Music is and has always been an Art that, perhaps more that others, is capable to speak to the heart and soul of people. It might be because this marvellous art has got the power to unravel our memories, distant or more recent or touch our spirituality in a way that no other art is able to, always, of course in a subjective way.
Somebody that through his talent and compositional skills has been able and still is, throughout his whole career, to touch the emotional chords of millions of fans around the world, it is the Italian pianist and composer Roberto Cacciapaglia, one of the most renowned Piano Geniuses recognised universally around the world, from United States, Russia, his own country of origin Italy and many more.
Cacciapaglia has just released his brand new album called Invisible Rainbows, a record also recently reviewed by our website and an album that has met the appreciation of his numerous fans and the worldwide music press by reaching the Number One spot in many music charts since its release.
The Italian Maestro, who is currently touring his brand new album in Italy, is due to bring the mystical and magical melodies and atmospheres of Invisible Rainbows in Tour very soon in the United Kingdom, where he is establishing, year after year, an incredibly solid fanbase that gets increasing every time Cacciapaglia tours that country.
In a brief pause of his current Tour, we manage to catch the Italian pianist and composer on the phone, to discuss the success of Invisible Rainbows and his current Tour, starting to ask Cacciapaglia how long did it take for him to put together one of the most poignant and successful albums of his remarkable career to date. "Look, the idea had already been inside my head for a long time, about the making of Invisible Rainbows but the work of putting it down and making the production concrete, that took about two years in total. But in the end, I have to confess you that I managed to achieve exactly what I wanted. Among other things, after 5 albums I've made with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, I've decided this time around instead to use the Virtuosi Italiani, who are a great musical excellence in my country in Italy".
Invisible Rainbows' first two singles extracted from the album are two beautiful and delicate compositions called Atlantis and London Sleeps. Given the abundance of extraordinary material that has always been present on Cacciapaglia's records, one can just wonder how difficult must it be for the Italian artist which piece to be chosen and released as singles every time, on each of his albums. "This is a very difficult question to answer, because each piece I compose is a bit like another child for me, so the selection work is always very intense. In the case of Invisible Rainbows, for example, the work we did on Atlantis, which we videoed in the Kent region at the Botany Bay location, was very satisfying and Atlantis seemed to me the piece that was most suitable for creating a bridge between this new work and my past ones, like connecting my current compositions with pieces like Atlantico, Oceano and so on. This idea of Atlantis, of this submerged continent that is a little what I feel is inside of us, seemed to me to go well with the concept of what we must, in my opinion, rediscover within ourselves, because the theme, after all, of Invisible Rainbows, is this too, i.e. to rediscover, to go and awaken all those parts of us that are deep within ourselves, a bit like feeling yourself in the depths of the ocean, in the depths of any sea. With London Sleep, you know, living in London for 6 months a year, at least, I felt that the piece was an ode to this incredible city, a bit of an act of devotion and a personal look at a side of London that maybe few know about. The image that many have of the capital of the United Kingdom, is that of a very chaotic city, full of energy and constant changes. Living in the heart of it, while composing at night and from this open window of my house, I happened to notice many living creatures, such as foxes, for example, moving in the silence of the night, or founding myself observing and admiring those empty streets but so full of magic at the same time. From there, I felt within me this push, aimed at this particular sound, a sound that came out naturally, trying to describe my inner feeling about those empty streets or these huge London parks immersed in total silence and from that inspiration, a sort of an ode to this magical city was born. These are the reasons behind the choice of the first two singles taken from the album, without taking anything away from all the other compositions of the album, for me, equally important".
English landscapes seem to have greatly inspired the idea behind the videos that Cacciapaglia did for Atlantis and London Sleeps and Bluebird Reviews is keen to know whether, in the Italian Maestro's mind, Invisible Rainbows can be considered the most British Influenced album of his career, especially taking into account that Cacciapaglia spends half of the year in Italy and half in the UK, for personal reasons. "Well, you know, London has always been and still is one of the liveliest cities on the planet, from a musical point of view, in my mind and having working and playing in the English capital for a very long time. Invisible Rainbow, as a record as a whole, has certainly being impacted by the musical charm of this beautiful city, although fundamentally, the record refers to those Rainbows that we have within us, which are just as beautiful as the rainbows we see appearing in the sky, because they are the symbol of purity, they are the symbol of light, of good intended in the most universal sense of the word, something that perhaps, right now, is what I feel we all need a little more. The climatic changes we witness every day, changes that, over time and I'm talking about Italy, especially, have led to floods, storms, desert temperatures and other natural cataclysms, can be gradually diminished, if we just manage to grasp that Invisible Rainbow inside of us and awaken it through sound, music and that invisible energy that the latter brings to music".
Invisible Rainbows also contains five brief interludes, within the pieces included on the album, each representing a different colour of a rainbow. Those five interludes sound so harmoniously different and at the same time complementary, a bit like finding yourself swimming deep in the sea of Cacciapaglia's music and then stepping out of it for a minute, as if to inhale deeply and then prepare to re-immerse again into the sea of his very accomplished melodies. Perhaps the Maestro may include all those five Interludes in an unique piece, either in one of his live performances or on his next album? "Look, first of all, thank you for this beautiful image that you have created in telling your feelings about the 5 interludes included in the album. I really like to think of them as a brief emergence from the record, to then allow the listener to take a breath again and then dive back into Invisible Rainbows. In my idea, the Interludes are linked to the 5 colours of the rainbow, because what interested me, speaking of light and music, is to highlight their invisibility, in view of the fact that for me, music is invisible and the Harmonics are the colours of sound, colours that spring from a rainbow and represent its essence. It is for this reason that I placed them on the album as short interludes between the songs, so that each one would bring out its own colour and make it stand out. I also take advantage of our conversation to reveal to you, as a worldwide preview, that a version of Invisible Rainbows for Solo Piano will be released in mid-September this year and I am happy to reveal it to your website, which has been following and always being supportive of my musical projects. Going back to your question, there is no telling whether these Interludes will, one day, be part of a potential Suite, by uniting all five of them in an unique piece but one thing I can tell you for sure, it is that the Interludes will be performed live too, at the UK legs of my Tour".
In Roberto Cacciapaglia's new album there are atmospheres of great sonic and emotional impact, aspects that emerges preponderantly also in pieces like Electa, Helios, Moonrise, Rainbow, pieces that carry also inner serenity and cosmic lightness within but also the idea of Space. We ask the Italian composer how much does he value the concept of Space in the drafting of his compositions, together with silence, which we understand being the starting point of all of Cacciapaglia's body of works. "Space is one of the central characteristics of my compositions. Space is freedom, space is going beyond the limits, it is not following any kind of hierarchies and, referring to music, the direction I am heading in (and I hope your readers will agree with me), is that of heading in a direction that goes beyond differences and arrives in places of pure light and pure space, where no passport is required to enter or exit them, as a music lover, it does not matter whether said music lover comes from Jazz, from Rock, Classical or Folk. As you rightly said in your question, silence for me is always my starting point, because for me, silence creates a space, like observing a calm sea, it is something that eludes the mind. When the sound is then generated, the sound then touches the emotion, a bit like a flash that opens the doors of the senses and eludes the gates of the mind. And it is precisely in that moment that the transition from silence to the concept of space takes place".
The topic of the conversation within Bluebird Reviews and Roberto Cacciapaglia shifts towards the forthcoming UK Tour of support for Invisible Rainbows, something that must sure excite a lot the Italian Maestro. "Most certainly. Going back to the UK is something that I always cherish a lot. It is a place where I know I can find great understanding of my music, because, in the United Kingdom, they are used to listening to music in a profound way, a way in which they appreciate and give meaning to every note that is played, something that goes beyond the beauty or not of a piece. What I appreciate so much about my fans in England too, it is that they value the reasons why an artist plays a piece, why he/she writes it and how said piece is performed and in my case, also the direction they see in my music. My audience in UK has responded very positively to this record and to my music in general, something I very grateful of. I like that they see themselves, in my music and from what I seem to perceive in their reactions, they see a bridge, a means of evolution, discovery and growth within themselves, which is what I always try to do, since I've been making music . A music linked to spirituality, a spirituality that is independent of religions or beliefs, the same spirituality that was created when I was called by the Vatican to meet Pope Francis in recent times. Personally, I find the idea of sound a fantastic thing, a means to get closer to the universe, to the unknown, to what we don't see, the intangible to the invisible, as a matter of fact and from there, the idea around the title of my new album . I like to think that all people, in some way, experience music like this, as understood not only as entertainment, but also as a deep emotional message".
Understanding that the portion of the Invisible Rainbows Tour in UK will be very special for Roberto Cacciapaglia, our website is curious to discover whether the setlist he will be performing in stage will be a different one in comparison to the material that the Italian pianist is currently playing on his Italian part of the Tour. "I intend to keep more or less the same setlist that I am performing now in my Tour in Italy, with some changes made especially for the British public but not so much because I will play in a different country from Italy, but because I myself want to bring something different to this part of the Tour. To begin with, there will be not only me and my piano, this time around but there will also be a cello to accompany me, together with a gong, live electronics and an electric cello, therefore with a team of musicians on stage with me. It is common knowledge to my long time fans, especially, that I often like to say that the piano is, for me, the equivalent of the lion in a metaphorical forest of instruments, therefore I thought to accompany the "lion" this time and on the UK Tour. There will also be some interesting experiments, on stage that we are carrying out on Harmonics, about Pythagoras and those sounds that the human ear usually can't hear, something that I am very excited to work on with my British audience".
Whoever has had the opportunity to watch a live performance by Roberto Cacciapaglia, they might have surely appreciated the intensity that goes behind his performances, not only related to the intensity of the music itself but also to the physicality, the gestures that accompany the artist on stage. Considering the energy that exudes from each of Cacciapaglia's concerts, we would like to know whether the Italian Maestro has got any particular ritual that he does every night, before going on stage and perform. "Great question. One thing I always pay great attention to, in my concerts, is depth in its global and most profound meaning and, together with it, great attention. To be present in the moment I transmit and create this bridge with the audience. Something I like to do, often, in my concerts, is to sing a note together with the audience, to complete the conjunction of that bridge I was telling you about. In this way, the public is not only there for a listening purpose, but they become the protagonist too, in an emotional conjunction that goes beyond the divisions between who plays and who listens, between the stage and the audience. In this way, everything becomes a single sound and for me, it's always a great emotion to hear the completion of this spiritual bridge every night and with an ever-changing audience. Before starting each concert, I like to prepare myself through a particular breathing exercise, because, when I play, I am present and I want to transfer this presence to the audience. When I start playing, I feel every single movement of the hand, arm, elbow and shoulders and when I strike the piano key, there is the awareness of the key, in striking it, the fact that striking the key raises the hammer, the hammer hits the string and the string starts the vibration. That vibration that has no end. The moment the note starts, the note itself, this planet of sound, you fill it with attention, with a spiritual content and when it touches the harmonic centre of the listener and goes beyond the normal sound perceived by the ears, then this sound takes on an inner content, a depth. A depth that goes to tune in itself and then join the listener. This is a great Pythagorean union, but it is also something that was practised and still is now in distant lands, with the American Indians, with the Tibetan monks or with the Indians of India, so to speak. Transferring this idea of music as an art that can wake us up, that can really bring us in contact with something universal, huge, light, it's something I really enjoy working on".
For many artists, Music constitutes a need, a need of searching or a need of expression, a concept that changes as the years go by, a little like having an x-ray photo taken in a specific moment of the life that an artist is going through. Before parting company with an inspired artist like Cacciapaglia, Bluebird Reviews would like to ask him at what moment of the Italian Maestro's life an album like Invisible Rainbows belongs to. "Well, I like to think that all my work belongs to the present of my life, to what I have learned, to what I have experienced and to what I feel like transmitting, sharing with my audience, with everyone in general. After all, what I try to do in my music, it is to put into it what I have learned from the great masters, from spirituality, from the teachings of many traditions with which I have had the good fortune to come into contact and therefore to bring them to the public through the power of sound. This is the real reason I make music and there is no other one".
The Tour Dates for 2023 of the Invisible Rainbows Tour are available at Roberto Cacciapaglia Official Website
