ZERO CENTIGRADE - "Unknown Distances"

ATCD10.2011


“Unknown Distances ” is a work from the borderland between composition and improvisation, melody and noise. It flows subdued yet black, like the arrival of a storm, which in addition to the cold and rain, can also bring back sadness and faraway loneliness - itself a reality that is always present as dark eyes watch us from every angle.

The blues is a presence across the entire work, but not the blues of the Mississippi plantation, who would have pleased Sleepy John Estes, but rather those of the Delta that remains poisoned because of sewage and is littered heavily with carnivorous plants, not unlike the skin of a black bluesman abducted by aliens.

The music is bare-boned, minimal, basic, clean, with the notes coming out measured and the tunes arriving in dribs and drabs, all the result of guitar and trumpet and little else.

All is set on the control of the physical volume of the sounds, which themselves vary continuously from micro to macro levels, thus shifting the listener's attention from the harmonic sound of the guitar to either the intangible or flaying of the trumpet.

In its many faces, “Unknown Distances ” will be a listening experience that will prove to be as sulphuric and peaceful, earthly and cathartic, as only the blues can be.


Zero Centigrade is an Italian experimental duo consisting of Tonino Taiuti (acoustic guitar) and Vincenzo De Luce (trumpet). Their sound is the result of their different experiences.

Tonino Taiuti is an author and an actor in theatre and cinema; he has worked with directors such as Enzo Moscato, Mario Martone, Gabriele Salvatores, Toni Servillo and Giorgio Barberio Corsetti.

In 2002 he began his experience in visual arts with a personal exhibition that took place at the "Serio" art gallery and “Pigrecoemme”, in Naples.

He has played with Eugene Chadbourne (live at Oblomova 07/03/2009) and Rhys Chatham (concert for six guitars, live at Teatro Galleria Toledo, 26/03/2008).

Vincenzo De Luce is an architect engaged in landscape design and art exhibitions space design.

Zero Centigrade is something between electro-acoustic improvisation and weird folk. It was created to experiment with those sounds and noises of the guitar and trumpet whose effect sometimes had the harmonic passages almost touching the song form.

It is a music impossible in its simplicity: strings touched, atonal screeching, jagged counterpoints and the timbres of a trumpet at once acidic and human as well as animal.

They love to use their instruments in an almost primitive and very physical way, reducing them to veins and lungs. Finally, the blues, seen as a way to speak of the soul, without any technicality or theory which interferes on sound.

Their live performances are halfway between music, visual arts and theatre.






CD Contents:

1. Into The Storm
2. Snake's Tail
3. Clouds #1
4. Now & Them
5. Animae
6. Opening
7. Dry River
8. Good Morning
9. Clouds #2
10. Cleft
11. Upward
12. Silver Birch
13. Roller Coaster
14. Under a Volcano
15. Other Voices


Tonino Taiuti: acoustic guitar & composition
Vincenzo De Luce: trumpet

All tracks recorded by Zero Centigrade between September and November 2010 at their studio.

Mixed and mastered by Tonino Taiuti.

All Rights Reserved. (C) 2011 Zero Centigrade


Visit also:
www.myspace.com/zerocentigrade


Order a CD:
8 euro (incl. shipping worldwide)

REVIEWS:


Zerocentigrade is the improvising duo of Tonino Taiuti (acoustic guitar) and Vincenzo De Luce (trumpet). Unknown Distances (AUDIOTONG ATCD10) contains 15 examples of their very extreme, non-musical approach to handling their instruments; slowly and almost agonisingly, they pull out eerie sighs, groans, hisses and mechanical clonking thuds from brass, strings and the wooden sounding board of the acoustic guitar. We’re all familiar with European improvisers “reinventing” the behaviour of their instruments over the last 10-15 years to produce all manner of restrained and constipated effects, but what appeals to me (gradually) about Zerocentigrade is how unappealing their aesthetic is, as if they’re determined not only to sound different but also to sound vaguely ugly and coarse into the bargain. This complete lack of attention to conventional notions of pleasure and beauty indicates to me they’re on the right track. These two Italians come to music from quite unexpected backgrounds, Taiuti via cinema and drama, and De Luce via architectural design. Apparently their stage shows are a real riot, occupying some middle ground “between music, visual arts and theatre.” The website also claims there’s a subtext to the album which has something to do with Delta Blues, and although I can’t quite discern this additional interpretive layer myself, it’s a promising claim.

(Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector)



Credo che non mi stancherò mai di ripetere quanti dischi rimangano sommersi nel mare di uscite che saturano un mercato in cui tralaltro a volte non si vende davvero nulla: entrambe le cose sono un peccato, tanto di più quando si tratta di lavori come questo. Gli Zero Centigrade per di più sono i napoletanissimi Tonino Taiuti alla chitarra elettrica e Vincenzo De Luce alla tromba, il che mi porta a diverse considerazioni: innanzitutto sullo splendido stato del giro impro partenopeo ed in secondo luogo sul fatto che per quanto le riviste non diano spazio (o quanto meno non quello meritato) alla gente che opera in quest'ambito in Italia, molti si stanno sparando delle collaborazioni di tutto rispetto o uscite per etichette di serie A come la Audio Tong di Krakovia che fra gli altri annovera anche dei dischi dei Faust... se vi sembra poco. Passando al disco e a quello che contiene, per quanto mi aspettassi un lavoro interessante si tratta di materiali che sono andati ampiamente oltre alle mie più rosee aspettative e questo è dovuto al fatto che Taiuti e De Luce non si sono nascosti fra le dissonanze e i fraseggi zoppi, i suoni appena accennati, le strozzature e le storpiature che fanno tutti e che spesso riducono più di metà dei lavori improvvisativi e di elettro-acutica ad una fotocopia carta carbone. In un certo senso i due partenopei hanno dimostrato di avere quello che un loro concittadino illustre chiamava " 'o bblues". Certo, non immaginiate si tratti di un disco facile facile che potrebbe essere accessibile a tutti e men che meno roba veramente blues, resta che sentendo le frammentazioni e le dissonanze di Taiuti e De Luce ho avuto la stesa impressione che ebbi quando ascoltai Play di Derek Bailey: uno ad improvvisare in questo modo non ci arriva di colpo, ma per gradi e scusate se è poco. La chitarra acustica di Taiuti del buon Derek porta qualche traccia ma lavora in modo molto più morbido, anzi, il napoletano non ha paura di indugiare su quelle che sono realmente delle melodie, cosa che in quest'ambito è simile al fegato che ci vuole per bestemmiare in una moschea. De Luce pur soffiando nel suo strumento in modo molto radicale è degno compare del suo socio e crea ambientazioni quasi suggestive, il che ripeto non è per nulla scontato in un ambito del genere. Un disco bellissimo, tanto di più se molti dischi del genere vi avevano frantumato i coglioni. "Napule è nu sole amaro" diceva sempre quel tizio menzionato prima.

(Andrea Ferraris, sodapop.it)



While it's great to get to have yet another album by one of my favourites (like Vandermark or Trzaska or Brotzmann just to name some examples) some of the most inspiring listening experiences for me lately came in the form of total surprise, music delivered by artists whom I know nothing about and as I've been introduced to them it's the goal of this blog to introduce them to you.
AudioTong is a small independent label in Poland releasing experimental music that usually resides outside the modern jazz scene and this cd is an example of that. Tonino Taiuti and Vincenzo De Luce create together a sonorus mixture that goes beyond (or below? or just beside?) traditional notions of music, melodies, notes and well outside the classical ways of playing their given instruments. 15 short pieces bring forward sounds that would be difficult to associate with acoustic guitar or trumpet, metallic scrapes, plucking, breathing whispers, gurgling noises. While occasionaly an almost-melody appears in a liyrical way ("Dry River"), the pieces focus mostly on strange and distorted sounds, revealing slowly their inner structure, the hidden logic of the ugly details and chaos. With its eternally slow tempos this is music of a zero-gravity atmosphere. What it lacks in dynamic it makes up in sense of space and time. It's dark and mysterious and best served in the evening.
The cd presents also one of the most musically fitting covers I've seen - dark and silent.
Recommended to those looking for eerie and transcendental.

(jazzalchemist.blogspot.com)



Audiotong już od 2005 roku dzielnie wspiera muzykę eksperymentalną, nie tylko ze swojego, krakowskiego podwórka, ale także z zagranicy. Przez ostatni rok przeszedł metamorfozę z Mp3-kowego netlabelu do profesjonalnego wydawnictwa z płytami CD. Ze względu na panujący wśród amatorów niszowej muzyki szacunek do fizycznych nośników to dobre posunięcie, które z pewnością pomoże w jeszcze lepszym wypromowaniu artystów z Audiotong. W ten oto sposób zamiast na mój dysk, trafiła do mych rąk nowa płyta Zero Centigrade ‘Unknown Distances’. Ten włoski duet tworzą aktor Tonino Taiuti i architekt Vincenzo De Luce. Te nieoczywiste dla muzyków profesje mają duży wpływ na ich pełną ekspresji i wyobraźni muzykę.

‘Nieznane Odległości’ to płyta ciężko strawna, ale pożywna i bogata w witaminy. Jak przegryziemy się przez jej grubą skorupkę, dostaniemy się do soczystego miąższu. Z wierzchu hałaśliwa, a w rzeczywistości melodyjna i utrzymana w formie piosenek na trąbkę i gitarę akustyczną. Na pograniczu improwizacji i kompozycji powstała płyta eksplorująca możliwości dwóch podstawowych instrumentów, prezentująca zaskakująco szeroki wachlarz brzmień, jakie można z nich wydobyć. Wszystko to jest zasługą sonorystycznego podejścia do gry, a więc nietradycyjnego wydobywania dźwięków z tradycyjnych instrumentów. Skrobanie, stukanie, szarpanie, skrzypienie to tylko niektóre z metod doprowadzających ich gitarę i trąbkę do czerwoności. Wydawać by się mogło niemuzyczne i prymitywne podejście, a zaowocowało wciągającą płytą. Z jednej strony pełną przestrzeni, świetnie operującą ciszą, z drugiej zaś gęstą i pełną nieoczywistych dźwięków. Gra tymi kontrastami manipuluje uwagą słuchacza i pomaga przyjrzeć się Zeru Stopni Celsjusza z bliska. A pod lupą okazuje się, że mamy do czynienia z bluesem – surowym, ponurym, melancholijnym, a czasem agresywnym odzwierciedleniem duszy. Dla wymagających, a przede wszystkim wytrwałych słuchaczy.

Opakowanie: Na okładce znajdziemy fotografię (zgadza się, nie grafikę) Jana Bujnowskiego. Zdjęcie przedstawia coś dobrze znanego każdemu z nas. Podpowiem tylko, że kluczem do rozszyfrowania jest zima – resztę pozostawiam Waszej wyobraźni. Oszczędna, prosta i minimalna oprawa dobrze współgra z muzyką, zagraną tylko na dwóch instrumentach.

(Krzysztof Pietraszewski, muzykoteka.wordpress.com)



Duo recordings are nothing new. But what makes Zero Centigrade so interesting is the combination of guitar and trumpet. Not your usual duo. We saw this last year with the duo Nate Wooley and Joe Morris done expertly. Zero Centigrade have been recording since 2009 but have built up a small and intriguing body of work.

On their latest release, Unknown Distances (Audio Tong) Tonino Taiuti and Vincenzo De Luce bring a set of subtle, spacious and erie sounds to life with a real sense of adventure. It's a bit less deconstructive than their previous 2010 effort, I'm Not Like You (featuring one of my favourite pieces by the duo "Dirty Times") and you can find some structure within all the improvisation.

There's a combination of folk, blues, jazz and avant garde circling throughout the session. "Snake's Tail" moves slowly with Taiuti's mild stretches across the guitar, and fluctuations back and forth from De Luce's trumpet. It all turns into an interesting ride that has you wondering what sound comes next. "Now & Them"'s dark quality feels like moments out of Sonic Youth's Evol (think "Halloween"). Taiuti's playing is pretty straight forward with De Luce adding the improvised moments with striking passages of brilliance.

"Dry River" is probably the most well structured piece on Unknown Distances. Opening quietly with a bluesy theme from Taiuti and slowly expanding into an experimental exhibition of manipulated trumpet, guitar tapping and random sounds.

While Taiuti's guitar does dominate this session "Cloud #2" is a beautiful listening experience with both musicians working in tandem creating an emotional and minimalist soundscape. De Luce rips loose towards the end with real vigor and it carries over in the track "Upward" which De Luce uses varies breathing techniques to create some inspiring sounds. Unknown Distances closes with "Other Voices," a calm two chord piece with some warm passages crafted by De Luce.

In all, Unknown Distances is rich in its simplicity and deep in its desire to utilize space, minimalism and improvisation. It will be a hard listen for most but it is very rewarding. It's a small leap forward but retains the Zero Centigrade spirit for exploration and discovery.

(Stephan Moore, JazzWrap)



Neapolitan musicians Tonino Taiuti (acoustic guitar) e Vincenzo De Luce (trumpet) explore boundaries of their instruments, drawing unusual effects from them - obviously usual for the listener accustomed to some radical improvisation and electroacoustic music: Taiuti submitting the strings of his acoustic guitar to stress and bendings, and adopting non orthodox techniques on the body of his instrument; dl using unexpected sounds, mouthpiece hums, winds emphasis. However what makes UD an exciting album is not his avanguardistic drive, that is evident moreover, but it is his confessed attraction for blues folklore.

"Now & Them" is a slow and painful march towards the beyond; "Upward", with its binary trend, calls the Jandek's skeletical blues. Of course there are almost atonal excursions like "Roller Coaster" and "Cleft", but generally in this work there is paradoxically more Delta than Derek Bailey (8).

(Andrea Prevignano, Rumore Magazine)