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empty chairs (full album)

by Alessandro "Lello" Ansani

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1.
old friend nostalgia 02:13
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2.
in the Christmas mood (Daybed!) 04:18
3.
old friend nostalgia (variation) 03:42
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4.
September 3rd 04:54
5.
arabili resti 05:22
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6.
nothing more than that 04:10
7.
chaise en bois 03:38
8.
magic island 04:28
9.
una sedia vuota a Natale 03:00
10.
Hélène arrive 04:40
11.
broad church of Montparnasse 03:12
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12.
c'est ton anniversaire, après tout 04:25
13.
par Ler (radinerie) 02:40
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about

Empty chairs is an idea of sorrow, love and revolution; it was born at the end of the worst year of my life, from the deep need to feed other people with this emotional experience of mine, or get rid of it; I still need to understand this. In a musical expression which is nowadays dominated by bass drums in quarters, mere appearance, television aesthetics and playback concerts, the idea of departing from all of this came to my mind, so I thought it was good to take shelter in intimacy and writing music, alone, in my room for rent, in Rome. Doing this to exist actively, to tell myself and others a very common human story, with no discounts or lies, a true story.

The tracks were written from 2016 to 2020 between Catanzaro, Paris and Rome. The idea of publishing them came long after. An interesting fact is that most often the tracks deal with improvised themes and / or jet-played themes and atmospheres, whose writing, orchestrations, and arrangements were on a second thought. Except for one song (Magic Island), nothing was composed ad hoc; everything was improvised before and orchestrated / arranged afterwards.
The album is ideally divisible into two parts: there are six solo piano tracks ("In the Christmas mood", "September 3rd", "Chaise en bois", "Una sedia vuota a Natale (An empty chair at Christmas time)", " Hélène arrive", and "C'est ton anniversaire, après tout" (It's your birthday, after all) and seven tracks for small ensembles ("Old friend nostalgia", "Old friend nostalgia - variation", "Arabili resti", " Nothing more than that ", "Magic island", " Broad church of Montparnasse" and "Par Ler"). The last song is also the only one that includes a small vocal intervention of mine.

All the musicians who played in the record did it out of friendship and incredible kindness, as well as the sound technicians who gave me suggestions in the mixing and mastering phases, as well as the photographers who took photos during the recordings. I personally took care of all phases of the project, so I take responsibility for all the imperfections. This production was only possible thanks to a thick network of phone calls between Catanzaro, Rome and Tallinn; over the years I have been blessed to cultivate friendships that have been decisive even this time, for various reasons.

A few technical words about musicians: the work I called them to do was really complicated: soloists should have "driven" many of the pieces, instead they recorded on piano tracks I had already recorded months or years before, so the musicians had to perform continuous rallentando, accelerando and starts without rhythmic references or direction; they had to, in short, indulge, with their execution, a self of mine from many years ago, who I couldn't repeat. They succeeded with wonderful results. My heartfelt thanks go to them.

credits

released May 14, 2020

Musicians (in alphabetical order)

Alessandro Ansani – piano, VST, voice in Par Ler, programmation, arrangements, orchestration, mix & mastering
Christian Buffa – double bass, cello parts
Anna Perazzini – first violin
Virginia Silvano – viola, violin
Mario Stumpo – clarinet, bass clarinet

The others (in alphabetical order)

Giorgio Condello – sound engineering suggestions
Alessandro Firano – photographer clarinet session
Elena Sofia Rinallo – album cover and graphics
Roberto Tommolillo – photographer violin session
Davide Umbrello – sound engineering suggestions, late night calls

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Alessandro "Lello" Ansani image

Alessandro "Lello" Ansani Jyväskylä, Finland

32 years-old; guitar was my first instrument, then I started to play drums and finally I became a weirdo who loves to play piano, croak with his voice, plays the melodica, bass and other instruments.
I love soundtracks.

Genres I like the most: songwriting, jazz, prog, rock, funk, OSTs ... more

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