Pino Forastiere “Tibur Tango” Video Release
Have you ever seen a spaceship with a visionary pilot? Maybe in a film? or in a TV series?. Well, let me show you a true musical genius; a real man with his exotic guitar.
Pino Forastiere is one of the most innovative performers and composers in the acoustic guitar world. He started by playing baroque repertoire on a 6 and 10 nylon string guitar. In 1999, with the album ‘Overcrossing’ (featuring Luca Pagliani), he merged the acoustic guitar using both classical and contemporary techniques including percussion and two-handed tapping. In 2010 he founded the trio “Guitar Republic” with two incredible guitarists; Stefano Barone and Sergio Altamura. During these years, he wrote the albums ‘Rag Tap Boom’ (2003), ‘Circolare’ (2005), ‘Why Not?’ (2008), ‘Deconstruction’ (2015) and his latest release ‘Village Life’ (2017) which contains “Tibur Tango”. This album took inspiration from his new life in Tivoli, Italy and this particular tune was dedicated to Tivoli which was named Tibur in the roman ages. In addition to these albums, Pino published the album “Guitar Republic” in 2010 with Sergio Altamura and Stefano Barone which was released through Candyrat Records. Another solo album by Pino is ‘From 1 to 8’ which is a collection of studies for the acoustic guitar heavily inspired by classical music.
The guitar that he used in the official video of ‘Tibur Tango’ is an ‘Eko Chetro’ model customized by luthier Davide Serracini. Named the ‘LAB Guitar’, it consists of many very interesting additions. This 16 string guitar has in addition to the 6 guitar strings 4 “flying” bass strings, 6 guitar strings with 5 tunable metal plates to add a percussive element. It allows Pino to experiment new ways to compose music and new ways to perceive an old instrument like the guitar.
It’s very difficult to describe Pino’s music.It is influenced by a mix of classical and contemporary sounds and techniques. He studied classical guitar at Santa Cecilia conservatory in Rome where he developed a classical approach to the guitar. When watching him perform, you can see the position of the guitar and the technique of his right hand are both classically influenced. In the 80’s, the U.S. had a revolution in the acoustic guitar world that completely change the way we look at the acoustic guitar. Michael Hedges made the greatest impact on the use of unorthodox techniques like tapping, percussion and left handed ostinatos. For Pino, Michael was a major inspiration when composing his music with similar techniques derived from Michael. In an interview that he released for the Italian blog “Chitarra E Dintorni” he states that ‘ […] La musica si muove nell’aria e l’aria, che io sappia, non ha forma e non ha ostacoli. La musica, come l'aria, è in una strada vuota, larghissima, dove può e deve muoversi agile e prendere le forme che ognuno decide di darle. […]’ Andrea Aguzzi, 2011, Intervista a Pino Forastiere, Chitarra e dintorni, http://chitarraedintorni.blogspot.it/2011/04/intervista-pino-forastiere-seconda_13.html
‘Tibur Tango’ is a perfect example of the new experimentations Pino has been developing since his early releases. . His use of contemporary fingerstyle technique has influenced his music in being more minimal; more essential. The first part of the piece sounds as if it is influenced off of balcanic rhythms with riffs that contain many different sound shapes and timbre that this unique offers.
Everytime you hear ‘Tibur Tango’ it brings you on an unexpected journey. If you close your eyes you can feel as if you are on an empty highway and the only thing move is the music flowing symbolically around you with mesmerizing shapes and colours. Throughout this album in its in entirety, we can visualize hear and feel the essence of the music with the use of extrapolating essential melodies and riffs with other elements. It goes without saying that “Village Life” is an album you must hear from beginning to end.
You can purchase this album on Itunes, Spotify and many other popular digital stores. More information on the album can be found on Pino’s website at: http://www.pinoforastiere.com/village-life-new-release/
Score 4.5/5
Tag: Village Life, Pino Forastiere, Acoustic Guitar, Fingerstyle, Luthier, Davide Serracini, Custom, Minimal, Open Tunings
Simone Dani is an italian fingerstyle guitarist. Check him out on:
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