GIOVANNI ALLEVI Presents “JOY”

“I see the city behind this strange glass.  I have never been inside an ambulance.  A paramedic puts his hand on my shoulder and tells me I need to stay calm as we are approaching the hospital.
Perhaps, due to the excessive enthusiasm, the great excitement or the accumulated tension, this very day, upon returning from the tour in China, I fell ill on the sidewalk by my home.
A panic attack has been mentioned, or a cardiovascular problem, and in my terrified mind I have the impression I might not make it another ten minutes.
I reconsider the beauty of the sky, the city’s traffic, everyday life or just being alive.
How many smiles have I not returned, how many emotions am I still to experience, and how many dreams have been withered by the phantasms of fear...
If I ever get out of here, I shall sing the Music that speaks of the happiness of living each moment, regardless whether it is a great one or not, regardless of my condition.  “JOY”.  

Ever since this happened, all of a sudden, the volume of the music in my head got louder.

In the following months I played “JOY” hundreds of times on my imaginary keyboard, up and until every single note was perfectly in focus.
Then it only took a smiling gesture for my collaborators to prepare the piano and the recording studio; more than a study it has been a living experience, and the encounter with the keyboard is the story of such an experience.
Thus, I recorded “JOY” without ever having played it before, if not solely in my mind: I need a piano to remain an uncontaminated island to explore, where emotions have the upper hand over technique, and the intensity of a moment is worth more than experience itself.
It took me five days, ten hours a day, surrounded by the articulate and passionate talent of my colleagues and their caring attentions.
I followed “my sound”, a different one for each composition. I carefully freed the timbres, which is the most instinctive and imponderable part of the work, so as to have them embrace me at the height of my heart.

Before Music I am left without a choice.  She assaults me as if reawakened by everyday things in life, and I give her the form she demands from me with manic commitment. Until this is done, it continues to be turned over in my head, even for entire years at a time, causing me perception and attention lags.  
“JOY” is my freedom to explore musical expression.
Through its notes, I can express my deepest sentiments: the joys of discovery; the enchantment for daily simplicity; the inebriating experience of being launched into life but even the fear of living; the physical encounter with Music; the gentle caress of the black and white keys and the thick sensual vibration they produce. It is a dynamic equilibrium that reabsorbs within itself the infinite multiplicity of experience and aspiration.
“JOY” also comes from the necessity that Classical Music, or “cultured” music, of a European template, must interpret, once it has overcome the gridlock of conceptuality, minimal reiteration, and extreme experimenting, the characters of a new contemporary, youthful and original spirituality.

I recorded “JOY” after a extensive and intense international tour, whence I discovered, to my great surprise, to be like the "Piped Piper".  I never once dreamed it possible, seeing as when I was a child I preferred my own company, and once in High School I never was invited to parties! Music, then, as immaterial and impalpable as it is, is able to shake up existences and fates.  I am thrilled that it has set aside such changes for me so as to allow me to continue to express who and what I am.

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GIOVANNI ALLEVI Tells the tale of composing  “JOY”

PANIC
I watch people from behind the ambulance window. It is so strange that in the midst of such a fright I have been visited by so sweet a melody. So as to not forget its origin, I have given it the title of the “monster” that those of us who are blinded by fear see as such. In reality, it is just to remind us that at times it is necessary to stop and let existence cradle us.

PORTAMI VIA
Only in music am I able to gather the sense of a fresh weightlessness. So I ask these few notes to carry me away, in a world where I am myself.

DOWNTOWN
Here is the city I love, and this is the music of its pulsing center. Everyday people face their own fight with existence as do I.  Each one, in his or her own way, is a hero though no one tells them. I would like to do so with a musical caress.

WATER DANCE
There is a memory of ancient dances, of a noble pride of the soul. There is an uncontaminated humanity that lives such inebriation in a single breath.

VIAGGIO IN AEREO
I once had the honor of flying a very tiny plane struggling in the winds over the limpid New York sky. In my mind this music covered the fatigue of the small propeller motor. Two hands, ten fingers, but only one note at a time, one after the other: I wanted it this way so I could slowly construct a language that built up its harmonies on three different levels, but only in the mind of the listener.

FOLLOW YOU
I like to think that every single person is more important than any other thing, and that his or her dreams, fears and uncertainties are sacred and must be protected, never judged.

VENTO D’EUROPA
I have an urge for Europe.  The cold one with a scorching hot nucleus, with its silent and profound spirituality. I have a craving for an intense autumn wind to come and embrace my nostalgia.

L’OROLOGIO DEGLI DEI
The passage from eternity to existence happens with the breaking in of temporal pulsations, in the relentless and emotive advent of the heart.

BACK TO LIFE
If you carefully consider daily existence it will give you flashes of sense. This is for you, young girl, who revises her History lesson aboard the bus; to you, who confused behind thick glasses silently admire the most beautiful girl in the class; to you, who before a cappuccino and croissant would like time to freeze.

JAZZMATIC
Circular and automatic, even pleasurable to play, it was conceived to give shape to an overwhelming pulsation, in which the deep bass sounds are like cannon balls that can give way to a soft tenderness.

IL BACIO
I have much envied Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”.  I too would like to draw my own kiss with notes.  I shall draw it so transparent and ethereal that it will be yours, too.

NEW REINASSANCE
Ancient rhythms and weekly setbacks mix together with progressive rock echoes. It is the celebration of a new era, where the sacred and the profane, the present and the past return to meet.  A new season is almost upon us!