ITALIANSURF ACADEMY
BARBARELLAFRIENDS
An audio-visual remake of the movieBarbarella
(1968 –directed by Roger Vadim, starring Jane Fonda)
ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY:
Marco Cappelli,guitarLuca Lo Bianco, bassFrancesco Cusa,drums
Andrea “Lapsus” Pennisi, visuals
THE MOVIE:
Barbarella is a 1968 science-fiction movie directed by the recently disappeared French director, scriptwriter, actor and producer Roger Vadim. Inspired by the homonymous comics by Jean-Claude Forest, the film is an Italian-French co-production carried out by Dino De Laurentiis. The plot is centred on the beautiful heroine Barbarella (Jane Fonda) and on her countless adventures set in the distant future of the years 40.000 A.D. Barbarella is assigned by the President of Earth to retrieve the mysteriously disappeared scientist Durand Durand, who has invented the Positronic Ray, a highly destructive weapon.
Initially badly received by critics and public, the movie has become a cult movie after its distribution in the home video market and has influenced more than a generation, particularly all those active in the music field. The movie soundtrack is the result of the collaboration of different artists, such as, for the music and lyrics, Michel Magne, Charles Fox, Bob Crew, The Glitterhouse and even David Gilmoure, who took part at the recording sessions as guitarist, before entering the Pink Floyd.
ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY – Selected Press
“Think of Italian guitarist Marco Cappelli’s ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY as a mixture of Dick Dale and John Zorn, or perhaps a far-out musical crossbreeding of the Ventures with a mind-blowing, avant-garde jazz education. Whether you’re touring the seaside cobblestone streets of Calabria via Vespa scooter or surfing the swells of Manhattan Beach, balance is crucial. And in this heady amalgam of 1950s and ’60s American surf rock, psychedelia and folkloric Italian melodies, Cappelli and his Italian Surf Academy have embraced that concept wholeheartedly… It’s the musical equivalent of pouring Peroni into pineapple juice, and the resulting concoction is : oh-so-tasty!”
Hillary Brown, DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
"Take one Italian guitarist active in the Downtown Improvisation and New Music scene - combine with youthful influences of movie music and Spaghetti Westerns - mix well with a love of '60s Surf Sound (think The Ventures, Beach Boys, etc.) bathed in reverb - anchor with a solid rhythm section of bass and drums.. and you get the Italian Surf Academy! Certainly the baddest bad Morricone you've ever heard - as well as themes from other '60s Italian soundtrack stalwarts such as PieroUmiliani, RizOrtolani, Carlo Rustichelli, Armando Trovajoli, and Luis Enriquez Bacalov!...." Bruce Lee Gallanter, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY
“…The group's new album, "The American Dream" (Mode), features improvisations on themes by the aforementioned composers delivered with a sensibility found in some of the work of Nels Cline, Bill Frisell and Marc Ribot, among others associated with New York's downtown avant-garde jazz scene. It's a fascinating exploration of engaging music. "Django" stays true to the melody and atmosphere of Mr. Bacalov's theme to Sergio Corbucci's 1966 film of the same name, but the trio allows it to crumble amid a flurry of independent soloing. After a sudden stop, the musicians resume the theme. Then Mr. Cappelli begins a rubbery reggae rhythm and his mates join in. All the while, the twangy surf guitar remains at the forefront courtesy of Mr. Cappelli'sGretsch guitar…” Jim Fusilli, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BARBARELLAFRIENDS
THE AUDIOVISUAL REMAKE:
The fiery sound of Barbarella’ssoundtrackis reinterpreted by the ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY, an extraordinary trio of improvisers here accompanied by the video artist Andrea “Lapsus” Pennisi. The ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY has already shown its interest on the cinema of the 60s and 70s: released on the New York label Mode Records, their first album entitled TheAmericanDream focuses on the Italian B-Movie soundtracks of that time spacing, in the cinematic genres, from the film noir to the spaghettiwestern.
MARCOCAPPELLI
The Neapolitan adopted in New York guitarist Marco Cappelli has a peculiar artistic path which allows him to easily move from the execution of the strictest musical writing to the freest improvisation. In his projects, Cappellilets his heterogeneous musical experiences meet, proposing programs which links the traditional contemporary repertory and the brave experimentation. The diversity of Marco’s performances is due to a fascinating array of collaborations
In the ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY, pretending to revisit the traditional Italo-American musical patrimony of the 60s and 70s, he develops that downtown sound that he has absorbed working next to the most important names of the New York aerea, such as John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Anthony Coleman, Adam Rudolph, only to name a few. Next to him, the drummer and composer from Catania Francesco Cusa, one of the most demanded jazz musician and improviser in the contemporary jazz scene, the double bass player from Palermo Luca Lo Bianco, amongst the best contemporary Sicilian jazzmen, and the Italo-French musician and video artist Andrea “Lapsus” Pennisi.Marco has recorded for three solo guitar cds : "Fantasia per Ensemble" and "Yun Mu"for the for the Italian labels TDS and ITINERA and for the American Mode Records, Ictus, New World, Underwolf and finally on John Zorn’s Tzadik.
LUCALOBIANCO
Born in Palermo in 1974, Luca Lo Bianco starts studying very soon the electric bass before moving to the double bass. Under the direction of the Maestro Franco Muzzi, he obtained the maximum score in the degree of the Conservatory “Vincenzo Bellini” of Palermo. In 2011, he completed his Masters in Jazz summacumlaude in the same conservatory, where he is now Professor of Electric Bass.In more than fifteen years of activity, Luca Lo Bianco has built most of his musical career abroad, playing in Austria, Switzerland, USA, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, Slovenia, and Germany. Since 2004, he collaborated with the songwriter PippoPollina, with whom he recorded two albums “Casablanca” (2005) and “Ultimo Volo” (2007), a civil prayer for the victims of the air disaster of Ustica.In January 2006, the theater and music show he creates,La Scomparsa di Majorana (The Disappearance of Majorana) was presented in a world première at the Werkstatt der Kulturen in Berlin, gathering a remarkable success of critics and public. An album from the show was published in Silta Records label.He is one of the founding members of FITZCARRALDO RECORDS label and the Orchestra In-stabile DIS/accordo [OID], in which he is also the Director, alongside Francesco Guaiana. The O.I.D. is a variable ensemble of 15 elements whose performances are based on methods of collective improvisation and contemporary practice. It practices an unconventional approach to direction through the method of conduction. He played in 2011 in the United States with the trio Italian Surf Academy (M. Cappelli and F. Cusa) and the collective Naked Musicians, playing alongside Elliott Sharp, Mauro Pagani, Cristina Zavalloni, JimPugliese. The same year, he played in the “Opera Italia” project, led by Mauro Pagani, at the TeatroPoliteama Palermo with the orchestra of the Conservatory V. Bellini in Palermo. He participated as soloist at Go Organic Orchestra, conducted by Adam Rudolph.
FRANCESCO CUSA
Drummer and composer born in Catania in 1966 and graduated at the DAMS of Bologna in 1994 with a thesis on “the extra-musical elements in jazz performance”, Francesco Cusa has played, among others, with artists such as Paolo Fresu,TinoTracanna, AttilioZanchi, Bruno Tommaso, Larry Smith, Walter Schmocker, Gianni Gebbia, Fabrizio Puglisi, DomenicoCaliri,Cristina Zavalloni, Jay Rodriguez, Butch Morris, Jon Rose, Michel Godard, Kenny Wheeler, GarbisDedeian, Steve Lacy, Tim Berne, Elliott Sharp, Andy Sheppard, Michael Riessler, Yves Robert, Zu, AssifTsahar Natalia M.King Lionel Rolland, Dj.Pushy Christophe Monniot, TanjaFeichtmair Manu Codjia, Emil Spany, Arrington De Dionyso, GianlucaPetrella, Claudio Lugo, Marco Cappelli, Jean Marc Montera, AbBaars, IgHenneman, Danilo Gallo, Giovanni Falzone, Amy Denio, Vincenzo Vasi, Mike Cooper, Pacorig Giorgio, Paolo Sorge, Pasquale Innarella Tony Cattano, Silvia Bolognesi, Leila Adu, Marta Raviglia, Henry Cook, GiacomoAncillotto Roberto Raciti, Federico Squassabia, Gaia Mattiuzzi, Don Byron, Peter van Bergen, Mauro Pagani, Ron Anderson, Francesco Cafiso, Dan Kinzelman, Emilio Galante Simone Zanchini, Lisa Mezzacappa, Kyoko Kitamura, Gabriele Mirabassi, the visual artist Fred Gautnier, the Wu Ming collective of writers and the writer Andrea Inglese.Co-founder of the collective Bassesfere Bologna, Francesco Cusa is currently engaged in the artistic project of killer communication “ImprovvisatoreInvolontario”. “He is co- leader of the following projects : SKINSHOUT! (Gaia Mattiuzzi/F.Cusa) SWITTERS (Gebbia/Pots/Cusa) MANSARDA, WAR DUO (Marcello Di Lorenzo/F. Cusa), EZEKIEL 25:17 (with Dean Bowman and Danilo Gallo). He works also with the PAOLO SORGE “Jazz Waiters” (Sorge, Senni, Cattano, Cusa), the HOMAGE TO STANLEY KUBRICK (Manzoni, Campobasso, Senni, Cusa) ITALIAN SURF ACADEMY (Marco Cappelli, Luca Lo Bianco, Cusa),In recent years, Francesco Cusa is a writer and a cinematographic critic for the magazine Lapis.
VJ
ANDREA“LAPSUS”PENNISI
Lapsus is an artistic agentprovocateur, but also producer, published, performer, musician, d-jay and v-jay. Keen on the interaction between music and the magic, he has created the visuals for the concerts Horrible Porno Stuntmen, Sic Alps, Olimpic Explosion in 2011 (Olimpic Café, Paris, New Year's eve) Guappecarto (France), Rigenera festival 2012, Sonia Brex, Les Yeux de la Tête (France), Lo Schiaffo del Sold Out, Festival di ImprovvisatoreInvolontario, Babilon Suite, 1.2.Hoc Null (Germany), Marco Cappelli's Italian Surf Academy. He has participated in several djset, such as Total Science, Koan Sound, Fare Soldi, Dario Blatta, AV Paradise Project, Afrobit.He is the resident veejay at Café Pulp in Catania and regular guest in live/djset such as Garage (La Chiave of Catania), Catania Elettronicamente at Café Glamour in Catania, Pulp Cine Music Art in Catania and at the “Bureau des fantasmesurbains de Ornic'Art in Marseille.Among other visual projects, he has participated as a musician in different projects such as in the multimedia performance“TheParola è supposta”-Lapsus and Dario Blatta, “Serpentine performance” aerial dance by AnnalusiRapicavoli, in which he is both music composer and creator of lights.His format “VisionariaLapsus selection”, which selects and remixes live music and videos was produced in Catania, Naples, Antwerp, Milan, Marseille, Paris, Toulouse.His audio-video installation “L'Acqua è mia” (The water is mine), with sounds of water and iron scraps, was brought out for the Concerto per l'Acqua (Concert for water), promoted by the Committee against the privatization of water from the city of Catania.