Due Acque: Live in Umbria Italy, April 1 2000

Robert Rich

January 2, 2009

Ambient / Electronic

Live Archive Volume 2: A deep ambient journey performed at a private concert in Italy for fans of Robert's slowest and most introspective music. Notes: I performed this improvised journey for a private audience in Umbria, Italy in 2000. The timbre of the concert slightly resembled my music during the era of Trances & Drones and Inner Landscapes, but with some of the tools that allow the thicker harmonic excursions such as on Calling Down the Sky. This very special event contained a focused warm energy that resonated for days. I first met Gianluigi Gasparetti (Gigi) when I performed in Bologna Italy in 1994. On the morning of my concert I managed to burn my hand with steam while pouring boiling tea water. The burn became a bit nasty that day - 2nd degree on the backs of three fingers. When I was setting up for my show, a gentleman approached and introduced himself as a big fan and publisher of an Italian journal on ambient music. He had taken a train from Rome to Bologna to see my concert, a four hour journey. I felt honored. The promoter, Fulvio Tomasetta, introduced us and told me Gigi was a surgeon, and might be able to help with my burn. Gigi looked at my fingers, sent a friend off to a pharmacy with a note for medication that would prevent the sores from getting worse. Then he treated my blisters and bandaged them, so they would be safe during my concert. Hence my introduction to Gigi, who wrote kindly about my music in his journal "Deep Listenings", and who later sponsored this private concert in his home in Umbria which he calls Due Acque, and who since has been recording his own deep ambient music under the pseudonym Oöphoi. Gigi realized that the best way to present this introspective, personal music would be through intimate concerts with sympathetic listeners. He limited the audience only to those who felt very close to the nature of the artist who created these sounds. He made it clear to me that this audience wanted the deep stuff. When I arrived at his 300 year old farm house I found a welcoming cloister of new friends, who had traveled from across Italy, all of whom wanted to show me their local foods, the wine from the region, sharing stories of how they first became attracted to this slow meditative music. I felt like I found a family I always wished for, spread down the long wooden table in this farmhouse kitchen strewn with natural foods, community and warmth. This is a major reason I make music - as a way to seek kindred souls. I wanted to help uncover the deep music they sought. My performance rig was very minimal for this concert. I carried what little gear I could on the airplane to Italy. I had flutes, steel guitar, one keyboard, looping delay. I borrowed a synth and mixer from Gigi. Energy mattered most here. The listeners and I shaped the journey together. I think this document of that journey conveys something special.