Giovanni Allevi explains the “EVOLUTION” album

"Overcome by music, I abandon all defence; fragile and emotional, I observe the world with the heart of a child. My evolution reaches, thus far, the naive and sublime enchantment." Giovanni Allevi

Such is the inevitable evolution towards which my music aspires, and with it I reach a new emotional state.
At a precise moment in time, the music hammering in my mind has begun to take the form and quality of sound of a symphonic orchestra and my total commitment to it has done the rest; I faithfully orchestrated it exactly the way it was, without even blinking. This painstaking effort has absorbed my last four years, more often than not causing me relationship problems, since music is constantly on my mind even during my solo piano concerts.
To follow that music with heart and soul has given me the chance of finding a perfect equilibrium for the permanent anguish and anxiety, which relentlessly reside in my mind, and to readjust them according to the perception I have of myself, thus transforming negative sensations in an authentic and profound joy of being.
My Evolution brings me back to the fascinated child I once was. Given that my music is wordless or without explanation, the possibility of rendering such an evolutionary backward path shared by all is self-contained within it.
This is why the “Rebel Angel” which resides in us all, upon the sound of those notes, might take flight and free itself from the deceitful daily ties that compromise the recollection of our having wings; just as our heart quivers before the tormented revolt of "Foglie di Beslan" as long as, forsaken all resistance, one emotionally and vulnerably surrenders to Music.
The evolution of the child finds its apex in "300 Anelli", a science-fiction lullaby, which stands out as being the most complex and, at the same time, the simplest of all pieces.

“EVOLUTION” is a courageous gesture, on behalf of he who forcefully decides to aim for the present and the future, rather than keeping himself safe amidst the lethargic conceit of a glorious past. I am well aware and deeply convinced that the present time — this ‘very minute’ — possesses never before experienced musical elements which were not even considered until last century and that, before us, no one had ever experienced.  It is, then, the contemporary composers’ duty to make sure that such times may be read through their Art, just as the ‘great’ composers did in the past, for their ‘own eras’.  

The music of “EVOLUTION” pursues the ideal of a new splendour, familiar to all, hatching from the ashes of dodecaphony and atonality’s linguistic dissolution with the use, in symphonic language, of melodic and rhythmic elements of our day and age.

The main protagonist in “EVOLUTION” is the Symphonic Orchestra, which expresses itself through its multiple sound possibilities, as well as its rhythmical intersections and its versatile counterpoint. The  “EVOLUTION” Orchestra is all but beleaguered by Pop; rather, it adopts its own technical momentum to outline the boundaries of a new Contemporary Classical Music reintroducing, with unsullied terms, traditional values void of historically inappropriate instruments and technological means. The Symphonic Orchestra of “EVOLUTION” conquers the present with the sole force of its ‘complex acoustic apparatus’.

The music of “EVOLUTION” is ‘educated’ as it cannot do away with the complexity of the written language and the academic talent of its performers. Yet, as the times we live in are all about the pursuit of collective maturity, it is quite possible that many may share its contents, thus considering such ‘pop’ notes closer to commonly shared feelings.


What “EVOLUTION” music is not (according to Giovanni Allevi)

This is not music for “movie scores",
It stems from the bold need to be independent from whichever non-musical element (i.e. first and foremost, movie scenes or narrative/descriptive contents). Though it is probable that, no sooner is its existence established, it may take many a different form, autonomously alive, being all its future paths beyond prediction. Originally, the music of “EVOLUTION” harbours the reason for being within itself and it holds no need for anything outside of it to acquire strength. It is pure music.

It is not "Minimalist",
Because it rebukes excessive repetition: while being the expression of an incessant internal change.  However, minimalism is the American–originated movement that mostly influences “EVOLUTION”, given that it is this very musical world that it seeks to distance itself from, to strongly reaffirm a melodic and composing style with European traits.

It is not "New Age" music,
For it seeks not serenity, rather finds its propulsive strength in struggle, rhythmical irregularity and great tension.

It is not "contamination" or "crossover" music,
Since the structural and horizontal sense of its language does not contemplate the vicinity of different genres: it affirms the rigorous composing development of musical ideas, according to the criteria of erudite European music.

What “EVOLUTION” music is (according to “EVOLUTION” (per Giovanni Allevi)


It is a new Contemporary Classical Music,
Which, through the writing, as well as the purely symphonic instruments of classical tradition, is able to once again perceive the present-day, an unhindered and unsullied feeling.
Typical traits of contemporary times, not contemplated in the previous symphonic literature, can be found mostly in the harmony ("300 Anelli - parte II"), in the dynamic, percussion strength of bass ("A Perfect Day"), while the romantic thrust and the melodic intensity ("Foglie di Beslan", "Angelo Ribelle", "300 Anelli - parte I") find their roots in a sensitivity ascribable to Italian and European traditions.
The Orchestral score is counter-pointed (in "Whisper", in the polyrhythmic plays of "Keep Moving" or in the five voice “Chorale").
This is so because “EVOLUTION” privileges, in its innumerable rhythmic interlocking, the versatile de-composition of language, and seeks the meaning of beauty even in the three-dimensionality of melodic elucidation, thanks to its great tonal variety. This is why listening to “EVOLUTION” is a pleasure of mind, besides bring joy to the heart.

 “EVOLUTION” is a new music,
That is, a re-introduction, through original movements of traditional values, for there can be no meaningful addition to the future without the fundamental understanding of our past history. Everything new is the by-product of evolution and not of drastic revolution.

The music of “EVOLUTION” conquers serenity, passing through tension and struggle. It reaches elation thanks to virtuous thrust and rhythmical irregularity. It does not seek flight from anxiety, but rather, it includes and overwhelms it, until it becomes passion and energy.  It is sensitive music.

“EVOLUTION” is a very ambitious project: to return the core of instrumental musical expression to Italy, after the German-dodecaphonic colonization of the 1900s and American Minimalism hegemony. It is the hope that Italian and European innate musical talent may resist to the banal flattening of ideas, towards which the world seems to be going.

With “EVOLUTION”, the contemporary composer of pure music returns to his socially acknowledged role, as his music is a direct spiritual link to the soul of his times.