Paolo Angeli (Italy)

Saturday, February 10, 2018; 8PM
Free pre-show chat at 7:15PM. Post-show reception to follow the concert.
Pyatt Hall at the VSO School of Music (843 Seymour Street)

Virtuoso guitarist Paolo Angeli returns to Vancouver for a special, solo performance for prepared Sardinian guitar and voice.

Eighteen strings, little hammers, propellers, springs, separated output for each string, objects stolen from everyday life. Every performance is lived through the practice of free improvisation, and represents for Paolo the chance to mould the sounds generated by his ‘orchestra’-guitar. Creating shimmering drones and bass-lines, Angeli bows, strikes, plucks and strums while producing rhythmic musical atmospheres by treading on a plastic bag and adjusting tunings on the fly. The result is an ever changing portrait where, in real time, can be found remnants of the ‘canto a chitarra’, tasgia choirs, free jazz, punk noise, drum & bass, avant pop.

The creative cohabitation of tradition and innovation is absorbed into a poetic discourse suspended between melody and noise.

“Paolo Angeli is one of jazz’s best-kept secrets. The Sardinian guitarist (of sorts) has the ability to conjure incomparably beautiful multi-layered music, all from just one instrument. Playing a one- of-a-kind guitar/cello/motorised hybrid, Paolo bows, plucks and even provides his own percussion all at the same time without any need for loops.” – Jez Nelson – BBC radio 3

paoloangeli.com

This concert was presented in collaboration with Istituto Italiana di Cultura – Toronto
The post-show reception was made possible with the support of the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver and Bosa Foods.

Photo by Nanni Angeli.