Altissima

302 Acid combines elements of computer technology with live instrumentation. Improvisation plays an integral role in the way they approach both composition and live performance. The result is a heavily-layered sound that draws influence from dub, ambient and IDM. On their EP "Ailanthus Altissima", arrangements are stripped down to raw drum and bass grooves, accompanied and punctuated by digital found-sound bursts and ambient layers, and often mutated through real-time processing until the line between these core elements is unrecognizable. Visual information is layered into a collage which breathes and pulsates, entwined around the musical arrangements.

Canticum Novum sheds new light on the wonderful medieval repertory of Tuscan laude. Taken from the Laudario di Cortona, these popular sacred songs of praise from the time of St Francis of Assisi, overflowing with poetry and sunshine, are transcended by Emmanuel Bardon and his ensemble. Appropriating another culture and playing it through the prism of ones own culture, not to imitate it but to resonate with it: this I show the art project Canticum Novum has been defining its deep self for many years now. Working this way, the musicians forming the ensemble constantly question their own musical identity, the way they play their instruments. They often accept to leave their comfort zone and to relearn how to play, adapting to the repertory to be interpreted and their present colleagues. The idea is not to contort oneself in order to play another repertory but to move towards it.