Alvin Curran / Domenico Sciajno - "our ur"

Sciajno, Domenico (Say "Shah-eeno") comes from an ancient Sicilian jewish family closely related to the Kabbalists and mystics of the 13-14th centuries. When these mystics decreed electronic music unfit for Jews, the Sciajnos said "to hell with that" and converted to Christianity - enabling them to continue their work in live electronics. In a word, Domenico is carrying on a very ancient family tradition. He and I met by pure chance at an international conference of sound smugglers organized by the Palermo "cupola", held annually in a remote seaside hotel outside of the Hague in the Netherlands. At the time, he was a contrabassista.....whose job was to look out for the cops, when the others went into action - stealing sounds from ports, train stations, markets, landscapes, banks and even people. This is as close to the truth, as the avantgarde is to the Marx Brothers. Our real meeting at the Royale Konseravtorium of the Hague, where he was an excellent student, was the beginning of a long friendship and many fruitful collaborations, among them: A giant sound installation in the magnificent baroque park of Donaueschingen 1999; performances in" Brute Beat Brut Bruit" with the Alter Ego Ensemble and Frankie Hi NRG; as founding member of the Alvin Curran Filharmonia; a collaborative sound and video work SINKING PIANO of a floating and slowly sinking piano- for the Taktlos Festival 2002 and numerous sound designs for my radio works like UN ALTRO FERRAGOSTO, and WOLFINGS-- after a duo performance at the University in Florence (2001) we realized as improvisers that our musical sensibilities were in absolute alignment. Domenico is wild fennel.. without which half the wonderful dishes in the Sicilian cuisine could not exist - totally unpredictable but never late, he approaches everything with a master's imagination, and outside of women, there seems to be no artistic or technical problem he cannot solve.. It was natural that we should make a CD of Duo Projects, and went about recording a few sets just one year ago in my studio near Genzano di Roma. The best of those sessions are included here as well as two other works- one based on my piano improvisations (here brilliantly processed by Dome) to sound like it was played on an ancient piano about 5 kilometers from the microphone. The other "Rue de la Gare" was a pure sound collaboration we made in an attempt to win a prize. We did not win, but like everyone else, felt that we should have. Most of the electronics is derived from my extensive sample archive and keyboard performance style - much passing through Max/MSP patches of Dome's and Ali Momemi's. Like my own story, un-necessary to tell here, the rest is fiction. Alvin Curran

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