MITTELEUROPA ORCHESTRA
Live

RDC 5047

8012980504725
Newtone Records

 

The reissue of the essential ICTUS catalogue now reaches its thirteenth instalment. The label, founded during the mid 70s by Andrea Centazzo to combat the "deafness of the mainstream music market towards radical improvisation, continues to throw up too-long-forgotten gems of rare beauty that even in those days then rarely won the esteem they merited. Twenty years on, the reissue of this recording is as much a duty as it is a pleasure. The sonorities and situations on this live album once again testify to the contemporary relevance of Centazzo's musical thinking.

Drummer and percussionist of the first rank, on a par with the giants of US and European free improvisation (Lacy, Zorn, Parker, Favre, Chadbourne, Bailey, Curran, Coxhill, Cora…), Centazzo was also instrumental for his cultural agit-prop and tireless organisation of events whose aim was to deprovincialise some of the dustier sectors of Italian cultural life.
The tracks on this live album, two of which are previously unreleased, throwl light on the essential characteristics of Centazzo's musical sensibility (incessant research for new timbres and chromatic nuances, fluidity of expression, energy in execution) applied and transferred to a large group boasting eight excellent soloists, including Rava, Koglmann, Trovesi, Zingaro, Ottaviano, Actis Dato, who needed no prompting to take the plunge.
The Mitteleuropa Orchestra came into being at the beginning of the 80s. It was Centazzo's idea to bring together acclaimed improvisers and emergent new talents. A combination that as the disc's six tracks show, functions perfectly and that particularly in a live context manages to come up with a unique sound, punctuated by felicitous solo intuitions. The group blazed a ten-year trail and was an incendiary presence at numerous international festivals, recording three LPs along the way.
Over the years some of the top names in improvisation (Albert Mangelsdorff, Mark Dresser, Martyn Mayes, Paolo Fresu) would hitch a ride on the Mitteleuropa express. Their contributions were by no means casual and helped to generate interest in the ensemble which without doubt left its mark in the world of improvised music. Both as a musician and organiser of musical minds, Centazzo was to experience in the Mitteleuropa project one of the most interesting moments in his career and this splendid live album will doubtless find its place among the essential documents of free improvisation in Europe.