FABRIZIO PATERLINI PIANO MICROSTORIES The Eighth Note A Compilation of Poetry and Photography Edited and curated by Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah
Dear Reader, This is an interactive publication, clicking on a Microstory number will open a link to Fabrizio Paterlini’s Instagram or SoundCloud where you can listen to the song which corresponds to the artwork on any particular page.
All artworks within this publication are copyright of the artists who own the full rights to their own artworks and written content (Photography and Poetry). All music used and referred to within this publication is copyright of Fabrizio Paterlini. The copying of information and distribution of this book is theft of the editors, designers, musicians and artists intellectual property. If you would like permission to use any material from this book please contact pankowcreatives@gmail.com and we will render further advice.
Front Cover Image © Kathleen Day, 2019. Back Cover Image © Philip Budd, 2019. Fabrizio Paterlini Portrait Image © Danyyl Pochtar, 2019. Edited by Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah. Introduction written by Ravinder Surah. © Book Design, Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah, PANKOW CREATIVES, 2019. www.pankowcreatives.com Music by Fabrizio Paterlini. Music © Fabrizio Paterlini, 2019. www.fabriziopaterlini.com
To Fabrizio, Thank you for music, kindness and opportunity. Photo credit Š Danyyl Pochtar, 2019
A Fo r e w o r d To P i a n o Microstories ‘The raindrops hitting my roof in one composition are flecks of sunlight for a kindred listener on the other side o f t h e w o r l d .’ - J u l i e A . S e l l e r s There’s nothing quite like a song for achieving some fundamental aspect of connection between artist and listener. Certain melodies speak to us, and even if we have no formal musical training, we know on some essential level what appeals to us. Fabrizio Paterlini’s piano Microstories call to us, drawing on some elemental form of communication that is undeniable though intangible. It is this reaction to Paterlini’s multilayered compositions that lies at the heart of this unique multidisciplinary project. Curators Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah have compiled a rich variety of texts and images in this publication. Artists from around the world, from Hong Kong to Canada and everywhere in between, responded to a simple directive: show us what you feel when you listen to a particular score. Each element of this publication, be it musical, poetic, or visual, serves as a snapshot of an instant, a breath in time captured in tone and word and image. Rather than codifying the Microstories, these individual poetic and photographic responses open new doors for interpretation.
I can only feel the cold of the rain and the uncertainty of Elizabeth Bennet’s walk when I read Christie Forde’s “Purposeful and Bold,” for example, or sense the weight of the passage of time when I study Chaney Manshu Diao’s “Three Hours Later.” Paterlini’s compositions thus serve as a point of departure for individual responses; they, in turn, lead us down multiple paths to further interpretations in this moment, and to yet others in future interactions with the scores, poems, and photographs. Much like Giorgio Bormida’s photograph in this collection, “A Strong Emotion That Touched Me Deeply,” Paterlini’s Microstories are doors to endless responses. The vision of curators Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah to compile this collection of poetic and photographic responses to Paterlini’s compositions is laudable. While ostensibly seeking an individual emotional response to these piano Microstories, they have effectively created a community of listeners and readers that spans the globe. As I sit listening to the Microstories while I write, I am more aware of others around the world who are listening to the same compositions yet interpreting them in a completely different way. The raindrops hitting my roof in one composition are flecks of sunlight for a kindred listener on the other side of the world. Therein lies, perhaps, the greatest contribution of this project: communication across different media and perspectives. As you listen to Fabrizio Paterlini’s Microstories in conjunction with these artists’ outstanding work, you add your own response to them, becoming part of this ever-expanding community.
Julie A. Sellers
Ab out Piano Microstories ‘ T h e E i g h t h N o t e i s t h e a u d i e n c e’ s contribution to the music, without t h e m m y m u s i c d o e s n’ t ex i s t .’ Fab r i z i o Pa t e r l i n i Internationally acclaimed Italian pianist and composer Fabrizio Paterlini creates melancholic musical compositions, predominantly working in the vernacular of Neoclassical or minimalism. His unique sounds are both visceral, emotive and indeed offer a complexity which is sometimes regarded as ethereal. With over 586,495 monthly Spotify listeners worldwide Paterlini has performed musical scores in Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Turkey and most recently England among a multitude of other locations. Paterlini’s most recent project emphasizes the notion of the current moment asking, ‘How many emotions can you feel in one minute?’ This novel concept has led the composer to work on recording live piano scores for exactly one minute and then uploading them to Instagram. The interplay between live music and a social media audience has been used before by the composer in one of his recent albums ‘Winter Stories’ where he played to a live audience via Instagram’s live module.
Paterlini pushes this concept forward, asking his listeners to absorb themselves in his music for as little as one minute, in turn, we (the audience) feel the seductive response of the visceral impact music can consume within us. The idea of working with Fabrizio to create a publication that functions in harmony with the release of his upcoming album has been something which I personally wanted to produce for a few years now. I contacted him regarding the idea after expressing my love for his album ‘Viaggi in Aeromobile’ (the first album he personally released and the first album of his which I listened to. We spoke often about the idea of poetry and photography having an interplay with his music and, how art can be a visual gateway to interpreting the auditory aspect of music in general. Through this a collaboration birthed, one not just with him but also with his audience that uses art as a vessel that envisions each unique response to his music. This collaboration has formed a multidisciplinary piece of art that combines photography and poetry in response to these one-minute piano scores from his Microstories compositions. Paterlini states ‘the piano itself has seven notes A to G, the Eighth Note is the audience’s contribution to the music, without them my music doesn’t exist.’ While working on the project we put a call out to international artists, requesting that participants of this open call approach this idea with a considered creative attitude while listening to the Microstories and being true to the emotive response which they entice. Each piece of art has been considered in conjunction with the sensation of Fabrizio’s music. This publication has been curated by myself and visual artist Gemma Land, alongside Fabrizio Paterlini. This publication flows with the aura of the Microstories reflecting the organic notions of visual art against the written while culminating them into a delicate yet minimal aesthetic, enabling the art to speak for itself against the atmospheric dialect of Paterlini’s music. We hope you enjoy this publication just as much as we have enjoyed creating it. We give our upmost gratitude to the artists involved with this project for their exemplary contributions and the time which they have taken to create them. Thank You,
Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah
8
ARTIST WO
Azerbaijan Canada China Germany Greece Hong Kong Italy Netherlands Poland Romania Scotland Spain United Kingdom United States Wales
lAllister Clark lAndres Peris lAngelina Voskopoulou lAnn Privateer lAntonia Salinas Murguia lAntonis Tsarouchas lBorena Bodin lCaro Williams lChaney Manshu Diao
lCharlotte Hobbs lChristie Forde lClaire Yspol lDaniel Bocse lEffy Redman lGemma Land lGiorgio Bormida lJane Elizabeth Bennett lJulian McKenny
9
ORLD MAP
lJulie A. Sellers lKathleen Day lKathryn Sadakierski lKevin Reid lLeyli Salayeva lNicholas White lPeter Veen lPhilip Budd lRavinder Surah
lRhiannon Kendall lRoberto Isella lRyan Taylor lSarah-Cate Blake lSimon Burrows lSimon Joseph Keenan lSteph Shipley lTrish Hopkinson lWioletta Golebiewska lZheyuan Qi
TA B L E OF CONTENTS #02
46 Ann Privateer - Hair
26 Charlotte Hobbs - The Woods Creak and Ache, and The Day Forgets Itself
#03
32 Effy Redman
#04
63 Caro Williams
- Home
- In the Silent Air
#06
58 Steph Shipley
#09
22 Simon Joseph Keenan
#14
24 Andres Peris
#16 #18
- Treading Lightly
- The Sun Shines High
- Withered leaf
40 Giorgio Bormida - A Strong Emotion That Touched Me Deeply
57 Julian McKenny - Means of Escape
50 Kevin Reid - Trees
44 Claire Yspol
#21
- A Vanishing Document
38 Borena Bodin - Gelo
21 Zheyuan Qi - End of Summer
#22 #25
55 Ryan Taylor - Raindrops on Nasturtiums
47 Allister Clark - Worlds Of Our Own
34 Chaney Manshu Diao - Three Hours Later
42 Julie A. Sellers
#26
- Rainy Sunday
52 Kathleen Day - Cabo Espichel and The Salish Sea
62 Kathryn Sadakierski - The Music of Memory
#27 #29
61 Ravinder Surah - Shimmer
60 Gemma Land - Whispers
43 Julie A. Sellers - Windchimes
#30
49 Leyli Salayeva
#34
54 Nicholas White
- In Silence
- Reeds Along the Towpath, Exminster Marshes
36 Antonia Salinas Murguia - Brush Strokes
#38
20 Angelina Voskopoulou - Floating In Space
37 Daniel Bocse - Dynamic Surfaces No: II
48 Philip Budd - A Moment of Tranquillity
16 Rhiannon Kendall - She is not the ocean
#39 #40
25 Antonis Tsarouchas - Lost Love
39 Borena Bodin - Breathing waves
30 Jane Elizabeth Bennett - In Anticipation of My Loss
#41
56 Peter Veen - Hole
#42 #43
41 Giorgio Bormida - A Strong Emotion That Touched Me Deeply
45 Simon Burrows - Nevis
18 Wioletta Golebiewska - Chasing Light
23 Christie Forde
#44
- Purposeful and Bold
17 Roberto Isella - L’incanto
19 Trish Hopkinson - Minutiae
#51
59 Sarah-Cate Blake - The Dance Home
16
SHE IS NOT THE OCEAN.
#38 She can’t touch you like the waves that crash into the cliffside and you can’t submerge yourself in her and feel the euphoria of her horizons as you sink below the surface. Should you realize that her perpetually enigmatic presence is greater than the both of us you’ll let her go. Like water slipping through your fingers like a bird, just passing by. For she is not the ocean and you are not a ship in the night.
Rhiannon Kendall United Kingdom
17
L’INCANTO.
#44
Roberto Isella Italy
18
CHASING LIGHT.
#43
Wioletta Golebiewska Poland
MINUTIAE.
#44 Drops of sky cascade the chain in rivulets from rooftop edge to earth with little resistance to gravity’s pull, like my reach for you across miles of distance—just the air between us and the quiet of this room.
Trish Hopkinson United States
19
20
FLOATING IN SPACE.
#38
Angelina Voskopoulou Greece
21
END OF SUMMER.
#21
Zheyuan Qi China
22
THE SUN SHINES HIGH.
#09 You, Are my source Great healer Supporter of growth Under which all I know Is the soothing touch of your molecules Such distance and yet you reach me Free me From prisons unnoticed Until I am bathed in the enormous Beauty and power of your light Imbued with this energy my spirit takes flight Upon current of breath As the depression of my breast is lifted And I am blessed from the love With which you gifted Mind-sets’ shifting Drifting on winds gentle caress As I enter into this new day Wrapped up in all the possibilities of yes And I profess that there are times in which I slip But these are only a blip For you remind me with each rise and fall That rebirth is always willing To answer the call. Simon Joseph Keenan United Kingdom
PURPOSEFUL AND BOLD.
#44 Elizabeth Bennet Walking in the rain. In a world of doubt, She had more certainty Than I do. She held out For answers I may never have. Purposeful and bold, I wish to be like her. Elizabeth Bennet Walking in the rain, Is who I wish to become. I want clarity From rain drops So I keep moving. One foot in front Of the other, Under the darkest Of clouds, Drenched by the heaviest Of droplets, Wondering if she Ever did The same ‌ Christie Forde Canada
23
24
WITHERED LEAF.
#14 From your roots, withered and brittle, old, reddish at dawn. The ephemeral time is withering you. From the top I see you fall, you are the last. A breeze. In your roots, you will be born again.
Andres Peris Spain
25
LOST LOVE.
#39
Antonis Tsarouchas Greece
26
THE WOODS CREAK AND ACHE, AND THE DAY FORGETS ITSELF.
#02
Charlotte Hobbs United Kingdom
27
28
29
THE WOODS CREAK AND ACHE, AND THE DAY FORGETS ITSELF.
#02
Charlotte Hobbs United Kingdom
30
In Anticipation of My Loss.
#40 In anticipation of my loss I smell the air I kneel I taste the dew I cradle my heart with hopes With hope, With deep sighs I long for distance Within this moment I Savour every moment In anticipation of my loss Of you.
31
Jane Elizabeth Bennett United Kingdom
32
#03
HOME.
Only after living without a home did I begin to comprehend what home means to me. At a drop-in center in New York City, I slept upright in a blue plastic chair, surrounded by women trying to sleep in even rows of identical plastic chairs. Some had blankets. Some did not. In the morning, I could smell urine and sweat, when residents began moving about, dragging suitcases wherever they went. The staff started brusquely stacking chairs around the perimeter of the black linoleum-floored basement room. The chairs, thus stacked, formed blue plastic towers, miniature versions of the ostentatious Manhattan skyscrapers that surrounded me. I had only a backpack stuffed with clothes and toiletries, a notebook and pens and, strangely, two phones. Snapping awake at 4am in my plastic chair, legs aching, I looked down at the shadow of the chair in front of me cast across the floor, black on silvery black, and marveled that my desperate situation did not necessarily eliminate life’s beauty. Electricity in the air above those sleeping around me spoke of hope--burning, pressing hope. Why were there no cots to lie down on? Why did the woman on line ahead of me waiting for the shower fill the hall with her shouting when a male resident accidentally touched her anorak? I would not stay there long enough to find answers.
33
Next, I stayed at a shelter in upstate New York, where I could at least lie down nights. The bread there was stale, but the coffee was strong. The shelter monitor tapped on my metal bunk bed frame one morning to wake me, percussive as gunshots, and I remembered with a jolt I was far from home. Yet, the body is home, the mind, the self. Home evolves with the passage of time. Home sweet home, that saccharine adage, sounds more wistful when you are homeless. Now, I have had a true home for almost a year. With roommates and shared pets, porches and fruit-bearing trees. Warmth. Dimension. Even sweeping floors, washing dishes, I remember the torturous plastic chair and a balm of distance from that inhospitable place washes over me. Home is connection to environment, security, trust. When home breaks, the body suffers. Nothing, not even the dust in the floor’s cracks, can be taken for granted. Sometimes, walking through my house, I pinch my wrist to make sure I remain in reality. Drifting to sleep nights, I think, I am safe, I am safe.
Effy Redman United States
34
THREE HOURS LATER.
35
#25
Chaney Manshu Diao China
36
BRUSH STROKES.
#38 I cannot stop the tears, they fall like rain. Scattered across the sky brush strokes of emotions. Broken trust that you destroyed I am a torrent of colors splashed across the canvas, trying to make sense of all this. As the brush strokes pass through me I am letting you go, I am becoming a masterpiece of loving emotions, that stretch to those who believe in me, those who have shown me love. My tears sprinkled like confetti, my canvas captivating. Channels of colors are triumphs over hardship, success of never folding soul determined and energetic. I have much to give my love is endless, this is who I am. I am stronger than you will ever know. Stronger than you will ever know. Antonia Salinas Murguia United States
37
DYNAMIC SURFACES NO: II.
#38
Daniel Bocse Romania
38
GELO.
#21 On the frost it jumps, within the arc of boredom and fear, on the glaring mistake in his quay and finally they stood away.
Borena Bodin Germany
BREATHING WAVES.
#40 Breathing waves suspire the salty trace. In the mornings strain the pale light writes on water sentences of an unknown language.
Borena Bodin Germany
39
40
A STRONG EMOTION THAT TOUCHED ME DEEPLY.
#16
Giorgio Bormida Italy
41
#42
42
RAINY SUNDAY.
#26 Held captive, I watch as the day pours out her sorrows in grimy streaks that sully the windowpane. The humid air hangs, oppressive, imposing her will on unwilling subjects. Gray skies settle into the very marrow of the bones of my soul. And I feel as I always have on such a day as this: one too many inside these walls, inside my flesh.
Julie A. Sellers United States
WINDCHIMES.
#29 Windchimes translate the imperceptible whispers of an approaching storm. Tinkling notes crescendo, slicing the tension with their melodic warning. Distant rumbles pulse across the day and into my heart. Relentless tears fall, unbidden, implacable from a sunless sky. And from this window on my world, upended, ravaged by the unexpected, I hear with the ears of my soul the hope in the chimes, sweetly singing until the storm is spent.
Julie A. Sellers United States
43
44
A VANISHING DOCUMENT.
#21
Claire Yspol Netherlands
45
NEVIS.
#43
Simon Burrows United Kingdom
46
HAIR.
#02 Hair. Lives on our heads Or doesn’t, thoughts Bleach it white A lair of doom Of things to come.
Ann Privateer United States
47
WORLDS OF OUR OWN.
#25
Allister Clark Scotland
48
A MOMENT OF TRANQUILLITY.
#38
Philip Budd United Kingdom
IN SILENCE.
#30 Silence, soothes the responder winds up the receiver chuckles at the feelings and the extend of its presence makes a mountain out of a molehill Silence. An abrasive closet Full of unspoken letters Question marks, exclamations Tone of voice, love and fear Closely guarded secrets In silence.
Leyli Salayeva Azerbaijan
49
50
#18 TREES.
I knew your hidden treasure, the almond in your eyes, how you cried when I cried. You were rowan after my first anxiety attack hugged me, told me not to worry, nurtured me like cedar, your sacred space, your only son. I recall your dogwood voice, when you found my drugs, not in this house, you said. Your love was redbud and eucalyptic, your hugs too. Your laugh was maple, your dance the slosh or a slow waltz.
51
You were the elm on the phone, when I called you to break the news of my divorce. Dad wanted to bring me home, but your beech was to leave me alone, told me I was a grown man, you were there if I needed you. I’m not sure you made peace with catholic guilt, your pine for God was personal. Olive and viburnum, your prayers, always a lit candle for someone. In the realm of the afterlife, I imagine you are larch, a protector, a walnut-mother. Here, for me, you are myrtle, a passage between the worlds, a Tree of Heaven beside me as I adapt to urban living.
Kevin Reid Scotland
52
CABO ESPICHEL AND THE SALISH SEA.
#26
Kathleen Day Canada
53
54
REEDS ALONG THE TOWPATH, EXMINSTER MARSHES.
#34
Nicholas White United Kingdom
55
RAINDROPS ON NASTURTIUMS.
#22
Ryan Taylor United Kingdom
56
HOLE.
#41 Sometimes a dead man comes along. Unannounced like a rain shower on a summer’s day. A chill accompanied by tears, a hole in time that opens, then slowly fills up with daily things like driving, eating and walking the dog. I pull my boot up out of the dirt clay and see how the mud flows back, the space that briefly existed slowly being swallowed. Until I take another step and force the next hole by sinking away, pulling loose and walking on. When I look back after a hundred meters, not a trace from where I came. Sometimes someone who has died a long time ago touches me, until I move, the hole closes and I forget, forget to remember, can’t even remember.
Peter Veen Netherlands
57
MEANS OF ESCAPE.
#16
Julian McKenny Wales
58
TREADING LIGHTLY.
#06
Steph Shipley United Kingdom
THE DANCE HOME.
#51 Wide white skies, Charcoal trees. Swans, a haze of clouds, Winging their way home Again. Wide white earth, Furrowed tracks. Velvet horses, a rise of dust, Treading their path Home, Soon. Wide white ocean, Rising sighs. Silver glimmering, Threading their needles Home, When? Wide white skirts, Your hair is dressed with flowers Full scarlet Threaded with silk forests You dance yourself home To me. Russia.
Sarah-Cate Blake United Kingdom
59
60
WHISPERS.
#29
Gemma Land United Kingdom
61
SHIMMER.
#27
Ravinder Surah United Kingdom
62
THE MUSIC OF MEMORY.
#26 She sees his face Wavering as a smile In the lights of the crowd From the carousel as it slowly spins Through the veil of memory, Ephemeral and ethereal. Its jaunty tune cuts through years So that age is but a distant star Twinkling in the carnival bulbs, Glowing as time blurs in paint smears all around. Hurriedly, the years whirl by, As yarn unravels from a spool, They run down the beach, But their hands don’t quite touch And the memory snaps As a bubble pops From her brain. The music slows, And then it fades. The remembrance of a face.
Kathryn Sadakierski United States
63
IN THE SILENT AIR.
#04
Caro Williams Hong Kong
A A RT I S T D I R E C TO R Y
Z
A
Allister Clark www.allyclarkphotography.com Andres Peris www.facebook.com/PianoNes-849037031821126 Angelina Voskopoulou www.avos.wordpress.com Antonia Salinas Murguia www.poetrybytoni.com Antonis Tsarouchas www.instagram.com/antonis.tsarouchas
B C D E
Borena Bodin www.behance.net/borbodin Caro Williams www.carowilliams.com Chaney Manshu Diao www.instagram.com/chaney_dms Charlotte Hobbs www.instagram.com/charlottehobbsss Claire Yspol www.claireyspol.com Daniel Bocse www.instagram.com/dani.bocse Effy Redman www.linkedin.com/in/effy-redman-7bab2110b
G J K L N P
Gemma Land www.cargocollective.com/gemmaland Giorgio Bormida www.giorgiobormida.com Jane Elizabeth Bennett www.janeelizabethbennett.com Julian McKenny www.julianmckenny.com Julie A. Sellers www.facebook.com/julieasellersauthor Kathleen Day www.kathleenday.org Kathryn Sadakierski www.linkedin.com/in/kathryn-sadakierski-b-a7a295b148 Kevin Reid www.eyeosphere.com Leyli Salayeva www.leylisalayeva.com Nicholas White www.nicholasjrwhite.co.uk Peter Veen www.peterveen.nl/english Philip Budd www.instagram.com/lightstriver
R S T W Z
Ravinder Surah www.ravindersurah.com Rhiannon Kendall www.instagram.com/rhiannonkendallartist Roberto Isella www.instagram.com/rifstudio Ryan Taylor www.ryantaylorphotography.co.uk
Sarah-Cate Blake www.sarah-cate-blake.com Simon Burrows www.blindcolour.co.uk Simon Joseph Keenan www.instagram.com/sim0nkey Steph Shipley www.stephyshipley.co.uk
Trish Hopkinson www.trishhopkinson.com
Wioletta Golebiewska www.wiolettagolebiewska.com
Zheyuan Qi www.instagram.com/otto061
© Book Design, Gemma Land and Ravinder Surah, PANKOW CREATIVES, 2019.