Guido Ponzini has played and recorded as virtuoso bassist and as a member of Chapman Stick with various artists of the Real World of Peter Gabriel. The discovery of viola da gamba with Maestro Roberto Gini at the Conservatory “Arrigo Boito” in Parma led him to rese- arch the instrument in contemporary music language. As a composer and sound designer he has worked for Nintendo Europe, IK Multimedia, Lancia, Fiat, AMREF, Lomography. He also wrote for theatre and multimedia. He recently recorded with the viola da gamba the soundtrack for the blockbuster video game Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, composed by award-winning composer Jesper Kyd and featuring one of the best sound-designer in the world, Diego Stocco. He is featured in the new album of the italian songwriter Ivano Fossati. He has performed as a soloist and with ensembles in major international festivals, such as the Akkordeon Festival Wien, Jazzahead Bremen, Festival di Torrechiara “Renata Tebaldi”, Suoni dell’altro mondo, Lo Sguardo di Ulisse, Nottetempo, Musica nei Castelli, Jazz Groove Venice, and many others. In 2006 he published his first solo album for the German label Ozella Music, Twilight Town (nomination for best solo composition for the Just Plain Music Awards Americans), followed in 2009 by Plugin and Contemporary Music and Ponzini plays Uematsu, for the American Porter Records, the first concerto of contemporary-classical music for chapman stick and string orchestra recorded with musicians from Ennio Morricone’s orchestra, Roma Sinfonietta. This album also includes re-arrangements for viola da gamba of a selection of works from the famous Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu. His music has been played by BBC Radio 3, RAI Radiotre and many others. In 2011 he founded the MG_INC harp duo with Miriam Farina, exploring the new languages of viola da gamba, presenting the project in the international event TED x Bologna (Technology, Entertainment, Design). MG_INC debut album “Almost in the air: antichi strumenti, nuovi suoni” has been released by Acte Prealable and presented live at the italian national radio program “Piazza Verdi” – RAI Radio 3.
QUOTES
“Un talento straordinario…”
IVANO FOSSATI – Radio Capital
“For me, this is one of the most astonishing releases of recent months. Guido Ponzini, who I hadn’t heard of before and who looks like a teenager in the booklet’s photos (but should really be in his twenties), has recorded an absolute stunner of 13 self-composed pieces and six recordings of pieces composed by Nobuo Uematsu. (…). Ponzini’s approach, his insistence on an instruments proper, “good” sound, as well as on classical composition, could be called old-fashioned. But, really, what the heck.”
JAN-ARNE SOHNS (Foxy Digitalis)
“Se volete divertirvi ad ascoltare bella musica contemporanea per archi rivolgetevi a Guido Ponzini. Plugin Contemporary Music/Ponzini plays Uematsu fa per voi. Le tredici tracce che compongono “Plugin Contemporary Music” rappresentano un vero e proprio racconto – a cui curiosamente manca un titolo – che si snoda su tredici diverse brevi scene, i cui singoli titoli danno tuttavia ottime indicazioni per rappresentare con immagini quanto la musica crea in astratto.
Il quartetto (non strutturato) che ruota in scena è composto dallo stesso Guido Ponzini (che alterna chitarra ad otto corde a chapman stick, viola da gamba e contrabbasso), dalla bravissima violinista Angela Benelli, dal contrabbassista Jean Gambini e dal chitarrista Bruno Cimenti coadiuvato da Giovanni Amighetti per la parte live electronics.
Diversissime invece le sei tracce che compongono “Ponzini plays Uematsu,” nelle quali Ponzini interpreta brevi tracce composte dal compositore Nobuo Uematsu. Il clima narrativo delle composizioni di Ponzini pare esteso anche a Uematsu che viene interpretato soprattutto con la viola da gamba.
Gioia, un certo incedere da narrazione epico-cavalleresca, grande capacità esecutiva caratterizzano i suoni di questo lavoro a due facce, ma ad una sola, piacevole, dimensione musicale.”
FRANCESCA ODILIA BELLINO – All About Jazz
“The sound in Ponzini’s Terra Aria (Sollima composition) is heavily geared toward the bowed and pizzicato bass lines.The gamba gives the composition a new dimension
(…)
Winterwind, another brilliant composition and video clip from Guido Ponzini (YouTube, Ghigo85, 6 mins11 secs). The subtle layering of sound, now plucked now bowed, adds considerably to the creation of a chilling yet bracing feeling, evoking the winter wind of the title. Ponzini clearly understands the historical legacy of a soaring melodic line over a dark, plucked bass, drawn from viol and theorbo, as well as the ‘modal’ scale motifs well-suited to the instrument. He doesn’t try for the jagged harmonic changes in Sollima’s Terra Aria, relying instead on texture, though obviously in terms of length and breadth it evokes Sollima. He speaks directly though to our generation through hints of Japanese koto and innocent Japanese melody. He too matches the plucked viol to the instrument’s strong links with the lute. Ponzini is creating music peculiar to his time and ours. The YouTube ‘performance space’ is special to our time, the string sound deeply embedded in our consciousness as characterful and important, from the medieval to the present. The ‘moving picture’ medium is as important to us as was Perotin’s reliance on the architecture of Notre-Dame.It goes without saying that I look forward to more of Ponzini working with this instrument, in this medium.
ROD BYATT – Viola da Gamba Weblog
“I raffinati colori impiegati – chapman stick e viola da gamba in primis – mettono in luce un percorso di soluzioni formali che fa perno sulla suggestione, più nel concreto sull’intelligente alternanza di pieni e di vuoti, sul gioco delle parti, sull’eleganza impalpabile delle voci. Niente trucco, niente inganno: il fascino di questa prova composita – frutto degli studi e delle collaborazioni del nostro, accompagnato nello specifico da Angela Benelli e Jean Gambini – sta esattamente in questa sommessa e al contempo vibrante ricerca.”
BUONE FREQUENZE – “Plugin Contemporary Music” review
“It’s evident to me that Guido Ponzini has the blessing of good taste,which will always carry him through, whatever he does.
In this case, it’s Stick solos, duos and trios after
just over one year of playing the instrument (impressive).
His good taste shows up in the simplicity and perfection of concept and execution, not over-reaching. No need to.”
EMMET CHAPMAN – musician, Stick inventor and president of Stick Enterprises
”A big surprise was the introduction of the Mari Boine Band’s concert, during St.Patrick’s Festival organized from the Folk Club of Buttrio: just arrived from “Jazzahead” in Bremen, Germany, the young (21 y.o) and extraordinary Guido Ponzini played in the “Garzoni” Theatre for a short set with his“Chapman Stick”, with incredible technique, that shows Ponzini as an extraordinary interpreter, according to the opinion of its inventor, Mister Chapman himself. With a nearly clavicembalistic sonority, the first piece was a test of remarkable counterpoint agility, while the second remembered an ancient charming dance, preparing the atmosphere for Mari Boine’s world…
Giuliano Almerigogna – “Il Messaggero Veneto”
“Mari Boine’s concert has been opened by the phenomenal 21y.o. stick-player Guido Ponzini, who already played here during the Guitar Festival in September with chinese artists, who also recently released his first solo cd “Twilight Town”: a talent with classical background who, with his instrument, can be poet and virtuoso at the same time, thanks to his music which is between jazz, prog and chamber music.”
Sandra Mansutti - “Il Gazzettino Online”
“Makes the Chapman stick sound as easy to learn as a recorder in kindergarten. There is a point where incredible technical savvy and the ability to touch listener’s heart in a very simple and direct way converge. Whenever that happens, you know you have something special and that is why it doesn’t take the ever-active Dagobert Böhm (who acted as an executive producer to “Twilight Town”) nor Emmet Chapman (who invented the “stick” named after him, which sets the album’s tone) to tell us that Guido Ponzini is made of extremely promising material.”
Tobias Fischer – Tokafi
“Even though he is very young (°1985) and seems like he just recently started playing the Chapman stick, it is immediately clear that he masters the instrument.Especially on “Rainstorm upon the harbour” which sounds like incredible masterly play of an almost classical composition.”
Psychevanhetfolk
Twilight Town proves there’s a good deal of virtuosity possible with it. The young Italian experimentalist bass player really explores the possibilities for the stick, electric and silicon bass, as well as combining it with some familiar, traditionally beautiful sounds such as the flute, with often atonal jarring electronic noise.This is his first solo album, although he has been seen supporting artists such as Vladimir Denissenkov, Guo Yue, Ayub Ogada, Adel Salameh and Naziha Azzouz.The scratches and fascinating rhythms of ‘Hammers upon the coal mine’ are vastly pretentious, as the Vaiesque guitars plough the outer reaches of the prog-jazz spectrum, but it’s an album of extremes, and the highs are worth bearing with the experimental and introspective elements.Flautist Guo Yue provides some of the album’s highlights, on ‘Little dances for a Siamese cat’, which is a gem in itself and really provides a foil for Ponzini in his deceptively simple style.
Wyl Menmuir – FLY REVIEWS UK
On his Chapman Stick Ponzini reflects the pastel colors of nature just awakening from winter. Balm for the soul.
Global-mojo
