Alex Carpani – The Microcosm Of Prog!
5 min read
1. You have a new album called “Microcosm”, which is the concept behind this title?
Carlo Gnocchi, an Italian educator and writer, said that ‘every human being is an unmistakable and autonomous microcosm’ and this is the real concept of the album. It concerns our life, our personal ‘universe’ regarded as encapsulating in miniature the characteristics of something much larger. So musically speaking I wanted to give this idea of a human universe with its variety and contradictions. Microcosm is very different from the five albums I previously released and has a richness and variety of instruments and artists on it
2. There are many guest appearances in your new album, how did you persuade them to participate in your new album?
I had already collaborated both in studio and live with David Jackson and David Cross, so they already knew me, and as soon as they listened to the material they accepted with pleasure. The same for Theo Travis and Jon Davison: we had never collaborated together but they accepted with enthusiasm.
I think I have gained a certain credibility in the International prog field in these years, so I think there is confidence in what I do.
3. Did the special guests contribute to the album as composers too?
No, I always write all the parts, including drums and instruments solos… However, their contribution was fundamental in the production phase of the album because they gave their personal and unmistakable touch. You know, writing the parts of an instrument and seeing them played by the musician of that instrument is a whole other thing…
4. According to your statement: ‘Life is a personal universe,’ how do you perceive the term “universe” in your statement?
I perceive the universe as everything that surrounds us. But at the same time each of us is a small universe, so it’s as if it were a set of Chinese boxes, where one universe contains another and so on. Moreover we know very little about the universe, as well as about our universe, about ourselves, so the deal gets even more complicated… Some theoretical physicists have even hypothesized that the universe is a living being. We will never know. What we know for sure is that we are an infinitesimal part of something infinitely greater.
5. How does each song of your album reflect the concept of “Microcosm”?
While dealing with the album with a philosophical theme so great and so difficult to imagine, I tried to talk about our everyday microcosm, telling of short moments of life lived. Each song represents a possible moment, a possible life experience, a set of emotions. And the human being, with his emotions, is always at the center of the story.
6. On a musical level, how did you approach the process of composing?
My approach is always the same: I start from an often random musical idea and then from there I start to build the whole, writing all the parts, progressively arranging the piece and also producing it. I have to have total control and the overall vision of what I’m doing because I’m a composer and I know exactly what I want to achieve. When I understand what direction the album is taking, I focus on that direction trying to be consistent in the stylistic choices, in the choice of sounds and arrangements, in the sequence and succession of the songs. I always write the music first, then the vocal melody and finally the lyrics. When I finished all the pre-production there are all the parts ready to play: drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, vocals and any other instruments.
7. Do you have any influences as a musician from the Italian culture?
I don’t know, it’s hard to answer this question. From a strictly musical point of view I do not believe, because I am certainly cosmopolitan and more Anglo-Saxon as an approach, but I am the product of my culture, of the country where I live, like everyone, so surely my artistic sensitivity is influenced by this. For example, I pay a lot of attention to the concept of my albums and the lyrics and this, especially for the lyrics, is a characteristic of Italian music (not the most banal and commercial one of course).
8. Do you have any plans to tour for the album?
Yes, of course, I’m moving to do some concerts and I would like to do many because this album is made to be played live, much more than the others maybe. I hope to be able to announce some concerts already in the coming weeks. We’ll see. I would like to play in Greece for example, where I have never played!
9. How do you approach the post-pandemic period in terms of music business, since everybody is back playing live and releasing new music?
Apart from the concerts, for me not much has changed with the pandemic because I continued to write and publish my music: “L’Orizzonte Degli Eventi” in July 2020 and “Microcosm” in April 2022, so I practically never stopped. In fact, in addition to these two albums I also worked on the third album of Aerostation, the band I created together with drummer Gigi Cavalli Cocchi (Mangala Vallis), who released his first album in 2018.
10. What are your future plans?
Trying to play Microcosm live, finish the pre-production of Aerostation’s second album, which should be released at the end of 2023 and then get to work on my next album which, at this point, will see the light not before the end of 2024 or early 2025. A few months ago I started writing a song, or rather a ten-minute suite of prog metal genre and who knows… maybe that will be the direction I’ll take in the next album.
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/AlexCarpaniOfficialPage
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gXXwYhfTqNsBZIGZvsJOA
https://www.instagram.com/alex_carpani/
https://alexcarpani.bandcamp.com
Discography: http://www.alexcarpani.com/official-discography/
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