiuYin, in the rural area outside Chongqing; the installation uses local materials, bamboo canes that support hand-made gray earthen tiles. Through a bamboo structure on each tile, water is made to drip, with the possibility of adjusting the rhythm of each drop. The path created by the sound pipes, constantly polyrhythmic and dynamic, is located on a small road that leads to the entrance of a Buddhist temple, an invitation to meditation.
The installation was created on the occasion of the workshop organized by the Sichuan Fine Art Institute and the Rural Research Academy of Chongqing in which the artist participated as a “mentor” together with the Japanese artist Onoda Kenzo.
In 2019 he created, with the illustrator Anita Barghigiani “The sound machines”: an immersive journey with sound installations and interactive scenographies for children presented for the “Florence of Children 2019” festival.
Also in 2019 he is curator and performer (with Donato Epiro, Gaspare Sammartano and Vincenzo Procino) of the Italian premiere of John Cage’s performance “Reunion”, created with Francesco Michi and Maurizio Montini for “FKL symposium – Soundscapes and work of play”. He wins the “Nluoghi – Potential Spaces” competition from the University of Macerata and the McZee association, for which he creates the “Leave a Message” installation, an immersive and interactive space where all users can leave their own message to share; all messages become an immersive sound environment. Commissioned the work “The path of the fireflies” from the festival “The arena of straw bales” in Cotignola; the work involves the creation of a path where ceramic modules that are played by an electromagnetic striker like single notes of a xylophone, are arranged along a path between the trees; at each stroke of each module there is a slight glow of a light on the module. This will create a nocturnal landscape, a dream path.
He wins the BiennaleCollege Musica competition, in collaboration with the video artist Roberto Cassano, presenting “Habitat”, an audiovisual work for tenor sax solo, live electronics and reactive audio video. Interpreter, with Renato Grieco and Francesco Toninelli, of Riva – Along the corona by Kirsten Stromberg: 4 graphic scores created starting from the plants that inhabit the Arno riverbanks; made for the Riva 2021 project. In duo with Francesco Massaro in the performance “DoubleExposure”: a concert of encounter between two paths that intersect between reeds and electronics.
Lisa Cantini is a video artist and animator who works in theatrical performances and video prjections.
After graduating in scenography and costume for the spectacle, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and a degree in animation film at the NEMO Academy, she began a very intense career path.
In collaboration with “Florence Youth Festival” (FOG), she realizes ‘Ritratti Distorti’ a personal photographic exhibition on the various forms of the portrait.The exhibition was set up inside the ‘Le Murate’ cultural center in Florence.
In the meantime she began experimenting with animation and rotoscoping techniques, participating with the animated short film ‘PET-Life a Bottle’ in the national competition “RE-Public”, receiving a special mention.
From that moment she began working as a freelance for various companies and individuals, making films, motion graphics, live action videos, videomapping and videostage for theatrical performances.
For the pianist Ramin Baramin, she creates the videostage “Bach Musical Offering” staged at the Teatro il Verme in Milan. Subsequently, she gave life to the videostage for the ballet “Fantasia”, staged at the Theater de Esch sur Alzette, Brussels, and the videostage for the Opera “Blue Beard” staged at the SBP Opera Theater in St. Petersburg.
A close collaboration with the ‘Middle East Now’ Festival begins, creating a trailer every year for the film review, in line with the Festival’s theme.The exhibition was set up inside the ‘Le Murate’ cultural center in Florence.
In the meantime she began experimenting with animation and rotoscoping techniques, participating with the animated short film ‘PET-Life a Bottle’ in the national competition “RE-Public”, receiving a special mention.
From that moment she began working as a freelance for various companies and individuals, making films, motion graphics, live action videos, videomapping and videostage for theatrical performances.
For the pianist Ramin Baramin, he creates the videostage “Bach Musical Offering” staged at the Teatro il Verme in Milan. Subsequently, he gave life to the videostage for the ballet “Fantasia”, staged at the Theater de Esch sur Alzette, Brussels, and the videostage for the Opera “Blue Beard” staged at the SBP Opera Theater in St. Petersburg.
She collaborates with the artist Massimiliano Siccardi and the ‘Visioni eccettriche’ group to create video mapping shows that are screened throughout the United States.
In recent years, she has experimented with forms of interaction between sound and image similar to the artist and musician Francesco Pellegino.
She currently collaborates with many companies and artists, creating works that are always different and with multiple techniques that, when mixed together, create a precise style in which the artist is recognized.