Photography by Giuseppe Cordaro and Simona Silvestri
napshots” as each one of them comes with a title and a different image even if these sometimes appear as random and cryptic. On a general level, do you hide a narrative impulse behind your sound work? A: The titles of the audio snapshots are randomized and were created by a software that generates text, the cryptic intent was intentional. The narrative impulse behind it was to capture the key 30 seconds of a typical day in the life of Giuseppe Cordaro. I carried with me my digital recoder 24/7, I looked like a sonic hunter. The illustrations are all creative commons images, some of which were taken by me and they represent a sonic element of the audio sample. I have collected 365 samples that sooner or later I will blend together in order to create a piece on my 30th year of aural life.
commissioned by the Teatri di Reggi as part of the Rec Festival. The Rubiera management immediately agreed and we spent a couple of nights inside the steel mill filming and recording sounds. The chance of entering a labour environment, which has become so removed from that office and desks workplace many of us have now become accustomed to makes one appreciate the ennobling value of the industrial process; I believe it to be extremely important on a socio-political level to voice not only its sonic activity but also its visual side. Q: Talking about Reggio Emilia, you were born in Agrigento, Sicily. How did you end up living in the Emilia Romagna region?
A: The path that took me from my birthplace of Agrigento to Reggio Emilia has been a long and winding one made of Q: Together with Alessio Ballerini, Enrico coincidences and bizarre situations. Coniglio, and Attilio Novellino, you have Upon leaving high school, I moved to captured sounds in four ailing Italian Perugia where I did media studies. After industrial sites as a basis for the album graduation I spent some time in TanLoud Listening, out on Crónica. Your zania and then moved to Milan where I field recordings were then distributed to worked for a communication agency bea host of musicians and sound artists fore taking up a post working for a comthat, “looking from afar to Italian industry, pany that organised events such as the but perhaps feeling much of the effects Milano Film Festival and the electronic of the crisis that is affecting it, reintermusic festival Audiovisiva. During that preted the original sources and provided period I had the opportunity of meeting the ten reinterpretations that complete many musicians such as the Giardini di this release”. In particular, you visited Mirò, which I am a big fan of. Once I dethe Acciaieria di Rubiera, in Casalcided to quit Milan I followed my friends’ grande near Reggio Emilia and close to advice and here I am in Reggio Emilia, the Secchia river, an area surrounded by a less frantic city with a higher quality of fertile farmland. How did the Acciaieria life. respond to such a project and do you believe field recordings should strive to Q: You live quite close the epicentre of document the socio-political landscape the recent earthquake in Emilia. What in which we live in? has your experience about it been? Also, what role do you believe a sound artist A: In Italy there’s a great vitality around should play in preserving the memory of the notion of soundscape. This is impor- a specific soundscape? tant and needs to be supported. Loud Listening, which Alessio, Attilio, Enrico A: Alas, the 29th of May has left a scar and I created, has been a wonderful on the lives of many people. I live 60 km experience. I really hold in high esteem away from the epicentre of the earthAlessio, Enrico and Attilio’s work. It has quake and it hasn’t been a pleasant also been the opportunity for me of experience to say the least. Luckily the releasing on the Crónica label, which I situation in Reggio Emilia itself hasn’t knew from Victor Joaquim and Francisco been too bad. Our sonic landscape López’s work. needs to be preserved and documented. We might not realise it but our aural As for my specific piece on the Rubiera environment has dramatically changed steel mill, I need to specify that I was since the early XX century, our sound there thanks to a project I worked on in references have changed. Our hearing collaboration with Agon and the comhas grown accustomed to the sounds poser Giorgio Sancristoforo, which was of modernity even if we are no longer
aware of the “noise” since we are immersed in it from birth. Now that we have the possibility of storing the aural world in increasingly smaller digital archives, I believe we have a duty to leave a record of it for future generations. Q: The Italian electroacoustic scene is very diverse and also incredibly active with dozens of interesting projects and labels form North to South and yet there’s no 12k, Touch or Editions Mego. Why would you say that is and who would you recommend looking up? A: Luckily, the electroacoustic scene in Italy is quite vibrant. I really like the work of Giuseppe Ielasi, Nicola Ratti, Alberto Boccardi, Lorenzo Senni, Attila Faravelli, Enrico Malatesta, Stefano Pilia, Giovanni Lami, Barbara de Dominicis, Andrea Serrapiglio and many others. (The list is never ending!) Q: Finally, what are you currently working on and when can we expect a new Con_Cetta album? A: Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of sound design work for videos and installations. For instance, I’ve just finished working, together with Giuseppe La Spada, on a piece about the sounds of wine, which was shown in Milan. As for a new album I have so much material ready… I just need to find time to retreat and complete all the “sound drafts” that I have accumulated over the years. I will also start collaborating with another Italian artist Jukka Reverberi (the guitarist from the band Giardini di Mirò) and a new EP is planned for 2013. - Interview by Gianmarco Del Re www.soundcloud.com/con_cetta www.giorgiosancristoforo.net
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