Listen! MadeRadioArt Anthology | Sergio Armaroli & Steve Piccolo

Listen! MadeRadioArt Anthology | Sergio Armaroli & Steve Piccolo

Gruen 222 | Audio CD (+ Digital)

CD 01
01. Sergio Armaroli ExploringNoiseNeon [01:04]
02. Sergio Armaroli ExploringNoise 1/4 CableGroundLoop Static [01:04]
03. Sergio Armaroli RITUEL [07:52]
04. Sergio Armaroli Lo(0)g1ElectronicsVersion [03:45]
05. Steve Piccolo I Love You (2007) [05:05]
06. Sergio Armaroli La cantatrice con capelli 1 [01:27]
07. Sergio Armaroli From Artaud:My Cry in The Stairwell [01:45]
08. Sergio Armaroli Chantait Apollinaire [01:32]
09. Sergio Armaroli pour l’Homme Libre [02:02]
10. Steve Piccolo The Rebirth Of Discourse [06:48]
11. Sergio Armaroli Je suis un homme qui se cherche [02:03]
12. Steve Piccolo Smog in Hollywood [00:27]
13. Steve Piccolo stutter [00:41]
14. Steve Piccolo stutter 1 [01:07]
15. Sergio Armaroli La cantatrice con capelli 2 [00:29]
16. Steve Piccolo Nathalie Vienna Mono [16:16]

CD 02
01. Steve Piccolo, Tornelli alla Bolognese [1:49]
02. Sergio Armaroli, Exploring Noise Two [1:04]
03. Steve Piccolo, You can’t see the forest for the trees [4:19]
04. Sergio Armaroli, Harrier ToPrologue [0:45]
05. Steve Piccolo, As I was saying (2) [3:03]
06. Sergio Armaroli, ExtraReason: Profili [4:47]
07. Steve Piccolo, As I was saying (1) [2:16]
08. Sergio Armaroli, Interlude [1:51]
09. Steve Piccolo, The breakdown of club culture [3:04]
10. Sergio Armaroli, Prologue | Fui ingannata [5:02]
11. Steve Piccolo, Face in the crowd (1) [3:22]
12. Sergio Armaroli, ErrorLand Extract[4:10] (Steve Piccolo, voice; Fritz Hauser, percussion with video Trommel mit Mann)
13. Steve Piccolo, Grumbling masters of the universe [2:18]
14. Sergio Armaroli, Extra(Sound)Reason: comeCoda [3:21]
15. Steve Piccolo, The last audience [0:50]
16. Sergio Armaroli, ZEROHistoire(s)Livre AboutSyria [2:44]
17. Steve Piccolo, Stella [0:38]
18. Sergio Armaroli, ScribblerText | Nel Nero [1:06]
19. Steve Piccolo, Plausibly good but certifiably fake news (possibly self-fulfilling) ((for Monaco art fair shuttle)) [2:15]

Sound Art Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2025 / Gruen 222 / LC 09488 / UPC 198588361931

REVIEW

SERGIO ARMAROLI & STEVE PICCOLO - LISTEN! MADE RADIO ART ANTHOLOGY (2CD by Gruenrekorder)

PIETRO GROSSI - BETWEEN SCIENCE AND MUSIC (WITHOUT MUSICIANS) (CD by Gruenrekorder)

There is some text accompanying the release by Aramaroli and Piccolo, but no information about the composers. The words we get, however, leave much to guess, or something I don't understand. I refer the reader to the website for judgment. Let's assume this has something to do with radio, radio art, or radio play; at least, if we look at the title of the album. As far as I can see, it's not a collaborative work, with the first disc credited to Armaroli and the second to Piccolo; the first has 21 tracks, and the other 30. Short pieces of electronic sounds, spoken word (in French, Italian, and English, or with no discernible words), sampled sounds (many of them) from unknown sources, and the relationship between all of this eludes me. By my estimation, this is not an album of random tracks, showcasing musical proficiency, but rather some sort of concept, and that's where I am in the dark. I am not aware of what this concept is, so there is a lot I'm missing here. Some of this sounds

like sound poetry, more so on Piccolo's disc than on Armaroli. I played both discs with interest, and there are some fine songs (not the right word, I assume) to be found on them, and probably much more for those who have a better understanding of what goes on here.

A lot more text comes in the booklet of the CD by Pietro Grossi, but dark blue on a black background doesn't enhance readability. Luckily, the text is also on the website. [wiki] "Pietro Grossi (15 April 1917, in Venice – 21 February 2002, in Florence) was an Italian composer, pioneer of computer music, visual artist and hacker ahead of his time. He began experimenting with electronic techniques in Italy in the early sixties", and in 1967 he created his first piece of computer music. In the 1980s "Grossi started to develop visual elaborations created on a personal computer with programs provided with "self-decision making" and that works out the concept of HomeArt (1986), by way of the personal computer, raises the artistic aspirations and potential latent in each one of us to the highest level of autonomous decision making conceivable today, and the idea of personal artistic expression: "a piece is not only a work (of art), but also one of the many 'works' one can freely

transform: everything is temporary, everything can change at any time, ideas are not personal anymore, they are open to every solution, everybody could use them" - again a wikipedia quote, even when the booklet says it better, but also uses more words. The same Sergio Armaroli is the music performer here, playing the piece 'OSTN', for vibraphone and tape, and he is "attempting to enter Pietro Grossi’s sound spectrum of six Ostinati (OSTN) intended as moving soundscapes, maintaining the specific grain of each field as the centre of sound gravity. The vibraphone motor was conceived at different speeds for each field in the search for a vibrant and luminous sound, maintaining, within a sound unit of organic character, two dimensions: figure and background in the dialectic relationship of listening". The performer is, perhaps, absent, even when he thought of the idea to perform the piece. The text relating to the six ostinatos is a bit lost on me. I love the vibraphone, that distant ringing of sound, and whatever is on tape, colours this distance even more. I like the music here when it's minimal, such as in 'OSTN #1', 'OSTN #2', but a lot less in 'OSTN #6', which is very chaotic. The tapes certainly add a different quality to the pieces, best exemplified in the long 'OSTN #3', which sounds like sea or white noise. It's a most curious release, mostly great, but also with some tracks,I didn't care for very much. (FdW)