Umberto Fiorentino, renowned as one of the masters of Italian jazz guitar, meets Claudio Quartarone, a new talent on the Italian classical scene. Starting from different styles and influences, they unite two unique identities that extraordinarily become one.
"Anamorfosi" is a term that closely captures what happens when Fiorentino and Quartarone play together. Both are fascinated by the ability to merge a sense of form with improvisation, through the inspiration each draws from the other.
The recording process was challenging; we wanted to capture the authentic sound of our 75-square-meter recording room at Nightingale Studios, ensuring the sound wasn't overly ambient to avoid compromising the experience on loudspeakers. While binaural sound is exceptional for headphones, we made sure it performs brilliantly on both headphones and acoustic speakers. We aimed for the detail typical of close-mic recordings, while maintaining the atmosphere of a single binaural microphone.
In the final track, "In a Sentimental Mood," we did something truly unconventional. The rhythmic part was provided by a drum pattern looped directly into the room from ProTools on a MacBook at 192 kHz 32-bit, via a Metric Halo ULN8 3D converter, McIntosh MC500 amplification, and an Audio Research LS1 preamplifier through B&W 802 D Nautilus speakers. We absolutely did not want to send the backing track to the musicians via headphones and then add it during editing; we wanted to capture the sound of everything in that exact moment within a recording environment. The sound might not be perfectly standard, but it is exactly what we were hearing at that moment—good or bad, right or wrong. It is that sound! We want that sound to enter your homes.
Naturally, there was no post-production editing—only light corrective equalization. This is an experimental, intimate, and relaxed record, featuring an extreme exploration of musical improvisation. We brought together two guitarists with different styles and genres who, when they meet, speak the same musical language. This is to say that music is one!
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Nightingale Studios – Palombara Sabina (RM) Italy. November 3, 2019, and February 20, 2022. ℗© 2022 Bird Box Records s.r.l.