TIDES is my open music diary. Here below you can listen to my stories. Enjoy.

FEATURED STORY :: Story #04 :: Reflections (April 2023)

This is another little story exploring the Yin and yang, the balance and interaction between water and air, shade and light, major and minor.
Recorded in the same iconic studio and room where Ennio Morricone made 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso' and Nino Rota 'The Godfather', this piece is the teaser of a bigger 15-20 min (3-4 movements) piece I plan to write soon. Enjoy!

Video from the recording session

Composed, orchestrated and conducted by Federico Solazzo © BUMA / STEMRA

Recorded by the Kiev Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra in April 2023 at Forum Studios (Rome, IT)
Recording engineer: Fabio Patrignani

Rec engineer assistant: Davide Dell’Amore
Control room supervisors: Dario Vero and Tom Schipper
Orchestra contractor: David Barsotti
Mixed and mastered by Davide Ruffini at Splinter Studios (Utrecht)

Cover art: Tom Thomson, ‘Round Lake, Mud Bay’, 1915
Video footage by Mirko Fragalà

Thanks to: Cecilia and Celeste, my unlimited source of smiles, my family, Dario for being the honorary member of the Lydian fellowship, Tommy (summer of 2018, the first sketch in your studio!), the orchestra for putting all their heart into it, all my friends Barbad, René, Tom, Trian, Giacomo, Filippo Valentino, Marco, Damiano, Lucas, Davide and everybody else I’m forgetting now for your enthusiasm in supporting my music and to you all for the invaluable support!
This recording is the result of the lovely energy of all the good people with me (both physically and not) that day in the studio. This exists only thanks to you all.

Special thanks to Buma/Stemra for the support #investeringsfondsmuziek

Story #01 :: Tides (June 2021)

I've always been intrigued by the idea of energy and resonating frequencies, where everything is vibration. Tides is connected to this idea of waves, ups and downs, this elastic rubber when sometimes you tune in with the world around you, sometimes with the world inside you and sometimes you are somehow disconnected. Acceptance is part of this, like staring at dawn at the seaside, without judging the shape and sound of those waves.

scrolling score with the audio from the orchestra

Composed and orchestrated by Federico Solazzo - 2021 © BUMA / STEMRA

Recorded by the Budapest Film Orchestra in April 2021 at TomTom Studio (Budapest)
Orchestra conductor: Peter Pejtsik
Orchestra contractor: Kinga Lőkös

Mixed by Loris Bernot at Backyard Studios (Paris)
Mastered by Davide Ruffini at Splinter Studios (Utrecht)

Cover art: Jan Mankes, 'Avondlandschap met maan', 1912

Thanks to: Cecilia and Celeste, my source of joy, Frans and Seppl for somehow igniting this new adventure, Ziggi, Kenma, Dario, Tommy, Rogier, Giacomo, Luca for their enthusiasm, Loris and Davide for putting their passion in the details, the Budapest Film Orchestra (this is their 2nd take, in full!) and to you all for the invaluable support!

THE INSPIRATION
I find a lot of beauty in silence. That particular quiet texture you find when nature is in its still state. That silence is really important to me. My music starts from there.
Among a lot of artists I love, there are a few composers I admire for their ability to making music that gives you space to breathe: Craig Armstrong, Thomas Newman, Joe Hisaishi, Arvo Pärt.

THE MUSIC
This piece was born sometime in June 2018 during one of my late afternoon jogging runs in a beautiful park right next to where I live. The sun was shining, and suddenly a little melody popped into my head.
I was hearing (and seeing as I have synaesthesia) also some interesting colours around it (harmonies), with some minor/major tensions overlapping (Eb major on top of Eb minor, resolving into C#11). They were not distracting from the very simple theme. They were just there, creating the mood/flavour.
I also remember it was in a weird signature, not in 4/4 but something always slightly moving/changing (probably a 5/4 and 7/4). When I had arrived home, I couldn’t clearly remember those weird bars - probably because of their ever-changing/movement nature - so I’ve just sketched it out as 4/4.

A couple of years passed by (new house, a daughter, no more real meetings and friends - you know about that part, right? XD) and while working under pressure for the music on a huge commercial campaign, a window for recording with the Budapest Film Orchestra opened up. So, I finally had a deadline to finish it! It was such a relief not having the time (and need) to go through an orchestral mockup and not requiring the approval from somebody else before recording it: this got me to writing the score you see here straight on paper (StaffPad on iPad), note by note. It always amazes me how much more creative you are when you have the clarity and freedom of writing for real players with a pencil rather than being limited to write for the sounds you have in your Tetris-DAW-computer. You are left with choosing the right brushes and colours and you are free to imagine how it’s gonna sound in your head - ready to be surprised by the great players at the recording session!

Story #02 :: Velvet Dawn (June 2022)

A slow dance between two lonely stars, until they can finally hug in a velvet dawn.

Video from the recording session

Composed by Federico Solazzo - 2022 © BUMA / STEMRA

Orchestrated by Federico Solazzo and Barbad Bayat
Conducted by Barbad Bayat Performed by Prague Metropolitan
Orchestra Contracted by Barbad Bayat & Radek Krizanovsky
Recorded in April 2022 at Czech TV Studio (Prague, CZ)
Mixed and mastered by Andrew Lawson at Fieldgate Studio (Cardiff, UK)

Thanks to: Cecilia and Celeste, the smile of my heart, my friend Barbad for his enthusiasm, the whole orchestra, Andy for the amazing mix (thanks Daan!) and Jonathan for sharing feelings and words.

Story #03 :: Breathe (January 2023)

Inspired by the beauty of nature (inside and outside us) in its hidden delicacy and majestic neverending evolution.

Composed by Federico Solazzo - 2023 © BUMA / STEMRA

Orchestrated by Federico Solazzo and Barbad Bayat
Strings (Dutch String Collective) recorded in November 2022 at Groenland Studios (Hilversum)
by Hans Ravestein and Laurens Goedhart.
Violin solo: Cecilia Baesso

Mixed and mastered by Andrew Lawson at Fieldgate Studio (Cardiff, UK)

Special thanks to BCMM and Buma/Stemra (#investeringsfondsmuziek).

THE STORY BEHIND BREATHE

This is a piece very close to me. It was recorded on a very special day, after a 2-months-crazy-intense job delivered that same morning. I felt completely gone, so much so that I was not able to tell the names of my own notes during the session (yes! that much). I smiled (this is something I've got from my mum, whenever I feel in a tricky situation).
Breathe.

Happy to share this little piece with you all, whenever you'd feel like slowing down and smiling again. Enjoy! 

A few notes about the production: sketched sometime in 2019 (those 4 bars chords arrived to my hands on a late evening while on the phone with my friend Dario Vero, talking about a Swiss mountains TV pitch that we did at the same time).

A special thanks to René Merkelbach (that same morning he sent me a piece called "Breathing", and, by coincidence, the WIP title of this piece was also "Breathing").