Better-informed music lovers could match the name of the Italian composer Leonardo Barbadoro for his outputs in the guise of Koolmorf Widesen. His release “Musica Automata” (released by Helical at the beginning of November) reached our desks some months ago, and it immediately grabbed our curiosity. The aesthetic side is quite similar to the works released under that moniker, but the turning point of this album is the equipment that Leonardo used. He joined the Gent-based Logos association to have access to an impressively huge ensemble of automated instruments – including both traditional instruments (percussion, woodwinds, brasses, organs) and unconventional tools -, entirely controlled by digital impulses. Let’s dig into this awesome release by the word of its witty author.
Chain D.L.K.: Hi Leonardo! How are you doing?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I’m alright, thanks!
Chain D.L.K.: Let’s shake our readers’ hands and do some introduction of yours. How would you describe what you did and keep on doing?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I started making electronic music around 20 years ago. I released some albums/eps under the name “Koolmorf Widesen”. It was electronic music that ranged between electro, IDM, acid, and jungle with sometimes inserts of acoustic instruments (strings, piano, guitars).
In 2011, I started writing music for acoustic instruments. I started to get more interested in acoustics instruments since they have certain characteristics that make each sound event unique. At the same time, I realized the limits of control over performance with acoustic instruments compared to electronic music, in which you can control every small detail of each sound.
This guided me towards the combination of acoustic sound and digital remote control: an orchestra of automated instruments – robots – controlled by digital impulses. Thus, Musica Automata was born, a project I started working on in 2014, created a crowdfunding campaign in 2018, and finally released the album last November.
Chain D.L.K.: Do you remember any particular childish experience that possibly aroused the passion for weird instruments and music in general?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Since my earliest memories as a child, I have always been interested in music. First, some keyboards given to me by my dad (in the 70s/80s he ran a company that made audio gear), then I used to borrow my older brother’s guitar when he wasn’t at home, doing a lot of overdubs on cassettes, filtering them through some stompbox pedals he had, combining them with radio fragments or sounds recorded with a microphone. Even when I was a child, I had more fun playing with effects processing and overdubs than with the guitar itself. That’s probably why I quickly transitioned into making computer music when I was a teenager.
Chain D.L.K.: How did you begin your path in composition?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I started composing with guitar, keys, mics, and cassettes. Then software like Sony Vegas (the first version, which was an audio editor), Cubase SX, and then Reason. I knew almost nothing about electronic music, so the music result was very abstract, probably quite original, but certainly very naive and chaotic.
At 19, I started studying at the Conservatory in Florence. I learned several things about acoustics, electronics, and programming with C-sound and PD/Max, but not much about composition. So I’m not a classically trained composer at all.
Chain D.L.K.: How did you approach Logos Foundation?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I first heard of Logos Foundation around 10 years ago, I was in Ghent to play a show and one of the promoters showed me their website. I started looking at the photos, and the technical diagrams, and reading the descriptions of all these instruments they build, and I immediately thought it was something truly unique and fascinating.
I had long been aware of Yamaha’s MIDI-controlled Disklavier piano and MIDI-controlled organs, but I had never seen a full orchestra of digitally controlled acoustic instruments.
Many of these robots are also based on out-of-the-ordinary instruments. Not just pianos, organs, or drums, but also self-built instruments with various types of woods, metals, bells, and even sirens, washing machine motors, and digitally controllable propellerheads! I immediately understood the potential of these instruments and decided to contact them.
In 2014 I wrote the first piece there (which is the first on the album) for my Conservatory thesis project.
Unfortunately, the foundation later faced some problems with subsidies, which made it more difficult for me to continue with the recording of an album. So in 2018, I decided to run a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to finance the recordings.
The album was composed from 2014 to 2018 and recorded in 2019. It was ready for release in 2020, but then a series of delays happened due to issues related to the pandemic. It was a very challenging process.
Chain D.L.K.: I read you experienced different stages as a composer before “playing robots” (years when you preferred hardware and software, acoustic, and so on). Do you remember the more meaningful moments of frustration caused by the “limits” of a music technology that persuaded you to make an evolutionary jump?
Leonardo Barbadoro: It didn’t take me long to realize that mimicking an acoustic instrument with a computer is frustrating and quite pointless. VST samplers like Kontakt are WAV players (so in most cases the term “samplers” is misleading as they do not have any recording capabilities but only playback) which reproduce binary files that are always identical to themselves. Yes, of course, there are sample libraries that use round-robin techniques, but it is still a sampled sound, a photograph not a real instrument resonating in a real space. A string or a skin strike will never sound the same for physical reasons (air density, temperature, thinning of materials, etc.). They are minimal variations that our ear perceives unconsciously and are those that make us distinguish an acoustic instrument from a digital sample.
I’m not saying that the acoustic instrument is “better” than the sampler, though, they’re simply two different things. Samplers are great but using them to mimic an acoustic instrument is just a waste of time to me. I would rather use a sampler for something different and more creative.
Chain D.L.K.: Both listening to the opening title track of “Musica Automata” (that reminded me of the music of some Disney cartoons) and the expression “playing a robot orchestra” made me imagine you in the guise of Mickey Mouse in the notorious (and not too subtly occultist) cartoon where he gives life to objects… how do you perceive yourself when making music in your way?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I don’t know which Disney cartoons you’re referring to, as I haven’t seen one in the last few years. If you mean Fantasia, I take that as a huge compliment, as I love Stravinsky.
Back to your question… it was certainly magical to listen to what I wrote played by robots. The musical sketches came to life for the first time in an acoustic space, while I was looking at the instruments playing. It was amazing and probably the main motivation that pushed me to work so hard to pursue this project.
But I didn’t feel like a sorcerer, as you say, giving life to objects. I won’t take credit for it, maybe the wizard may be Godfried who created them!
Chain D.L.K.: We mentioned “Musica Automata”, the track, so maybe it’s time to talk more extensively about your awesome album! There are many interesting ideas and very well-forged tracks. Let’s try to talk about some of them at least… While listening to the second track “Hybr Spiro”, I imagined you as the hidden twin of Richard James (Aphex Twin), who got sentenced to forced imprisonment in a nursery room without the electronic devices of the other twin! I enjoyed that track! Any word about it?
Leonardo Barbadoro: I can understand why you immediately think of AFX, as he released that EP with the Disklavier and mechanical percussion. I won’t deny that his music had a big influence on mine, but at the same time, I find my most recent music quite different.
I’m glad you enjoyed Hybr Spiro, I knew it was one of the catchiest tracks along with Bomi, which is why I chose to release the singles and videos before the album release.
The album’s tracklist reflects quite faithfully the chronological order in which the tracks were composed, Hybr Spiro was the second track I wrote for the robots.
Chain D.L.K.: “Bel exp” got split in two parts. Why such a choice? Can you tell us more about this track?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Mainly because they have been composed in different sessions, but they are still connected.
The main instrument in both parts is a set of remote-controlled industrial electric bells. I have attached a photo here.
In the second part, there are several other instruments, all percussion (piano, wooden blocks, steel bells, timpani, cymbals, etc) except for a particular organ which is the same one you can hear in Hybr Spiro and Terzo.
The second part of Bel_exp was about to be excluded from the tracklist, but I’m glad I kept it since it’s among the most appreciated on the album.
Chain D.L.K.: I also guess the two short inserts titled “Pp2 Rubber” refer to the mutated and/or automated piano you used, doesn’t it?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Yep, you guessed it right: pieces of rubber between the strings. I wrote about ten of these short interludes, but only two of them ended up on the album’s final tracklist. These are the only tracks entirely composed while I was there in Ghent. The others track from the album were partially composed in my studio in Florence or on my laptop while traveling and then modified every time I was in Ghent rehearsing with the robots. It was not convenient to compose without listening to the result in real-time, but it was the only way. I didn’t have a chance to spend entire months in Ghent to compose everything and then record there.
About those piano tracks: for a few days in the morning I spent some time finding a piano preparation that I liked, I wrote a few notes, adjusted the preparation to get the right frequencies, recorded a few bars and by then it was already evening. This is why those tracks are so short. I still liked them though as quieter and more minimal interludes between more eventful tracks.
Chain D.L.K.: Listening to “Vibi” brought my mind to an imaginary lab of a music box manufacturer, even if the instrument you played can be some kind of glass percussion that I can’t recognize. What did you use for it?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Yeah, it reminds me a bit of a music box. It is vibraphone solo for almost the entire duration of the track. Only for a few bars, there is also a prepared piano.
Chain D.L.K.: Another track I enjoyed is “Terzo”, even if it reminds some known motif… what did you have in mind while composing it?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Curious to know what it is the known motif you are referring to!
I didn’t have anything specific in mind while composing that track, but I can tell that I was in a terrible rush! I suppose you maybe you can hear that.
It’s undoubtedly one of my favorite tracks on the album.
Chain D.L.K.: Any word about the cover artwork?
Leonardo Barbadoro: It’s made by a good friend of mine called Lorenzo Arioni. He’s also a musician and filmmaker. Here you can see some excerpts from a wonderful film he’s shooting on Super 8 film (check the video below).
I wanted to show some of these instruments in the artwork, but after several attempts, I soon realized that a plain photo could not represent the music, which is much more abstract. Lorenzo painted over those images, which became part photo, part painting. The process took him forever to make, but I’m very pleased with the result.
Chain D.L.K.: Did you bring “Musica Automata” on a live set? If so, how did you manage to bring so many “robots” on it? If not, are you planning to do that?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Not yet! It’s possible to bring the robots into a live setting, but it isn’t simple. Some robots are very bulky and heavy to transport. The tracks on the album are composed of dozens of different instruments, and carrying them all is undoubtedly too complicated and expensive. I am planning to arrange some of these tracks for a smaller ensemble of robots.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress?
Leonardo Barbadoro: Yes, many, but first I want to release some music that has been sitting on my HDs for a very long time.
This year there will also be an EP out on Helical including some Musica Automata outtakes.
Visit Leonardo Barbadoro on the web:
https://leonardobarbadoro.bandcamp.com/