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'Stolen Paintings' is the weird and wonderful debut “solo” album from Salon Kingsadore guitarist Gianmarco Liguori. Working with some of Australasia’s finest jazz musicians, Liguori has come up with a world of sound that blurs the gaps between psychedelic rock, free jazz, lounge and world music.
“I’m not a jazz musician” explains Liguori. “But I’m really influenced by jazz. When I was writing the music for the album I was definitely writing with these guys in mind. I tried to stay in the background as much as possible as far as playing was concerned. I kind of just set up musical situations and gave them minimal instructions. I asked these guys to play on the album because I knew they could come up with what I was looking for without having to talk too much about it”.
Liguori teamed up with his friend and former trumpet tutor, Kim Paterson for the project, and through him got involved with the other musicians who perform here. The veteran musicians who contributed to the album have had decades of recording and performance between them since the early 1960s, in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia, performing with some pretty huge names in jazz. The composer himself can’t read a note of music, so what was it like working with musicians who have recorded and played at such a high level?
“Well, they weren’t under any illusions that I was some kind of virtuoso or anything like that, but could see that what I was coming up with could be a good vehicle for their own interpretation & exploration. Certain passages had to be transcribed though, because I couldn’t tell them which chords I was playing.”
Taking inspiration from 1960s film soundtracks, 'Stolen Paintings' weaves a loose story throughout the album as though it were a soundtrack itself. It may be instrumental, but that doesn’t mean it should be taken as “wallpaper” music.
“I’m really interested in the fact that all these guys like Piero Piccioni, Ennio Morricone and Krzysztof Komeda had close collaborative relationships with the directors of the films they worked on. They were free to experiment and make music that has outlasted and lived outside of so many of the films their music was originally intended for”.
I know that some of the music I’m making could be mistaken as elevator music… Sometimes subtlety and wordlessness seems to add up to easy listening. Anyway, I don’t have a problem with the music being played in an elevator.
Band Members:
Gianmarco Liguori (guitar, bass, synthesiser)
Kim Paterson (drums, trumpet, percussion)
Miguel Fuentes (bata drum, congas, bongo, llama toes, bells)
Murry McNabb (piano, synthesiser, hammond organ)
Andy Atwell (bass)
Brian Smith (tenor saxophone, flute)
Artist Website
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