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The Sho Bud Sessions

by Davide Barbarino

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1.
There is no map of paradise 02:01
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2.
Other revolutions in which the world goes round and round in the crystal atmospheres of the mind 03:34
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3.
Away from the rumors of the speech-full domes 03:14
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4.
A freedom at last from the mystical 02:54
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5.
The credible thought from which the incredible system spring 02:41
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6.
The manifestations of a law that bends the particulars to the abstract 02:52
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7.
A blind think fumbling for its form 03:14
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8.
The old shape worn and leaning to nothingness 01:50
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9.
The joy of meaning in design wrenched out of chaos 01:58
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10.
Alive with an enigma's flittering 02:25
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11.
Misgivings dazzlingly resolved in dazzling dyscovery 02:06
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12.
Not to console, nor sanctify, but plainly to propound 02:36
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13.
To catch from the irrational moment its unreasoning 01:31
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14.
When the phantoms are gone and the shaken realist first sees reality 04:55
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15.
The lunatic of one idea in a world of ideas 02:28
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16.
The necessary angel 02:00
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about

***

Throw away the lights, the definitions,
And say what you see in the dark

That it is this or that it is that,
But do not use rotted names.

How should you walk in that space and know
nothing of the madness of space,

Nothing of its jocular procreations?
Throw the lights away, nothing must stand

Between you and shape you take
When the crust of shape has been destroyed.

You as you are? You are yourself.
The blue guitar surprises you.

Wallace Stevens from The Man with The Blue Guitar

***

When Marc Upson listened to my works for guitar and lapsteel guitar, finding them interesting and unusual, he proposed me to continue my experimentations on a 'real' (he said) pedal steel guitar, also because, apparently, none of his friends and colleagues had managed to get anything interesting out of it, being an instrument, also unusual, that needs a long study and a lot of practice.

So I accepted the challenge and took the instrument, that he kindly lend me, to the isolated and quiet home-studio in Normandy, where I was to spend several months in residence.
After a first week of arduous study for 6 to 8 hours daily, I began to apply electronic filters and amplifications to the instrument which further widened its harmonic and compositional possibilities, although it already has an extremely wide chromatic range, with its ten strings in addition to the three pedals and the lever (this is operated with a knee !) that give the possibility to vary the shades and so the ways.

These compositions I present here are just the result of the first month of work on this instrument usually used in country music.
Not being fond of country-music I have not for a single moment imagined being able to reproduce it, although I have studied and appreciated some of its complicated techniques.
My long experience on the guitar (over thirty years now) and in experimental, electro-acoustic music and especially in the endless world of improvised music, have allowed me to approach this instrument and the music that has emerged from it with constant wonder and a perpetual undulatory joy unencumbered by a predetermined musical aesthetic.

The evocative and enigmatic words I have chosen as an introduction to a new way of listening (which you can read above) and with which I titled the different tracks, came from my reading of Wallace Stevens' Complete Poems, brought forth precisely during the weeks of work and recording. I found them so appropriate and so close to my own sensibility and musical approach that I considered them necessary to the completeness of the work; perhaps precisely because they do not explicate anything specific except the grandeur and mystery of the perpetual undulation of the world and things, as well as of human relationships.

To Marc Upson (the necessary angel) I dedicate this work for his kindness and magnanimity and friendship, and for constantly believing in and encouraging my babbling and de-lyrism.

DB_September 4th 2023, Le Landin, Normandy

credits

released July 7, 2023

Davide Barbarino plays a Sho Bud pedal steel guitar and electronics

Recorded at the River House in Le Landin, Normandy, June 2023
Produced by Marc Upson

Titles suggestions from Wallace Stevens 'Complete Poems'
Cover Photo by Keja Ho Kramer, 2023

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Davide Barbarino Palermo, Italy

Davide Barbarino plays saxophones, clarinet, guitars & electronics. His musical activity focuses on ethnomusicology research, improvisation practices and electro-acoustic composition inspired by the Soundscape Studies. He recently worked and performed among others with Mark Dresser, Barre Phillips, Frank Gratkowski, Michel Doneda, Francois Wong, G.Gebbia,Tim Hodgkinson, Mike Cooper, John Tilbury ... more

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