Parallel 41 Interview @ Foxy Digitalis by Steve Dewhurst
http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/?p=35134
Connecting People: An Interview With Parallel 41
July 9, 2012 By Steve Dewhurst
A collaborative project stretching across the globe from New York to Naples, Parallel 41, named for the line of latitude that connects their respective countries, is cellist Julia Kent and vocalist Barbara De Dominicis. Last month Baskaru released their debut album with a film made by Davide Lonardi chronicling the duo’s travels and the recording process. Performing live in a wide range of locations in Italy and New York, Kent and Dominicis explored the power of their surroundings and the imaginary line known as the 41st Parallel North. Recently I spoke to Julia and Barbara about the album, Lonardi’s film and the joys of travel.
Hi Julia and Barbara! I hope you’re both well. The Parallel 41 album is really beautiful.
Julia Kent and Barbara De Dominicis: Thank you so much! And thanks for your interest…
First of all, tell me how your collaboration came about.
J & B: We met through the internet, via a virtual acquaintance who subsequently became a real friend. The whole encounter was very much improvised, like the music!
The film Faraway Close by Davide Lonardi accompanies the music you made. How did the process of marrying image with sound work out?
J & B: We feel as though the visual element of Parallel 41 that Davide creates brings the music into another dimension. In this project, the musical and visual elements are equally important, and completely intertwined. As a filmmaker, Davide has an amazing vision and amazing eye in terms of composition, which we think Faraway Close reflects, but, also, he is an essential partner in our live shows, as he improvises a visual element in the performances in the same way that we do musically.
Parallel 41 is the line that connects you across the world, from Naples to New York. It’s variously described on the album artwork as ‘illusory’, ‘dreamt’ and ‘chimerical’, which gives it a very mystic sense. What energies did you take from the line and can you feel each other along it even when you are at opposite sides of the world?
J & B: We feel as though we (Julia, Davide and Barbara) have become really close from all the adventures we have experienced in the course of making music – especially making this record – and we feel as though we do share a unspoken line of energy or perhaps a line of communication that transcends whatever surroundings we may find ourselves in. We think of it as some kind of psychic telegraph line that crosses oceans. Definitely the image of the line that connects is one that has inspired us from the beginning.
What was special about the specific locations you chose to record in?
Julia: Each location had a unique character and brought a unique acoustical quality to the recordings. We recorded in places that ranged from a farmhouse in the Piedmont countryside in glorious golden summer, to an ex-factory in Napoli, to an abandoned tunnel in the Alto Adige, to a former fort outside Venice in bitterly cold winter. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to interact with these historical and fascinating spaces by recording in them.
Barbara: A compelling sense of discovery has been accompanying these irregular and fragmented intrusions in most of these places; the fortress by the water in Venice had a peculiar energy: quite intriguing and utterly melancholic; the decaying nineteenth century wool factory in Naples (which has been tastefully restored) had its own very strong sonic colour due to its nearness with a local street market but it also retained a somehow macabre and desolate sense. Uniforms used during the first world war were produced there. Valdapozzo has immersed us in a bucolic and enchanting setting, while finding ourselves being in the mouth of an abandoned highway tunnel felt quite unreal and surrealistic. New York’s gripping urbanity on the other hand gave a frantic flavour to our sessions, both visually and sonically.
What are your respective working methods like and how did they combine to create Parallel 41?
Julia: I have been working primarily as a solo artist recently, and enjoying very much the autonomy that can provide, but it has been wonderful to collaborate with Barbara. In addition to her glorious voice she is an inexhaustible source of creativity and inspiration and kindness.
Barbara: I am in a constant research of a balance: see-sawing between song structure and open ended music. My last works tend to combine field recordings with live instrumentation and fragments of “what is found” on the run. Of course having the privilege to interact with such a marvellous, visionary and generous musician like Julia made things incredibly stimulating and surprising for me. Working with Julia and Davide in a sort of “improv-modality” could have been seriously disorienting and fragmentary while I feel we’ve had a special glue given by the fact that while recording we were actually in the process of getting to know each other… observing each others’ gestures, vulnerabilities, sights, obscurities, lights… learning to know each others’ “sounding notes” and “melting points” (metaphorically and not!)… tasting each others’ limits and capacity of abandonment. I feel like the whole process has been a [tiny] voyage in flux between identities, ways of working, humanities and places… where snags are part of the whole picture.
How did you enjoy each others’ cities? What are the similarities and differences?
Julia: Napoli, for me, is very much like New York. They have a similar sense of being chaotic yet creative urban centres, and they both feel like cities that are very much open to the rest of the world. New York, though, especially Manhattan, where I live, feels as though it is becoming increasingly homogenized and generic, while Napoli retains its unique character. So many of the spaces that nourished creativity in Manhattan have been ploughed under by development and commercialization.
Barbara: Topographically the two cities are different, [but] it seems to me that New York and Naples share the same risk of sensory overexposure: eyes, gestures, colours, ears, aromas might lead in both these city to a sort perpetual drunkenness. Both [are] dense and teeming cities; there’s almost a constant “possible” undifferentiated state in which boundaries between public dimension and private spheres venture to dissolve and exterior and private almost melt in a sort of continuum. Going back to New York and filtering the city through Julia’s eyes has been a special experience: [it was] almost a new place [when] compared with the city I used to know. In addition Davide Lonardi re-tracing (using archive material and original materials) the imaginary line we drew on the path of the 41st parallel actually refreshed what was my impression and knowledge of these two cities.
Barbara, your lyrics are a big feature of the album. You flick between Italian and English throughout. Did you do this to differentiate between the locations the underlying music was recorded in, or for other reasons?
Barbara: Not really to distinguish the different locations. Most of the sessions have represented a sort of travelogue of an underground Italy and it felt natural to make a brief incursion in this idiom and let other languages having an echo in the project. In addition lyrics have been vulnerable to the moods, to our state and latitudes; ‘Naked City’ for instance was actually recorded in Valdapozzo but the title is a homage to Jules Dassin’s noir portrayal of New York. On the other hand it does evoke W. Benjamin’s “Napoli”, inspired by the image of a porous city… could be any city, or a hidden corner of an ancient Napoli, the image of a place made of grey lava stone and yellow tuff, blackened by soot, grown upon itself, stratum upon stratum, worn by time…
Your voice reminds of Beth Gibbons’ in places…
Barbara: Thanks for such a generous comparison. Gibbons is an outstanding artist!
What were the reactions to your music like when you were recording in public places?
J & B: Apart from the occasional threat of arrest, it has been amazing to work in public places instead of studios, which can be so sterile. And so many people have been incredibly helpful and enthusiastic in terms of facilitating the process, by helping us find these amazing spaces and enabling us to record there. [We are] truly grateful! We must mention Andrea Serrapiglio (wonderful cellist and special soundman for us during Valdapozzo and Forte Marghera sessions), Marco Messina, Andrea Polato and Vanja Zappett. Moreover we’ve had the constant support of Eric Besnard at Baskaru. What a privilege to be part of such a wonderful label.
Thank you guys! J & B: Thanks so much Steve!
Tags: Au Hasard, Barbara De Dominicis, Baskaru, Davide Lonardi, Julia Kent, Julia Kent and Barbara De Dominicis,