Interview with Psychedelic/Space Rock band Stereokimono conducted by Torodd Fuglesteg on 11/04/2012
Stereokimono's PA profile can be found here: http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1204" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1204
When and by whom was your band formed ? Did any of you, past
and present members, play in any other bands before joining up in your band ?
Why did you choose that name and which bands were you influenced by ?
Stereokimono started in 1989 in Bologna, Italy, and after
various changes in the lineup was re-established in 1995 and since then was
formed by Antonio Severi (guitar, keys), Cristina Atzori (drums), and Alex
Vittorio (bass, keys).
Before and during the Stereokimono project we all played in
other bands, Cristina has her all-female rock band 'Mumble Rumble' and plays and
records with many other, Alex plays with 'MiaZia' and other projects and owns a
small record label called 'Peter's Castle Records', Antonio plays with 'Blanche de
Namur' (a Police tribute band) and writes music for Albateatro's theatrical
performances.
The name derives from an Italian pun "chi stereo, chi
mono", something like "somebody can, somebody can't"… anyway in
the Japanese culture the "stereo" represents modernity and technology
and "kimono" represents tradition, the same opposite elements that
are reflected in our music.
We'll talk about our influences in the next answer…
For those of us unfamiliar with your music; how would you
describe you music and which bands would you compare yourself with ?
We jokingly defined it "Psychophonic Oblique
Rock". The Psych and Phonic terms mixed together mean music composed and
performed with the intention to hit directly the listener's neural connections,
stimulating fantasy and imagination. The Obliquity means that we cross
diagonally among musical genres, through space-rock, fusion, electronic, ethnic
music and many more… People classify Stereokimono as 'progressive rock' maybe
because of this ubiquity! Of course we all have been influenced by King
Crimson, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Gong, just naming only a few of
these, and their wonderful music is part of our DNA.
Over to your two albums. Please tell us more about 'Ki' from
2000.
'Ki' was released by a small record label called Iridea
Records. The label doesn't exist anymore, so the album is buyable contacting us
on our website. We're even planning to make it available through iTunes. Ki was
the result of a period of continuous changes in the band and the music reflects
this "variety". It means a lot of ideas put together, we tried to
organize them and finally we think it was a good work, well reviewed in Italy
and abroad.
In the same year the band won the first prize of the Italian
competition "Omaggio a Demetrio Stratos", a tribute to the wonderful
singer/performer of the italian group Area.
You returned in 2003 with 'Prismosfera'. Please tell us more
about this album.
'Prismosfera' was the very first CD on the Immaginifica
catalogue, the new record label by Franz Di Cioccio, the famous drummer
and singer of PFM. We contacted him and he was soon impressed by our music and
decided to produce and publish the album. We think 'Prismosfera' is a
"mature" album because we recorded the tracks after testing them live
intensively before entering the studio.
The year before, a demo preview of 'Prismosfera' won the first
prize at the MEI/Toast competition as "best instrumental album of the
year" at the Independent Label Meeting in Faenza, Italy.
That is the last thing we have heard from your band. At
least on a record. What have you been up to since 2003, what is your current
status and what are your plans for this year and beyond ?
After
releasing 'Prismosfera' we soon started composing the material for a new album,
but we carried on really slowly recording and mixing the tracks because we were
also involved in other musical projects, in our jobs, in growing children and
so on… anyway now the new cd is here!
It
is named 'Intergalactic Art Cafè' and it's an ambitious project. The
concept is about a funny place suspended somewhere in the universe where
strange musicians can meet and jam together. So, this time, we have several
guests/friends playing and singing with us in the album. Yes, singing, because
the big news are that we actually have two songs with vocals rather than only
instrumental tracks like the preceding albums. Our 3rd cd is published again by
Immaginifica, directed by Franz Di Cioccio, confirming us that he really
believes in our musical project.
We
have started again to play gigs last year, with three important live shows. The
first one opening for The Grandemothers Re-Invented, the mythical Frank Zappa
band. The second one at the three-days festival "We Love Vintage" in
Bologna, with artists like Richard Sinclair and David Cross. Finally, the third
one at the 2nd Prog-Exhibition in Rome, where we opened the two days festival
with historical italian prog bands like Balletto di Bronzo, Arti & Mestieri and
Goblin, with guest stars like Mel Collins, Martin Barre and Steve Hackett. A
cd-box of this show, with our track "Zona d'Ombra" will be released
worldwide in May by the Immaginifica label.
So,
for this year we have the new cd coming out, this important live compilation,
many concerts… and more to come! Follow us on our official website
http://www.stereokimono.com" rel="nofollow - www.stereokimono.com , or our pages on Facebook and MySpace.
To wrap up this interview, is there anything you want to add
to this interview ?
Well,
as a preview of the new album we worked with a videomaker, Paolo Piscolla, on a
funny videoclip of one of the tracks, "Lumacacactus". In this short
video, we act as three mad scientists experimenting with impossible genetical
mutations. We think the video is very nice and unusual. Look at it on Stereokimono's
YouTube channel or search for "Lumacacactus"!
Last
but not least, we were very proud to be interviewed by Progarchives, 'cause we
really consider it the most important progressive rock site on the web.
Many
thanks and best regards by Stereokimono.
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