Lino Capra Vaccina - Lino "Capra" Vaccina - Cosmic and Musical Systems

The return of an Antico Adagio

by Antonio Ciarletta

These past few weeks have seen the reissue of “Antico Adagio”, Lino “Capra” Vaccina's debut solo album, and one of the true masterpieces of Italian music as a whole. We took the opportunity to have a chat with Lino, who very kindly answered our questions, tracing a trajectory through his career and through the countercultures of 1970s Italy.

Lino “Capra” Vaccina's last releases date back to the Nineties. You haven't put out any music since then — why is that?

During the Nineties, besides releasing three of my own works, I took care of the CD reissue of “Antico Adagio”. I also handled the CD and vinyl release of Telaio Magnetico's live recordings, which was demanding work, since I had to listen through more than 4 hours of tape to choose the tracks to include on the records. So it was a very intense decade, fortunately. Starting in the year 2000, I decided to take a reflective pause on what and how a new sound project should be; it wasn't easy, but after a while I got started. The research involved was very demanding and took a lot of time. So a few years ago the material was ready, but I found myself facing the usual problem: it wasn't easy to get it released.

The Eighties too saw no releases under your name. Was that also a period of reflection, after the intense Seventies?

It wasn't a reflective pause, but rather the fact that I was involved in various musical situations and couldn't find the time to work on my own compositions. In the early Eighties, besides playing the occasional concert where I presented the music from “Antico Adagio” and other compositions of mine, I collaborated with other artists, playing on their records — in particular with Franco Battiato (“Mondi lontanissimi”). I also sometimes played in the Orchestra della Scala, and I began teaching music. In the mid-Eighties I was offered a pop project to make with a major label, so I prepared a dozen tracks, we recorded them in their final form, ready for the project's launch, but then for various reasons nothing came of it. Looking back, maybe I wasn't fully convinced about doing it, also because that project would have changed the course of my artistic career, steering it toward a different musical dimension. So I went back to my own path and started writing new tracks in my experimental, research-driven style. Toward the end of the Eighties I was playing them live in not-yet-definitive form, and these tracks would later become part of the album titled, fittingly, “L’Attesa”, the record that would kick off my intense Nineties.

Let's talk about the Seventies. What do you remember of that magical period when the Italian counterculture produced some of the greatest musical achievements of all time? I'm thinking of you, of Battiato himself, of Claudio Rocchi.

I'd say I have countless memories of that period, having lived it both as a protagonist and as a listener. I like to remember how artistically intense it was, full of truly incredible musical expressions. Listening to music was a shared, participatory experience, felt as an important part of life itself. Countless concerts, music festivals, artistic events of every kind, everywhere. There was a great hunger to make, to feel, to discover, to spread music and art in general. Yes, the Seventies were rich and intense from a musical, artistic and cultural point of view. They were this, and so much more.

What kind of experience was Aktuala? Why did you leave the group after the first album?

Aktuala was founded by Walter Maioli and me in 1972, but Walter and I had already been playing together before that, along with my friend Antonio Cerantola, with whom I'd been playing since we were 15. In fact, the name was originally Aktuala Trio. With that line-up we played our very first shows, including a wonderful performance at the famous and important Milan venue Jazz Power. There's still a poster from that show. Later Laura Maioli and Daniele Cavallanti joined. The experience with Aktuala was extraordinary! For several reasons. We decided, in order to better realize and develop our musical project, to live together physically, so as to share every moment of the day, from studying music to listening to it, going to concerts, going to the cinema, and so on. I'd say that before being a band, we were a musical family. That's what made Aktuala unique, exceptional, extraordinary, and you could feel it in our performances. People perceived it, and they liked it. During that period I devoted myself to studying percussion and Indian, African and Middle Eastern music, and you can hear that on Aktuala's first record, which to me remains the first and only one containing the original idea of Aktuala's music. On the second and third records it becomes more of a holographic idea of making ethnic music. That's partly why I left the group, but really it was because I wanted to find my own original musical language, made of experimentation and sonic research free of any preconceived feeling, in search of a different way of perceiving — and to do that, the only place I could start from was non-sound, that is silence, in order to make and compose music. In any case, I still carry with me great affection and esteem for everything we did and experienced together.

Let's talk about "Antico Adagio". I've always wondered whether that exceptional record was the result of a completely spontaneous process, or whether you had actually planned to make a minimalist record.

"Antico Adagio" came about and developed in a completely spontaneous way, which for me has always been an essential factor in making and composing music. That, together with the desire to create my own original sonic language, through experimentation and sonic research involving forms, structures, timbres, sounds etc., used and assembled in a new way, different from the usual.

So the idea I started from in composing the music for this record was the search for the origin of music, sound, and consequently the origin of sound, silence. In doing so, I proceeded by subtraction, and the result could only be a kind of sonic minimalism. After all, my points of reference were modal music, sonic, instrumental and timbral cyclicity, which I found in Eastern and African musical traditions, in early Western music, and in certain 20th-century experimental music. I think you can hear all of this when listening to "Antico Adagio". I also believe "Antico Adagio" is a current and contemporary record, and that's confirmed by the buzz created and the excellent reception given to the reissue recently released by Die Schachtel on CD and 2 vinyl records, with new covers, previously unreleased tracks, new liner notes, etc. And I'd like to add that for me the purpose of music is to elevate us to higher states, and the experimentation and sonic research of "Antico Adagio" is still what I do today.

Speaking of the Die Schachtel edition, besides reissuing "Antico Adagio", the Milanese label has also recovered a series of pieces ("Frammenti da Antico Adagio") never released before. From my point of view, "Antico Adagio" is one of the all-time masterpieces of Italian music, yet in some ways the pieces on "Frammenti da Antico Adagio" are even superior to it. What do you think, and how come material of such excellent quality remained unreleased for so long? 

I'm glad you appreciate "Antico Adagio" and "Frammenti da Antico Adagio", and I thank you for that. I have to say I'm happy that the unreleased tracks have finally been included on the "Antico Adagio" CD, and that they were also released separately on vinyl, with a different cover and title — practically a new record. Which, incidentally, is what I had thought of doing back at the time of the first edition of "Antico Adagio", but it would have required a double album, which wasn't possible at the time, so the tracks stayed unreleased in a drawer. I couldn't tell you exactly why it took so long; certainly one reason is that it's not easy to release a record of instrumental, experimental music like mine, but what matters is that those tracks have now been released and finally get the chance to be heard as they deserve. I could certainly have included them on records I released later on, but when I'm working on a new sonic project I focus on the material from that particular moment. Then, when Die Schachtel recently asked me if I had any recordings of other tracks made around the time of "Antico Adagio", listening back to the tapes I realized not only how in tune they were with "Antico Adagio", but that their great intensity and expressiveness made them work on their own as well. So I'm proud and happy about the reissue of "Antico Adagio" and the vinyl release of "Frammenti da Antico Adagio".

The tracks on "Frammenti da Antico Adagio" belong to the same period as "Antico Adagio", and I think you can hear that. They were generated by the same conception, obviously with the idea of carrying my sonic research further. I'm not fond of genre labels, but I do like "minimalism with neoclassical shades". I think my music is original and unique within the field of experimental music. It's always been that way, with Aktuala, in my various collaborations, in my records and concerts. It's like a trademark — I wouldn't know how to do it any other way. As for my points of reference, my listening habits and sonic influences from that period, I think I already answered that earlier.

What was your relationship with the world of Italian progressive rock proper? Did you feel part of the scene that included bands like Le Orme, Area, Balletto di Bronzo, etc., or were you — along with Battiato, Cacciapaglia, Rocchi, Maioli, Camisasca — essentially (and did you feel) outside of it?

My relationship with Italian prog was good; after all, a lot of music with all sorts of sonic cross-pollination got filed under that label. For instance, I played tabla, gong etc. on a Jumbo record ("Vietato ai minori di 18 anni?"). Franco worked with Osage Tribe and so on, but his first two records also strike me as prog in style. Juri too, with "La finestra dentro", can be placed within the genre, as can Aktuala, Rocchi, Cacciapaglia. Back then all of us were often listed under that musical umbrella. Even though our music later moved toward other sonic worlds, if you listen carefully you can already find traces of those worlds in the sounds of that time. I think what matters is listening to and making music without preconceptions, as I like to say, with a way of experiencing music free of expectations but full of curiosity, research, and a desire to know and to feel.

How did Telaio Magnetico come about? Have you ever thought about revisiting that experience?

I often played live together with Franco and Juri; we saw each other every day and shared a lot of things. One day, talking things over, we came up with the idea of forming a group where our sonic expressions could come together, and that's how Telaio Magnetico was born. We haven't thought about revisiting that experience, but who knows, maybe it will happen someday — it could be an interesting idea.

Of your later records, "L'attesa" is my favorite. "L'attesa" has a sound that leans more toward new age, but fortunately it keeps a safe distance from it. Was the goal of that record to explore the same territories as new age music without falling into the same sonic clichés?

As for "L'attesa", I don't think you can really talk about that genre in relation to it. My music has nothing to do with that genre; I've never been interested in it, and it was never my intention to explore new age, also because I don't think there's anything to explore in that kind of music. "L'attesa" is, once again, a record that defies any categorization; it's original in its style, made of other sounds and musical research. In Italy there's often this habit of listening to music by constantly making reference to other things, which prevents a way of feeling for feeling's sake. This habit stems from a legacy of at least a hundred years of Italian culture, tracing back in particular to opera and the song-form, and it hinders, not to say atrophies, listening and musical culture. 

What music have you been listening to in this period of your life? Is music still, for you, a tool for discovering human nature and connecting with unexplored worlds? Or after so many years does a kind of disillusionment inevitably come into play? 

Right now I'm listening to experimental music, both from the past and more recent. There are currently some very interesting and skilled experimental musicians, both Italian and international. I've always been curious about listening to music, even across different genres, though of course I have my own preferences. Certainly, music for me is a tool for discovering my nature and connecting with unexplored worlds - it always has been and always will be.

What are your future plans?

I'm finishing up preparing the tracks for a new album, which I'll start recording soon. I hope to release it within the year, and I've got some live shows planned. You'll hear some great things! (laughs)

(08/02/2015)