Pippo Lionni, Sergio Corbini & Stefano Franceschini – Actionreaction 2

once you have witnessed how the trio create together the music on this fascinating album become increasingly coherent as you listen.

SLAM Productions SLAMCD2118

Pippo Lionni (spackle knife, paint roller); Sergio Corbini (piano, synthesizer, electronics); Stefano Franceschini (soprano & baritone saxophone, electronics); Silvia Bolognesi (bass)

Yes, you read that correctly. Spackle knife and paint roller, two ‘musical’ instruments not normally listed in the credit for an album, but here performed by New York painter and designer Pippo Lionni in a fascinating amalgamation of music that incorporates elements of free improvisation, avant garde electronic music and gently floating soundscapes.

The idea of fusing art and music, both improvised in the moment is not a new one, but one that is goes hand in glove with a live performance where the audience can both see and hear the artist and musicians at work, but Lionni is not content to just paint but is an integral part of the music that is being created.

The artist’s unique and visionary abstract paintings are created while pianist and saxophonist Sergio Corbini and Stefano Franceschini improvise with Lionni using the spackle knife and paint roller to simultaneously mark the canvas spread out infront of him and also tap out rhythms and musical motifs as he works. The paint roller (minus the roller, incidentally) can also be used in a swirling motion in much the same way as a drummer would use brushes and create an aural texture as well as visual.

Piano and saxophone work with Lionni and are able to draw their ideas an inspiration from the sounds created and the evolving painting, in effect using eyes and ears to guide their improvisations. With Franceschini’s melodic phrases on soprano and sparse phrases and delicate textures from the pianist, the music evolves in real time alongside the artist’s vision. Or is it the other way round as Lionni intently listens to the sounds created by his colleagues as he carefully places paint on canvas?

Over the course of two CDs these improvised pieces play out. Bassist Silvia Bolognesia joins the trio on ‘AR14’and as the snthesizer and electronics come more into play, the sound of the bass fills out the bottom end of the sound spectrum most satisfyingly.

While much of this extraordinary music is performed live, there are some duo pieces from Lionni and Corbini that were recorded in the studio that reveal an altogether different sound world and the improvisation ‘AR15 Mov.3’ exhibiting a stronger percussive element. But it is perhaps as a trio where the dialogue is at most eloquent as on ‘AR 18 Mov.1’ in which Franceschini’s baritone saxophone opens up the sound considerably, and in doing so seems to leave much more space in the music.

If the idea of ‘listening’ to a painter working on a canvas seems a little odd, then you can watch a performance of ‘AR30 Mov.1’ on the SLAM Productions YouTube channel and once you have witnessed how the trio create together the music on this fascinating album become increasingly coherent as you listen. It may also create a little healthy debate as the virtues of watching and listening or just basking in the music created by this unique trio.