Å - A Question of Touch

Flag-bearers of the new catalogue for the deserving Italian label Die Schachtel, with their personal, unmistakably Italian rereading of the historic avant-gardes, Å have caught the attention of specialist critics. What's surprising, though, is the attention they've received from the indie audience at large, especially at a time when the so-called post-rock strand is showing signs of creative exhaustion, and trends more inclined toward the song format are dominant. It's probably the fresh approach that makes the difference, as if they'd lifted the masters' codes intact, then spontaneously scrambled them in search of - and successfully found - new solutions. A question of touch, as guitarist Andrea Faccioli points out to us, making the Trentino-Veneto trio's self-titled debut album an encouraging sign of life for the drowsy Italian scene (and it's not the musicians' fault, but that's another story). It's a solid project which, beyond the band itself (Andrea Faccioli on guitars, Paolo Marocchio on drums and percussion, and Stefano Roveda on piano: all essentially interchangeable, and all equipped with plenty of other instruments too), directly involves the label's two gurus, Fabio Carboni and Bruno Stucchi, and guitarist Xabier Iriondo, formerly of Afterhours but also an active sound manipulator in his own right. A distinctive project, which Onda Rock discussed with the people directly involved.

This interview was pretty much mandatory, since you were the big surprise of 2006 for our editorial team and our readers. Fifth place in the editors' year-end chart, and sixteenth in the webzine readers' poll. A huge result for a niche proposition, and an Italian one at that...

Andrea: I'm speechless, really!

Tell us about your artistic background. Where are you from, how did you meet?

Paolo: We're all from northern Italy, living between the provinces of Verona and Trento. Since 2000, Å has grown slowly and in complete freedom, without ideas ever taking precedence over sound. In practice, it's purely been an encounter between sounds. And then it was our musical and personal experiences that let Å breathe, whether in live performances or within the walls of a studio. The creative encounter absorbs and channels three different individual expressions into a single sonic outcome, which has taken on a shape of its own - one that's often hard to pin down.

Our background? I've been working for years on a world-music project, I've played samba, rock, reggae, tango, guitar, bass, cello, drums. Andrea is a guitarist who's played in various indie bands and in theatre, while Stefano is a professional classical violinist - in the sense that he actually makes his living from concerts and teaching - and he too, together with Andrea, has played indie-rock.

How much do you feel influenced, and by whom? Kraut, a certain more intimate strand of post-rock, but also musique concrète, minimalism, Cilio, maybe Satie. Do you recognize yourselves in these names, or in these movements?

Paolo: Influenced by everything - by the weather, by the stars, by whatever pop song is around at the moment, by my everyday life, which is extremely rich in music.

Andrea: encountering Cilio was a joy for the ears and the heart. Beyond that, we certainly do have a kraut background, from Faust to Neu! all the way to Can, the minimalism of Reich and company. But I don't think music is made only of contaminations or influences - above all, it's made of touch. And each of us has brought his own touch, his own taste, and I think that's what makes the final result work... I think!

Tell me a bit about the record. I find the quotations it contains were just a pretext for creating a sound of your own, one that lives a life of its own...

Andrea: unintentionally, I already answered that before.

The question about the titles of the individual tracks is a must. It's a rather unusual idea to take a novella by Mark Haddon and spread it piece by piece to identify the songs. How did that come about?

Andrea: the idea came from Fabio Carboni, and it's absolutely brilliant! The problem of giving titles, especially to tracks like these, was a really tough obstacle for us to get past, and in fact we never managed it. Then he came up with this idea and it was an instant hit!

How did you get in touch with the Die Schachtel label? It's an elite name among Italian labels, but one that had exclusively focused on reissuing past avant-garde works…

Andrea: the contact happened thanks to listening to Luciano Cilio. After buying the record directly from them, we started writing to each other via email, and it came out that we played improvised music, etc. We didn't know they were looking for bands to launch a catalogue (Die Schachtel Zeit) made exclusively of new proposals. They asked us for some material to check out, and within a month we had recorded the record.

Do you feel more at ease within the walls of a studio, or in a live setting? Those who've heard you live say you're even more captivating than in the studio…

Andrea: they're two very different environments, the studio is like a playground: you set up all the playable material in a room and start playing. The live show is more like a guided tour, you're, so to speak, more of a slave to timing and material. To make it work you have to set yourself some limits, but that doesn't mean it's less fun — quite the opposite.

Let's get to the choice of the band's name. You'll agree that from a marketing point of view, Å isn't exactly straightforward. Even finding you on Google is a real mess, have you thought about that? How did you land on this name?

Andrea: that's probably why we're the band most hated by journalists… and not only by them!

The name also came from Die Schachtel: originally, when we played in basements or at small events, the name was Cuboaa, which incidentally is still our "url" on myspace); but the name wasn't very effective and didn't really convey the idea of our sound. Å, in my opinion, has just the right dose of originality and "mystery": it almost looks like an esoteric symbol. Plus it has a bunch of more or less philosophical-mystical meanings: it's the last inhabited place before the ice of the North Pole, it's the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet (for us it's the first), it's the smallest unit of measurement (a billionth of a millimetre, or something like that). So… it works!

What's the approach to the market for a band that could be called experimental? But then, would you really call yourselves experimental?

Andrea: we don't define ourselves, it's others who define us, so much for rhetoric. Apparently we're selling more than expected, considering it's a niche music sector, and that makes us super proud.

Which band or genre, in terms of attitude, do you listen to that's furthest from the music you make? Do you keep an eye on what's going on around you, or are you distracted listeners who mostly just think about playing?

Andrea: ah well, we listen to all sorts of little things: Paolo Conte, African music, Chinese, Japanese, Pakistani, Mozart, De Gregori, De André, and the best-selling singles of the moment…

Tell us your take on peer to peer. Is it a powerful means of spreading music, or a monster that drains economic resources from artists and kills music?

Paolo: What will happen to music as a product, what will happen to music as a creative activity, what will happen to music as something to be enjoyed, is in my opinion unimaginable. Peer to peer is just one of the many possibilities the internet offers, and it's reshaping an industrial/creative system built around selling physical phonographic products. The global entertainment industry is in constant evolution, and there's no need to worry about it. As for musicians, it seems to me that the opportunities to get known and to create have grown in unthinkable ways, again thanks to the web. Maybe so-called "emerging" musicians should think about playing gigs rather than hoping for "legendary record deals". To quote Mr. Bowie: "It's time for musicians to go back to earning their bread through live shows...".

Which direction will your music take? The critics who've had access to your record have showered you with praise, and that's a fact. Aren't you tempted to look for a wider audience, maybe with a different label, and make your sound a bit more accommodating?

Andrea: changing labels, for now, is simply out of the question. It's rare to see such strong attention and dedication from people outside the band, like Fabio and Bruno. Working with them is great, and it's done with intellectual honesty, and it's also wonderful to see their input, even in choosing titles, or the name of the project. So we could say that Å is made up of six elements: the three of us, Fabio, Bruno, and the blessed hand of Xabier Iriondo.

For our future sound, everything is still in flux. Making music is an act of free thought, and trying to please everyone would mean enslaving ourselves — luckily we're free to think for ourselves, and we'll keep doing so.

What's your relationship with other art forms? Are you interested in painting, photography, or cinema?

Andrea: art forms inevitably contaminate and merge with one another, so more or less we all three have interests across different artistic fields.

And now, the obligatory question: tell us the five essential records for Å.

Andrea: Any solo piano concert by Keith Jarrett; Luciano Cilio – Dell'Universo Assente; Fabrizio De André – Anime Salve; Nick Drake – Pink Moon; John Cage: Sonatas And Interludes For Prepared Piano.

Stefano: Steve Reich – Music for 18 Musicians; Nick Drake – Pink Moon; John Coltrane – Ascension; W. A. Mozart – Requiem; J.S. Bach – Passione Secondo Giovanni.

Paolo: Savina Yannatou – Songs Of The Mediterranean; Ojos de Brujo – Vengue; Jeff Buckley – Grace; Police: Outlandos d’Amour; Elisa – Lotus.

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