In my studio here, I have a clavichord, built by my parents in 1971, with a somewhat rococo and amusing backdrop painted by my mother (who otherwise has left us with a stunning body of mostly modernist artwork). I grew up with this painfully quiet clavichord, along with a gorgeous harpsichord (also built by my … Read more
I have been passionate about music from a very young age. I felt an urge to play the saxophone thanks to the theme from The Pink Panther. Unfortunately, a four-year-old can’t hold let alone play the sax, but it turned out that the recorder has the same basic fingering as the sax. So I diligently … Read more
Martin Mackie is a singer and music producer from Belfast who has been living in Dublin for more than a decade. His latest single The Ballad of Christy Moore is a tribute, with a comical twist, to the Irish musical legend from Kildare. It is from Martin’s new album Temperance Songs, which will be released … Read more
Music is a language and languages are musical. My life has always been about that: an exploration of these two elements and how they are deeply connected and influenced by one another: music and languages perpetually coexisting in balance. I grew up in Milan, Italy, and as a child I remember constantly being exposed to … Read more
Do you know the feeling of wanting to discover secrets that aren’t being spoken aloud? For a while I thought it was an esoteric way of preserving knowledge. I imagined there were savants to seek out, to turn to. And in search of traces, I became passionate about chasing and searching for the threads of … Read more
Foreword Sometime in early 2022, in the middle of the fourth or fortieth wave of the corona virus, I got a message from my old friend, Stefano Schiavocampo. He told me that he was editing for a magazine in Dublin and he’d like me to contribute. “Me?” I thought, “What would anyone need to hear … Read more
The process of discovering sounds has always been an aspect of music I’ve been connected to, even when I wasn’t aware of its potential and possibilities. During childhood and adolescence, I experimented with instruments, recorded and improvised. It was a somewhat chaotic, intuitive process without pretensions. In my early teens my parents offered me a … Read more
Of New Lands and Turning Points… “You can play! Just take it easy, play slow. Play for a few minutes and then give it a break… there’s no panic!” I was recently asked by one of my composing mentors to think about and summarise what I’ve done as a musician and composer so far. So … Read more
I still don’t know musically where I belong. Being classically trained as a pianist, but listening also to Jazz, World, Indi Pop, Nordic, Heavy Metal or Ambient music, and loving them all, I keep losing myself in whichever direction I go. I wouldn’t say I want to compose Heavy Metal, but I am influenced by … Read more
I sit at the piano and a melody flows smoothly from my mind. I think “How great,” and quickly write it down, then continue playing and writing, playing and writing. Feels like I came up with something special this time. I become emotional with excitement and am very pleased. Then a moment passes, and nothingness. … Read more