Neuguitars 2024 #24 the sound, the void, the metaphor and the wit of Andrea Massaria and Alessandro Seravalle in “Klang! Catastrofe del Vuoto Elettrodebole”
Setola di Maiale 2024
The Encyclopedia Britannica brings us back to this definition of metaphor: “metaphor, figure of speech that implies comparison between two unlike entities, as distinguished from simile, an explicit comparison signalled by the words like or as.” Subito dopo aggiunge, per maggiore precisione come. “The distinction is not simple. A metaphor makes a qualitative leap from a reasonable, perhaps prosaic, comparison to an identification or fusion of two objects, the intention being to create one new entity that partakes of the characteristics of both. Many critics regard the making of metaphors as a system of thought antedating or bypassing logic.”
This philosophical concept, which still reigns in our culture and society, came to my mind from the first time I listened to this CD “Klang! Catastrofe del Vuoto Elettrodebole”, produced by two Italian musicians, Andrea Masseria (guitar, effects) and Alessandro Seravalle (live electronics, samples), in 2024 for the renowned Italian independent record label Setola di Maiale.
Let's introduce these two musicians a little better.
Andrea Massaria is an Italian guitar player and composer based in Trieste, Italia. He works in the field of improvised music, drawing from a wide range of influences. He spans from free jazz to textural soundwork to noise to contemporary classical music. He teaches at the Conservatorio of Venezia and Adria.
Alessandro Seravalle has been active on the music scene for over twenty-five years as a composer and very prolific performer in various contexts, especially in the field of progressive rock where he has established himself as a manipulator of electronic sounds, guitarist and singer. The fight against every form of artistic cliché is the key to his expressive research. For years he has been developing countless new forms of musical language, from ambient, to spoken word improvisation, to choreographic-visual-musical experiments with various aliases including Genoma, Schwingungen 77 Entertainment, James Frederick Willett, Agrapha Dogmata, Bonsoir Trio, SeTe. With his brother Gianpietro, he also forms a duo (Officina F.lli Seravalle) dedicated to a form of experimental neo-psychedelia.
Now, defining this CD as a work of avant-garde music would be reductive and, certainly, would propose a dated vision, with a military-style language that, I hope, is now an exclusive part of the cultural heritage of the last century and millennium. “Klang! Catastrofe del Vuoto Elettrodebole” is definitely an album of unconventional and research music, a form of sound exploration, on the border between philosophical settings and sound art. Perhaps I would better write that this album is a mix of metaphors and references to something else, to intuitions and mental games, left to the free interpretation of the listener. Irony and witty fun seem to be its keys to interpretation, starting from the title with this reference to the German sound and the laws of physics, to the CD graphics, which winks at the logo of the record company Deutsche Grammofon, to the pseudonyms 'Anton Klang' for Massaria and 'Karlheinz Lärm' for Seravalle, which, in turn, refer to two historical figures of experimental music of the twentieth century. Too many things, perhaps? I don't think so.
Let's go back to the Encyclopedia Britannica which, in fact, adds: “Metaphor is the fundamental language of poetry, although it is common on all levels and in all kinds of language...In poetry a metaphor may perform varied functions from the mere noting of a likeness to the evocation of a swarm of associations; it may exist as a minor beauty or it may be the central concept and controlling image of the poem.”
And I think this is the fundamental point. This album manages to unite poetry, philosophy, physics and sophisticated languages through a desire for research and abstraction that also reconcile a sound art listening, of pure immersion and contemplation of sound. The boundaries here are confused, blurred, the directions many and complex. “Klang! Catastrofe del Vuoto Elettrodebole” is a fascinating work, which shows how the guitar still has a lot to say.