Palladio a Palla! (eng)

GOGODUCKS are:

Paolo Peruzzi – vibraphone and programming
Luca Zennaro – guitar, electronics
Francesca Remigi – drums, percussions 

Sergio Zacco – creative coding
Andrea di Pietro della Gondola – architecture

Recorded at Artesuono Recording Studio on May 13th, 14th, 15th, 2024 
Record Label: nusica.org
Mixing Engineer: Stefano Amerio
Mastering Engineer: Stefano Amerio
Video Maker: Claudio Sichel, Michele Cannas
Graphic Designer: Studio 15

TOTALE TIME: 43.44 min

About Palladio a palla!

Palladio a Palla! is a tribute to one of the most influential architects in history as well as a recording project which aims to synthesize jazz, improvised music, architecture, and the digital world. Starting from the study of Andrea Palladio’s immense cultural heritage (Palladio is a Venetian Renaissance architect, theorist, and innovator), GOGODUCKS presents a tribute album to his architecture by translating some of the Palladio’s architectural compositional techniques into music, such as his use of rhythm, harmony, structure, energy, relationships between elements, mathematical proportion,…
The connection with their regional area brings GOGODUCKS to collaborate with Veronese creative coder Sergio Zacco. Sergio was asked to create a video-mapping project inspired by Palladio’s architectural plans and drawings to explicate the musical translation in a visual way and in order to reinterpret Palladio’s works through nowadays digital approach.

SINGLES RELEASES: July 26 (Hang Arano), August 9 (Broder), August 23 (At the roundabout)
ALBUM RELEASE: September 6, 2024

Malcontenta (4.10) – Luca Zennaro
This Venetian villa has the peculiarity that its arches become smaller and smaller as you enter. That is why in this composition the melodic rhythm also becomes denser and denser every 4 measures (4 measures like the 4 main aisles).

Hang Arano (6.32) – Harmony of forms in Villa Angarano’s facade is the result of the fusion of architectural elements representing multiples of number 4, 3, 5 and 7. In this composition, the harmonic synergy of the villa’s geometric shapes is rendered through a rhythmical technique called morphing, whereby the guitar gradually switches over the course of 4 bars from a rhythmic figuration in triplets to one in quintuplets (always maintaining the same pitches), while the vibraphone does the same by switching from a 7:4 pattern to a 7-note riff in 16th note subdivision. The theme is repeated 3 times with different textures and dynamics, in order to welcome the listener in a contemplative space of artistic beauty.

Broder (5.24) – Luca Zennaro
Broder, dedicated to Villa Badoer, takes Palladio’s neoclassical perfection as its main source of inspiration. Villa Badoer’s harmony of forms is translated into music through open triads, which move in symmetrical patterns throughout the whole piece. The triads represent the three dimensions of Palladian architecture – height, length and width.

At the roundabout (5.09) – Paolo Peruzzi
The piece is a tribute to Villa Capra, the villa that perhaps, of all, most evokes the architect Andrea Palladio. The circle of the dome, the soaring columns, the four sides with the four staircases, a never ending interplay of mirrors. There are several elements which inspired this piece, its uncertain suggestions, its incisive improvisations. Of fundamental support to the composition was the analysis of Palladio’s plans contained within The Four Books of Architecture (1957), where the architect includes La Rotonda in his list of palaces (and not villas). The fifth element is context: extra ordinary.

Corner (3.28) – Luca Zennaro
For this piece the alternation of the naves of Villa Cornero (3 and 4) was used as time signature = 3/4. Section B becomes in 5/4 since number 5 is also often repeated in the geometries of the villa (5 arches etc.).

E mò? (4.01) – Francesca Remigi
Dedicated to the majestic Villa Emo, E mò? is a composition which was built starting from a rhythmical/intervallic serie derived from the grouping of the architectural complex’s arches, according to their planimetric subdivision in correspondence to the different interior rooms. On the other hand, section B and C of the piece recall the rhythmic scansion and proportions of some of the details of the roof, facade, and gardens adjacent to the villa.

Poiena (5.37) – Francesca Remigi
Inspired by Villa Poiana in the province of Vicenza, the piece Poiena was composed based on a number series which considers the distance between one column and the next as the basic unit of measurement. The composition is divided into 3 sections, introduced by a free improvisation. It is structured starting from a bass line (section A) which from a rhythmical and intervallic point of view respects the numerical sequence derived from the horizontal spatial scanning of the columns. Whereas the chords of the B section are placed according to the numerical series representing column groupings in longitude. The coda describes the rhythmic-textural superposition of the facade’s elements.

Better ask Barbra (3.26) – Paolo Peruzzi
The overthrow of traditional elements is the concept that gives life to the piece dedicated to Villa Barbaro. A kind of jazz which is blended with Reich and Battiato, an accumulation of continuous tension, and at the same time a liberating essence. A ballad that does not make one dance, but invites contemplation and listening. Like the harmonic instruments which support the melody of the rhythmic instrument. A track which recalls the experimentation of the past and which shuffles the tasks in the music-making process.

Sir Ego (5.36) – Paolo Peruzzi
Villa Serego’s arches reflect a precise design, and are part of a larger – unexpected – building. While simple – but never easy – are the proceedings where the masterful creativity of a master lies, as it is for a recipe for a very complex dish. This piece has three main different elements which are mixed, blended and combined through improvisation: they recall and describe Palladio’s mathematical patterns in the form of a continuous circular but at times irregular movement. Seriality and architecture go hand in hand, and numbers and proportions create the minimal carpet that stimulates improvisation and initial research.