Luigi Porto – Scimmie (LP/CD Set)

Luigi Porto is an Italian musician and composer. He released some experimental songwriting albums with his former solo project Appleyard College, and with the Italian band Maisie. He is a resident composer in a contemporary opera company based in New York City.

With a background in visual arts, he works also as a sound designer in films and theatre performances. SCIMMIE, his first release under his own name, is a soundtrack to an unreleased experimental movie.

In his own words:

“SCIMMIE is a musical conversation that flows parallel to Romano Scavolini’s film.

These were the agreements. When we met the first time, he told me “I don’t want film music. You have to create a sort of “pain symphony”, something that continues even if the film stops, a music that doesn’t care”.

The work, divided in three volumes like the film, was conceived during the last years in several places of the world, while from time to time I was moving for work reasons. I wanted to collect contrasting experiences, put them in line without seeking for harmony – releasing instead many individual energies, make them explode and implode, simply suggesting a direction.

I used many composition techniques to do this, from classical 4 voices writing to sampling, overdub, psychedelic jamming. I wanted to let this music emerge and sink between various identities, without being afraid of making a faux paus – instead trying to speak languages that are unfamiliar to everybody, even through the various featuring, conceived as “representatives”. It is a political vision. Contradiction, schizophrenia, I wanted to ride them, ritualize them, show them. Not as a contamination, but  as a struggle, a fight.

I try to compose and, once written and recorded, handle the tracks as they were found objects, with continuous elevations and debasements – actually “shuffling the cards” (even Romano in the meanwhile was doing it with the film, editing the episodes and then shuffling them). Hiding the composition process sometimes, and sometimes instead showing it totally naked, make it emerge. Writing “straight”, recording, letting the material settle until the emotional detachment comes, and then mistreating it, jamming upon it, giving space to randomness to find new paths. This, for me, is a method and a liturgy. >>
ROMANO SCAVOLINI is probably known best for his movies „Un Bianco Vestito per Mariale“ (aka „Spirits of Death“), „Dog Tags – Platoon to hell“, „Savage Hunt“ or „Nightmare“. „L´Apocalisse delle Scimmie“ is starring John Phillip Law in his last role before his death.

• LUIGI PORTO is a studied film composer and sound designer with so far 15  feature films and a large number of short films and documentaries for Italian, US American and Canadian Productions.
• Soundtrack for ROMANO SCAVOLINI´s epic movie “L´Apocalisse delle Scimmie”
• ROMANO SCAVOLINI is best known for his movies “Un Bianco Vestito per Mariale (aka Spirits of Death), “Dog Tags – Platoon to hell”, “Savage Hunt” or “Nightmare (in a damaged brain)”
• “L´Apocalisse delle Scimmie” is starring JOHN PHILLIP LAW in his last role before his death
• The Artwork of the release is featuring paintings of VITTORIO BRUNI best known for his work for Andy Warhols Factory and even Charlie Chaplin!
• Strong orchestral avantgarde experimental Soundtrack music – a pain symphony!

LP/CD-Set is limited to 250 copies.