By Sammy Stein
Zoe Pia is a clarinettist and composer from Sardinia. She graduated from the Music Conservatory of Cagliari, where she specialised in clarinet. Later, she studied at the Conservatory of Rovigo in classical contemporary music, live electronics, and jazz.
Pia has played with Franco Donatoni’s Hot, together with Marco Tamburini, Mauro Negri, Nico Gori, and Fabio Petretti. She gained experience at the Accademia del Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, international seminars, and has been influenced by Spanish culture and the diverse music she has listened to and played. She has performed with ensembles, as a soloist, and as part of several musical projects. Sardinian music is close to Pia’s heart, and she explores the mixture of styles and soundscapes her homeland provides. The Shardana project, which Pia heads, is part of this exploration of the heritage and culture of Sardinia.
As well as projects, Pia has performed and collaborated with New Art Symphonic, Filarmonica Italiana, Filarmonia Veneta, Sinfonica di Pescara, Alvin Curran, Steven Bernstein, Bruno Biriaco, Reuben Rogers, Paolo Fresu, Mauro Ottolini, Nico Gori, Marco Tamburini, Bebo Ferra, Stefano Senni and Massimo Morganti to name a few. The list of venues Pia has played at is extensive. On Rite, she plays launeddas (a traditional three-piped clarinet-like instrument), Bb clarinet, Sardinian percussion, light synth, and lumanoise.
Mats Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player, specialising in the explorative side of free jazz and a stalwart of the improvised music scene. He has played with many of jazz’s luminaries, including Joe McPhee, Peter Brotzmann, Pat Thomas, Evan Parker, Misha Mellenberg, Hamid Drake, Ken Vandermark, and many more. Projects and groups he has been involved with include Gush, and Fire! He collaborates with dancers, artists, and orchestras and has written pieces for full orchestra and ensembles and curated festivals, He remains a self-diagnosed discaholic, enraptured by rare and hard-to-find recordings. On Rite, Gustafsson plays flute, slide flute, baritone sax, Ab clarinet, flutophone, and harmonica.
Pia and Gustafsson met thanks to a collaboration with Fire! Orchestra and Fire! In 2022, they decided to explore the possibilities offered as a duo, and in May 2023, they toured Italy and recorded in the studio, at concerts, and festivals. Initially, it is difficult to conceive how the combination of free blowing, improvising saxophone, and elements of Sardinian folk music, Sami Joik (Sami singing music), and electronic music is going to sound, but Rite does something sublime thanks to the understanding between the musicians. They manage to maintain the purity of their sound yet incorporate elements from each other’s soundscape too. They listen, engage, imbibe from each other, and give their interpretation in ways that create another direction, forging a different pathway into improvisation.
Rite comprises three tracks. Two are just shy of ten minutes long, and the final track lasts almost twenty-two minutes. ‘I shut My Eyes Like A Rock’ is a heady, explorative piece with different effects and rhythms. At times, there is a sense of the two musicians feeling their way, finding connection, and at others, there is a glorious carefree exchange of patterns and ideas as first Zia, then Gustafsson set an idea in motion, and the other responds. Pia’s playing of the clarinet has, at times, beautifully worked phrasing, while Gustafsson interjects with contrasting sounds. The rock upon which this track hinges is the freely played clarinet, against which Gustafsson huffs and blows his improvising mind. ‘A Thousand Bird Calls’ is beautiful in places, guttural, and jerky in others, with strong folk lines, soft against third, fast against slow melodic phrasing – it works because of the timing of the players. No phrase is too long, no interval too short, but the blend and merging of the different rhythmic patterns and stylistic weaving that happens is pure intuition. ‘Minima.Memory.Mirage.’ is a long, deep dive into improvisation and explorative soundscapes. Both players seek out the furthest range of their instruments, with peaceful interludes fractured by fierce disharmonious episodes and blasts of electronics. Around the ten-minute mark, there begins an irksome electronic noise, which is effective because when it stops, it feels like utter silence and relief as the delicate melodies that were present behind it are suddenly left uncovered and can be heard clearly, their sweetness contrasting with the grating, growly noise of before.
Rite presents improvised music in new forms, structures, and directions. Two different paths unite to forge a new way through the noise that surrounds improvised music at times. Moving in soundscapes never explored before, the sound combines the richness of traditional culture and free playing into new creative languages of experimental music. The depth and intensity of some of the guttural phrasing contrasts with the delicacy of the flute and solo phrases, creating a sense of freedoms powered against complete containment. Gustafsson is continuing to stretch music and what it means; he combines it with influences from many sources, while Pia brings a freshness and sublime tonality at times, in contrast with the atonal, free driving of Gustafsson.
This is a sonic encounter. An experience the two musicians shared that is now recorded, and while for both it might feel a different direction, it is one they may continue to develop and explore. So many elements are here, in just under fifty minutes of music. From deep, sensuous, flowing lines, pattering, light, crazy phrases, to forceful blasts of sound and occasional annoying interjections that seem like they have no place – until they reach a point of silence, where the purpose is revealed – they peel away to leave the melodies playing and now they are heard even clearer in the absence of the electronica.
The lines of folk, classical, free improvisation, and exploratory music are blurred, but the elements are all here, and the intertwined, contrasting, parallel sounds create a celebratory feeling – that there is more to music than simply playing the notes – it is about expressing the culture and persona of the players. In this, Rite succeeds.
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