Lisa e Peter:
Lei lo chiama “Bello Pietroooo”
Lui la chiama “Lissssaaa”.
Lei ride alla fine della prima strofa e gli rovina tutta la take.
Lui le mette in loop tutti gli errori.
Lei gli finisce il vino.
Lui le fa le facce.
Lei gli è saltata sulla schiena.
….ci staremo giocando il produttore?…o la cantante?

Il lavoro continua…lo schemino preparato da Peter ha ogni giorno una nuova casella cancellata e guardandolo sembra che la fine sia vicina…in realtà ci sono ancora le piccole cose da riguardare, alcuni ospiti da registrare e un paio di brani da controllare per quanto riguarda l’elettronica.
Ieri, tra le altre cose, abbiamo registrato i bordoni della piva in Angiolina e suonano benissimo!
Oggi continuiamo a cantare, Lisa è di nuovo tra noi e sembra in gran forma!
Per facilitare la comunicazione con Peter ho preparato un aiuto…

The first group of Mondine loads in at Esagono studio

Working at full steam in the studio today, to set us up for the coming of the Mondine di Novi choir in its full glory. The 24 women stormed the studio to sing Angiolina and Mariulèina, and many other songs during the party that followed! Anna actually fell in the stream surronding the studio (she thought the ice was actually cement…), but thankfully did not hurt herself, and was able to continue the session after borrowing some dry clothes from Lady J. Let their names be recorded in this blog:

Gigliola Giglioli, Gabriella Braioni, Italia Pignoli, Diva Cavazzoni, Adriana Paltrinieri, Silva Manicardi, Assunta Palermo, Katia Fiori, Delmina Cesaretti, Rina Cipolli, Lina Pizzetti, Deanna Bertoni, Laura Bertoni, Rita Pizzano, Nunzia Cavagnini, Viliana Cavaletti, Anna Bernini, Lidia Cavazzoni, Diva Lazzaretti, Agnes K. McWilliams, Manuela Cavazzoni, Lidia Ascari, Manuela Rossi and conductor Giulia Contri.

These ladies have enough energy to blow away anyone we know. After the session, Peter needed a break, and no wonder!

…lo studio pullula di aretini: Luca Lanzi (Casa del Vento), Francesco Moneti (MCR) e ovviamente io! mi sento a casa!

Ciao a tutti!
Eccoci di nuovo a Rubiera nel mitico Esagono per il secondo tempo di questa fantastica partita!
Ho passato i giorni off in vacanza…erano anni che non facevo una vacanza e ne avevo proprio bisogno. Ho passeggiato tra i vicoli e i parchi di Valencia sotto un sole tiepido e piacevole guardando le vetrine e i volti asciutti degli spagnoli, bello!
Devo dire che mi sono svegliata spesso con le melodie del disco in testa ma anche questo è stato divertente. Mi sono riposata e ho ricaricato le batterie; oggi sono partita da Arezzo per buttarmi nella nebbia emiliana; ho preso Peter all’aeroporto di Bologna e adesso siamo di nuovo qui pronti per accogliere le Mondine che verranno domani a registrare! Non vedo l’ora di sentire il loro chiacchiericcio e le loro risate sguaiate… mettono sempre allegria!

It’s raining! So a lot of the snow in Milan has melted away. Road conditions have improved, airports have been reopened, so I guess today’s the day to reach the studio again.

Lady Jessica is back from Spain (she had been taking a short break), and she is going to pick Peter up in Bologna. Me, I’ll just get on the road and grind my way to Emilia. I called my family, and it seems that the snow is not a problem at all over there. Ok, I’ll stop talking about the weather now, I promise!

The heaviest snowfall in a long time is entertaining northern Italy as I write (I took this picture in Piazza Duca d’Aosta, in front of Stazione Centrale). The Bergamo airport, where I was supposed to pick Peter up, is closed as a result. Not that I would have been able to do it: there are at least 40cms of snow in Milan city! I was just about able to disentangle the car from the parking place, but that’s all the driving I can do for the day.

So it’s no go for today. Peter has reserved a flight to Bologna tomorrow which should be ok, but the day’s work will be pretty much lost.

We have decided a long time ago to dedicate our album to the memory of Martyn Bennett, scotsman, piper and dj. We believe he is a major artist, whose work has broken a lot of new ground and really gotten the “digital traditional” scene going. He has been such an inspiration for us. We even tried to bring him to Italy in our own festival, New World Beat, in early 2004. At the time Martyn was already very sick; he was not playing pipes or fiddle anymore, he wanted to come to Italy as a dj. In the end he was too much in pain, and had to give it up. He died one year later, aged 34. Check out his website for more information about this great, uplifting artist.

We are trying to honour Martyn’s memory, though we cannot give back to him the pleasure and inspiration he has given us. We have asked Real World, the record label which published his last album, to give us a sample of Martyn’s voice to use on our album. They have been very supportive, and ultimately got us in touch with a man called Calum Angus at MacTv who did a documentary on Martyn and apparently has just what we need. I can’t wait to hear the samples….

Martyn Bennett 1971 - 2005 R.I.P.

My great-grandfather, who was a music lover and whose name was also Alberto Cottica, bought a second hand piano for his daughter, my great-aunt Elsa, circa 1920. Aunt Elsa never managed to play anything. In a very non-musical family, I could lay a serious claim to it (I was the only one who would ever use it) and so the piano ended up with me. Peter really liked its sound: he says it’s strangely bright. And no wonder: the sound table is a century old, and its wood has become hard as stone, and just as resonant! So today we drove from Rubiera to Milan to record the piano part of Strade d’appennino in the Improbable studio, aka my living room. Strade came out really well! My late great-grandfather gets the credit for buying good equipment, and his piano finally makes his debut in the show business. But then Peter does not like the sound for my other piano song, Non di sola andata… which makes me a bit nervous. What are we going to use? A Rhodes? A church organ? A guitar? An espresso machine?

After this feat, Peter took a cab and was gone to the airport, Duesseldorf bound. Safe journey, see you next week!

More vocals today. We were feeling daring, and tampered with Check in and Prendi l’onda, which are two of the most promising tracks of the album to be single shots (this does not necessarily mean being the most beautiful, though), and also sang Lisa’s part of the traditional song Mariulèina. But now the end of that is near, and after dinner we’ll pack up and leave the studio for a week or so. Peter and I will drive to Milan, where tomorrow we are supposed to record the piano parts; Lady J and Lisa will return to their homes in Tuscany.

The flatlands of Emilia greet us with the usual helping of gray winter sky, frost and heavy fog (reminding me of why we chose the dialect word “Fumana”, fog, for our name). Farewell, Rubiera! But the album is not finished, and we’ll be back.