Zeno Gabaglio - Eight Bars Between Impro and Pop

In his dual role as musician and performer, Zeno Gabaglio takes part in the Malafestival in Turin and Avigliana (December 6-14, 2008). Two performances in which, dressed in his white suit, he exudes confidence and self-control. What's striking is his level of listening, his attention to what's happening around him, his monk-like concentration, his physical presence. His gestures are calm, but his face and body radiate his blood and passion. You barely even notice the white shoes with the upturned toes. He plays tracks from "UNO", his first CD.

So Zeno, what are you doing here?

I'm here for my work, which luckily I love. It's music. It's not just about playing, it's about meeting people. I haven't taken a holiday in years. I like what I do, and even if that might seem strange, it works for me. This time it coincides with the release of my new CD.

His answer gets right to the heart of how Zeno conceives of music. We go straight to it. We lay the two CDs on the table for a comparison: "UNO", from 2006, grey cardboard sleeve with a few images that seem almost randomly thrown together. A completely black CD with no writing at all. On the second and third pages of the sleeve, just a few technical details. "Gadamer", on the other hand, presents itself in a design where nothing is left to chance. Notable is the interplay of the two colours (light blue and orange) in the lettering.

What is "UNO" and what is "Gadamer"?

"UNO" is virginity, ignorance. A record made entirely on my own, without asking anyone for anything. It has its own path, where basically I was alone. "Gadamer", on the other hand, brings a lot of new things. First of all, a Swiss record label, Other Sounds, which offered its know-how to help me engage with the real market. Being able to say I came out as Altrisuoni's catalogue number 248 strengthens me. It's a step forward within the music business system, a way out of marginal compartments that exist only for their own sake. Then there's the care put into the sound: recording and mastering professionals, and finally an artistic producer, Walter Zweifel, who worked significantly on the raw material like a director would. That forces you to question yourself, because there's a further point of view you have to take into account. Finally, there's the cover, entirely entrusted to a graphic designer.

What's that wreck that appears on the cover?

It's simply a tanker wagon from a train, photographed in Ticino.

And that big A?

We gave the designer complete freedom, and this is the result.

Is there a connection with the A in "Gadamer"?

The graphic choice can itself stand in as the title, but it's equally true that a CD doesn't necessarily need one. Everyone does their own thing, and then you see what happens. It's an interpretive mechanism.

Did you have a pop intention?

(Gabaglio smiles, but it's clear he's been touched on something deep).

A lot of music has been sold to us as great music. What I'd like, instead, is for my CDs to be valued for their spontaneity. In the previous work, "UNO", I knew I was excluding people. In "Gadamer" my wish is for eight bars to be understood even by my neighbour, who doesn't know much about music. There's an aspiration towards the accessible and, at the same time, towards the elevated.

What does pop mean to you?

It's a willingness to please the listener. Taking a step towards whoever's listening. Not calcifying inside the fortress of your own intelligence. Pop is the awareness that there's a grammar of communication in the world, or rather, that there are shades of communication you need to reach towards. Rock, punk, techno aren't content, they're ways of being. When I go to a concert, I want to experience it, and I don't care what some critic said about it.

Since we're talking about form, how did you go about conceiving the CD?

Andrea and I both have a classical and experimental background. Before making the CD we knew it had to be something along those lines. That is, it had to contain elements that were both unusual and reassuring. Cage and pop music. That's why there are three improvised pieces made without any predetermination.

I've been playing with Andrea Manzoni for five years, but we'd never recorded anything. This CD was the chance to crystallize and bring together our experiences. As I said, we both have a classical training. He then moved towards jazz; I moved towards contemporary music.

What did it mean for you to play with another musician?

The otherness of ideas. With two people you argue, with three you argue even more to reach a compromise.

Why did you choose a record label from the jazz scene?

I wouldn't call myself a jazz musician, but it's a good thing to be on a jazz label, because you can expect anything. In the jazz world people ask themselves whether jazz still exists, given how much it's been cross-contaminated with other genres. But whatever form it's played in, you know there's raw, unfiltered improvisation at its core, and that's an aspect that interests me a great deal. Another reason is that we think jazz clubs are the venues where our music is more likely to be welcomed.

What does improvisation mean to you?

Improvisation isn't randomness. It's the result of practice devoted to the spontaneous. Music is born and dies in the moment of its own existence. If you buy a CD at the end of a concert, it's just a fetish object. You want to relive the time of the celebration that the musical performance was. Art is a moment of life unto itself, a different kind of time.

Let's move on to the titles. Why does "Chiara", even if performed differently, return from the previous CD?

It's not a tribute to anyone. In a show years ago, thanks to Siae, I had to give the piece a name and I picked that one. Andrea insisted on bringing it back for the new CD no matter what.

And why aren't the three "Impro" tracks numbered in order?

In total we recorded 16 of them, but in the end we only kept these three for the CD.

In the thank-you notes there are references to Celan and Mandel'stam, and in the titles references to Gadamer's celebrated "Wahrheit und Methode." Your interests seem pretty clearly defined.

They're just things I read. As for Celan, translator of Mandel'stam, I was very struck by the poem "Psalm" and the line "Niemandrose." While we were putting the album together, Andrea and I were reading exactly these authors. Gadamer, like Wittgenstein and Pareyson, taught me that interpretation is a mechanism for encountering otherness. The work of art is nothing but a process toward the other. And experiencing art is a concrete experience. Life, not a projection of life. But "Gadamer," as a title, is above all a matter of sound. It has a sound that doesn't point to any particular language.

And Martinson?

In the Nordic languages it means "son of Martin" — for me, Martin Heidegger, Gadamer's teacher.

We're talking about an album, but we're really talking about something else. Zeno spells out his musical vision by referring to his beloved philosophers, to whom he's dedicated years of university study and whom he keeps quietly close. Reserved as he is, it's rare for him to talk about them.

What's your favorite track on "Gadamer"?

Today I'd say "Impro 14." Tomorrow it might be another one.

I know that in Heidelberg you slept in the room where Hans-Georg Gadamer, the grand old man of Western philosophy, once stayed. Do you think his spirit influenced this album of yours?

It's possible, but honestly I don't believe in that kind of thing.

(December 12, 2008)

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