Gabriele Gasparotti - Tropismi - Tape

Tropismi features stunning cellotronics by Benedetta Dazzi, cellist and sound designer with which Gasparotti established an intense collaboration during the past years. The album has been recorded on a full analog reel-to-reel setup and mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk (Berlin).

“In my latest release I tried to seize the instant moment, the kairos or Greek kairological time: "shooting" the instant with an on-the-fly recording of the performance on magnetic tape. While recording, I noticed that in several instances the compositions grew beyond the idea I had set out with: for example, some unforeseen elements started to emerge due to the interaction of the sound with the surrounding space. Though they were seemingly uninfluential, they made the compositional idea gradually slide into unexpected territories, arousing certain sensations in me that would suggest a particular atmosphere, image or state of mind – a judgement that moved my way of manipulating the sound and at times suggesting even a possible title for a sonic idea that was meant to represent nothing but itself. 

This interaction between the sound and my mind reminded me of the biological phenomenon of tropism: “The turning of an organism, or part of it, in a particular direction in response to an external stimulus”. So, in this work I expressly entitled Tropismi, I investigated those movements which appear to me as being the engine of existence and of expansion of the Universe”

Gabriele Gasparotti is a composer based in Italy who specializes in electroacoustic music on analog gear. A classical trained pianist and violist, Gasparotti studied composition and electronic music with Riccardo Sinigaglia and Giuseppe Giuliano at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan and the West Coast synthesis with Todd Barton.