Ottodix - Virtual concert in installments

In an extremely critical period for live music, perhaps like never before, the multifaceted artist Alessandro Zannier aka Ottodix delivers his first virtual show since the release of his seventh album "Entanglement". Just as the album's concept focuses on the theme of travel and the instantaneous, invisible hyper-connections linking people and things across the world, the video-live tour aims to break down spatial and temporal boundaries and the barriers imposed by the pandemic, connecting different outlets and audiences in a single journey of discovery through "Entanglement". Here is the video of the title track, presented exclusively for OndaRock, followed by the full concert presented in various segments on other Italian music platforms.

The idea and themes of "Entanglement" took shape before the current pandemic situation was even imagined, yet in some way they foresaw it...

The journey from the micro to the macro-cosmos of the previous album was the biggest thing I could conceive, so all that was left was to imagine an inquiry inside one of these scales of magnitude: the planetary one. The immediate cause-and-effect of events happening on opposite sides of the globe (this virus is glaring proof of it) is the result of centuries of navigation, colonization, migration, human and environmental exploitation, cables, pipelines, oil pipes, web networks. We are all one single organism now, one that can nourish itself but also poison itself instantly. It's a challenge I wanted to take on by guiding the listener along a precise, step-by-step journey across the globe, through continents, oceans and polar regions, to reflect on how hyper-connection came to be.

The album was recorded between Berlin and Barcelona, with production once again handled by Flavio Ferri of Delta V. What was your working relationship like in the studio?

It felt natural to keep working with Flavio, who had just come off the excellent work he'd done on "Micromega". The "battle" between the two of us was focused on the sound to give to the demos made in my home studio in Treviso, rather than on songs, lyrics and harmonies. I had a fairly precise sound in mind, and a basic atmosphere somewhere between the dreamlike and the Jules Verne-style adventurous (soundings, sonar, submarines, whales, ambient noises, but also echoes of ethnic sonorities layered over the electronics) and of course the soundtrack-style orchestration that's become increasingly present in my more "cinematic" work. He wanted (and still wants, because this isn't over yet!) to bring more freshness, more roughness and less layering of ideas, so a very healthy tension arose, which produced a hybrid that obviously isn't entirely what either of us had in mind, but it became "Entanglement".

You also told me about the idea of bringing in a second producer for the recordings, as well as some collaborators from Ottodix's live lineup.

Actually, I did try bringing in a second producer from Berlin to give a different push to the rhythms and electronics, but the results were really disappointing in terms of commitment to the project. The piano and strings session, recorded in a magnificent studio housed in a former STASI building, was completed only with great difficulty precisely for this reason, even though the musicians involved — violinists Cecilia Ferron and Lucia Priester alongside pianist Loris Sovernigo — are genuinely talented.

On "Entanglement", for the first time in Ottodix's discography, there are several instrumental tracks that end up being the backbone of the whole project.

Flavio Ferri wanted to bring in Loris Sovernigo, who has now been part of Ottodix's live lineup for four years, for the instrumental "oceanic" parts too, recorded in Barcelona during a long nighttime session of improvisation on old analog synths, theremin and even a Roland JD 800. A trip lasting an hour and a half, mixed by Flavio himself, out of which the oceanic instrumental tracks emerged.

What do you think of livestreamed shows, and the controversy that's arisen among artists for and against them?

Honestly, I'm not really keen on taking part in these off-the-cuff livestreams done from someone's living room or bedroom with shaky technology. In fact, I won't be doing a live stream at all. On one hand, it felt like it would cheapen the complexity of the Ottodix project, which has been meticulously crafted for years and is ready to step out in its finest evening dress, both on record and on stage. On the other hand, it seemed a bit tawdry to try to grab attention by overdoing self-promotion given everything going on out there right now.

That's how the LiveHomeSerie project came about. Why an entire series of traveling video-live shows?

With my new manager Marco Olivotto, we initially thought about releasing, in installments, an audio-story I'd written as an extension of the album's thematic journey, narrating the story of the Entanglement, a submarine traveling on a secret mission around the world of a near future. That project has simply been postponed, we'll still make it happen. But "Entanglement" is my most dramatically contemporary and prophetic record, and with a band of musicians stuck at a standstill and extremely long pauses looming even for rehearsals, everything — hours, months of work — would have ended up forgotten, waiting for an uncertain comeback. This way, we can all stay active.

Since you're also a visual artist, I imagine that influenced the decision.

Yes, exactly. I edited the videos myself, combining them with visual material I'd prepared for the concerts. Tracks performed live by eight musicians, then mixed and edited, released at regular intervals, hosted by music outlets that in this way lend their space as a kind of virtual live club, involving us in a sort of ideal tour. I edited the individual live performances without touching almost anything in the performances themselves — everything was done using smartphone audio taken from the videos. Since OndaRock is one of the best-known webzines nationally, it felt natural to present the whole project on your platform with the video-live of "Entanglement", the track that gives the album its title.

I picture the end of lockdown like the start of a 100-meter dash, with every artist bolting off the blocks to make up for lost time. How is Ottodix getting organized?

Everyone involved in our project is dying to play shows and let people hear the fruit of three years of hard work. We have 10 musicians rotating within the ranks of the Ottodix Ensemble; everything was ready — the best tour since I started making music, the most varied one, with big stages like Magazzini Generali in Milan or Traffic in Rome opening for Diaframma, plus museum venues, the Teatro Miela booked again after the success of "Micromega" for Trieste Città della Scienza 2020, and even the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Let's think positive: give us a preview of what the live show you'll be touring around Italy starting next autumn will be like.

It will be the natural continuation of "Micromega", which we'll actually keep performing as well. The formula works well and is by now tried and tested: a huge three-metre sphere on which we project content, which this time will become a giant globe marking out the journey stage by stage. A string quartet, plenty of electronics, guitar and percussion. One of the new elements of the show will be instrumental ambient tracks dedicated to the oceans, conceived as sound installations. And then there are statistical contributions on pollution, economy, resources and migration, with narrating voices of a scientific, geographical and historical nature, to reflect together on the Anthropocene that has just begun and the hyper-connection that concerns everyone, absolutely everyone.

[Entanglement (live home series 2020): Alessandro Zannier voice and synth, Loris Sovernigo piano, Antonio Massari guitar, Stefano Petterson electronic percussion, Mauro Bonicelli and Nicola Casellato violin, Sarah Mazzoleni viola, Giancarlo Giacomin cello. Direction, concept and editing by A. Zannier]

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