“Immersi nella luce del crepuscolo, i colori si fanno più vividi, i loro contorni più affilati. I suoni, ora liberati, riempiono lo spazio” M.N.
IL PROGETTO MUSICALE
Seeds of Sound in the Autumn of Power nasce nel 2004, su idea e iniziativa di Martino Nicoletti. Si sviluppa grazie alla collaborazione del musicista e ingegnere del suono Roberto Passuti, nel quadro del progetto Stenopeica.
Con la forma e le dimensioni di un taccuino di viaggio con un annesso CD musicale registrato interamente sul campo, ogni opera costituisce il luogo privilegiato in cui l’esperienza vissuta, gli incontri, la potenza visiva e visionaria delle immagini e quella, ancor più affilata, del suono si fondono assieme per dar vita ad un’opera snella, poliedrica e, soprattutto, viva. Pensata sotto questa forma, la serie si rivolge essenzialmente a persone che, al di là del semplice interesse per la musica etnica, hanno sincero desiderio di entrare in contatto con l’anima di culture lontane. Di avvicinarne la bellezza, la forza, la struggente poesia, ma anche di accettarne la complessità e le infinite sfaccettature.Parole, immagini, suoni e musiche confluiscono fluidamente all’interno di un unico progetto. La scintilla che lo mette in moto è la ricerca di sonorità appartenenti a mondi in cui, ancor oggi, la musica è considerata avere uno specifico potere magico, la non comune capacità di raggiungere e sondare le profondità del mondo invisibile.
Desiderio autentico di evadere gli stereotipi che riguardano l’”esotico”. Lasciarsi prendere per mano così da farsi guidare lungo sentieri sconosciuti che domandano di mostrarsi secondo una pluralità equilibrata di linguaggi, espressione di quegli infiniti armonici che spontaneamente si producono attorno ad ogni esperienza umana.Suono come freccia ed arpione. Freccia scoccata verso l’origine delle cose, in direzione di quelle vibrazioni creative che, nel passato dei primordi, diedero vita all’universo. Un arpione che, nel consentire all’uomo di raggiungere in maniera diretta fonti di potere occulto, offre l’opportunità di manipolarle a proprio beneficio o di propiziare una trasformazione nella sua più intima coscienza.
Musica come espressione di una civiltà. Musica dislocata e veicolata sulla base di un attentissimo lavoro filologico di traduzione e contestualizzazione.
LE OPERE PRODOTTE:
The path of light:
Ritual music of the Tibetan Bon
The path of light:
Ritual music of the Tibetan Bon
“The Path of Light” – primo CD della serie Seeds of Sound in the Autumn of Power ideata e diretta da Martino Nicoletti e distribuita dall’etichetta Borgatti Edizioni Musicali – rappresenta un ampio e approfondito itinerario attraverso la musica rituale del Bon, la religione prebuddhista del Tibet, una delle tradizioni spirituali meno note dell’Asia.
Costituita da un CD e da un ampio ed elegante booklet a colori – oltre cento pagine corredate da testi e fotografie volte ad offrire un’ampia introduzione alla storia, la filosofia, i miti, la ritualità, gli strumenti musicali tradizionali della religione Bön – l’opera costituisce una vasta antologia dedicata alla musica liturgica di questa specifica tradizione spirituale tibetana.
Interamente registrato dal vivo nel monastero Bön di Tritan Norbutse in Nepal, il CD – realizzato con il supporto del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e del CNR – raccoglie una rarissima selezione di canti, musiche e mantra appartenenti, in massima parte, al cammino esoterico dello Dzogchen, o Grande Perfezione. Autentica gemma dell’opera è l’esecuzione collettiva del chö, rituale meditativo di auto-sacrificio, così come si trova diffuso nella tradizione bön-po.
Oltre al valore scientifico e divulgativo, la pubblicazione dell’opera è destinata a sostenere le attività di salvaguardia culturale del monastero Bön di Tritan Norbutse.
Charya:
The tantric musical tradition of the the Kathmandu Valley
This
outstanding CD presents a wide overview of Charya,
one of the lesser known sacred musical traditions of the Kathmandu
valley.
Rooted in esoteric
Tantric Buddhist tradition (vajrayana),
widespread among the Newar of Nepal, Charya
songs represent an integral part of the Charya
nrtya sacred dances, traditionally handed down and performed in Vajracarya
Tantric spiritual lineages.
Traditionally performed
by initiated dancers in a highly secret context, these dances represent an
authentic form of dynamic meditation (sadhana).
Founded on the practice of specific mental visualisations and on a deep identification
of the dancer with the specific meditation deity (yidam) evoked during the dance, Charya
nrtya’s main aim is to achieve higher states of consciousness and a direct
realisation of the ultimate, non-dual and empty nature of phenomena.
In this sense,
the peaceful and wrathful deities evoked and “danced” during the performance –
belonging to both Buddhist and Hindu traditional pantheons – represent the direct
personified expression of the ceaseless creative energy inherent in the
Emptiness itself (sunyata).
In this
context, thanks to the magic power of the chant, the music and the dance, each performance
is thus transformed into a veritable yogic practice aimed at propitiating the
tangible manifestation of the most profound divine powers that inhabit and
vivify the universe, as well as providing the dancer with a rare opportunity of
realising directly the enlightened condition of his/her own mind.
Kept secret
until a few decades ago, only recently have Charya
songs and the Charya nrtya dance
tradition been made accessible to a non-initiated audience, including
westerners.
The CD,
recorded in Kathmandu under the supervision of
Dr. Martino Nicoletti, has been created thanks to the collaboration of
Rameshwor Maharjan, an internationally renowned Newari Charya dancer and musician.
M.N.
Track 1: Sri Padma Nrtyasvara Vandana: hymn to the Lord
of the Dance; Track 2: Sodasa Lasya: the dance of the Sixteen Offering
Goddesses to the main deity of the mandala; Track 3: Arya Tara: the dance of the Green Tara; Track 4: Vajrayogini: the dance of Vajravarahi, “The
Diamond Sow”; Track 5: Manjusri: the dance of the Bodhisattva Manjusri; Track 6: Panca Buddha: the dance of the Five Buddhas; Track 7: Kumari: the dance of the virgin goddess
Kumari; Track 8: Rakta Ganesh: the dance of the Red Ganesh; Track 9: Sri Bhairav Kali: the dance of Bhairav and Kali.
Scientific researches, recording organisation and supervision: Martino Nicoletti; Sound engineering and post-production: Roberto Passuti; Label: Stenopeica – A Buzz Supreme.
Gandharva:
The magic sound of Nepali sarangi
The magic sound of Nepali sarangi
The CD presents
a series of outstanding sarangi solo
executions inspired by a rich repertoire of traditional Nepali and Tibetan
melodies, performed by Shyam Nepali: in this work the long-established music of
the Gaine of Nepal blends with the very personal experimentation and intimate feelings
of one of the most renowned innovative and sensitive musicians in the panorama
of contemporary Nepali music.
M.N.
Track 01: Morning bliss; Track 02: Himalayan dawn; Track 03: Across the clouds; Track 04: Waiting; Track 05: Footprints in the snow; Track 06: Soul’s vibe; Track 07: The shaman’s flight; Track 08: Melting water; Track 09: Beauty revealed; Track 10: Don’t turn your gaze behind; Track 11: Back
from the fields.
Scientific
researches, recording organisation and supervision: Martino Nicoletti; Sound
engineering and post-production: Roberto Passuti; Label: Stenopeica – A Buzz Supreme.
Shamans of the
East:
Ritual Songs of the
Himalayan Kulung Shamanic Tradition
The CD presents
two of the most characteristic liturgical songs still widespread in the shamanic
tradition of the Kulung Tibeto-Burman minority of eastern Nepal.
The first is an
invocation of the shaman’s guardian spirits and guiding deities. Usually
performed in the Nepali language at the beginning of each ecstatic Kulung
shamanic séance, the song, in mentioning a vast host of invisible beings
relating to specific cosmic regions (sky, earth, underworld) or places of the
natural habitat (snowy mountains, wood, lakes, etc), is believed to possess the
singular faculty of creating an invisible bridge between the officiant and the
invisible world as well as helping the shaman himself in inducing a specific
form of trance. This trance is a distinctive feature of any Kulunge shamanic
ritual, and the efficacy of any séance is firmly rooted in the shaman’s ability
to produce, control and direct it toward the specific goals of the rite.
The second
track is a hunting chant, usually performed in the ritual Kulung language on the
occasion of the ritual offering of game to the tribe’s ancestors and the
invisible spirit of the forest.
Settled in one
of the most remote and enchanting regions of eastern Nepal, the Kulung are one
of the last Himalayan ethnic groups to hand down, even today, an archaic form
of hunting of specific species of wild quadrupeds in the form of a complex and highly
ritualised practice.
According to
Kulung tradition, the hunting expedition is preceded, accompanied and followed
by various liturgical songs – sung in a sacred and secret ritual language – believed
to possess the power of ingratiating the invisible entities of the wilderness,
propitiating the hunt and facilitating the obtainment of an “invisible essence”
(ji), hidden in the thick of the
forest, on which the prosperity of the village is deemed to depend, as well as
the vital force and health of its people.
A
recurrent theme of these songs is the account of the mythical hunt for an
invisible archetypal stag and the description of the mystic journey
accomplished by the souls of the hunters – here acting in a double role as
huntsmen and priests – in search of prosperity and invisible strength. Both these
qualities are concealed in specific “power sources” spread throughout the
forest where the hunt takes place and scattered over the its studded mountain
peaks.
The
songs on this CD are superbly performed by Mekhe Kulung, one of the most
renowned contemporary shamans of the Kulung tribe.
M.N.
Track 1: Ritual hunting song; Track 2: Invocations to invisible masters and
protector spirits.
Scientific
researches, recording organisation and supervision: Martino Nicoletti; Sound
engineering and post-production: Roberto Passuti; Label: Stenopeica – A Buzz Supreme.
Chala ra Dhatu:
Newari percussions
of the Kathmandu Valley
Scientific
researches, recording organisation and supervision: Martino Nicoletti and
Rameswor Maharjan; Sound
engineering and post-production: Roberto Passuti; Label: Stenopeica – A Buzz Supreme.
LE ALTRE OPERE IN PRODUZIONE:
Gharba: Poets and Mystics of Hindukush
A CD devoted to the ritual music of the last Sufis of the Hindukush region. Recorded live in the northern area of Chitral (Pakistan), the work presents a series of liturgical séances of Sufis belonging to the Ismaili tradition. A precious contribution to the splendid music of the gharba, a traditional short neck lute, which, in this area, represents the most sacred musical instrument employed during the collective liturgies.