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A brief biography
Passion, Passion, resistance, roots and innovation are the words that come to mind
when describing Yo Yo Mundi, a five-piece band from Acqui Terme, a tiny spot
on the hills and vineyards of Monferrato in the North of Italy.
Their musical journey is somewhere in between folk and rock. It’ s not easy to fit them in a genre because they often play with traditional as well as innovative sounds. The accordium is surely part of their sound in the best of folk traditions, although they are not your traditional folk band. Yo Yo Mundi begin their musical journey by writing a song inspired by the European cycle race Flèche de Wallonie. Their first record comes out in 1994 titled La Diserzione degli Animali del Circo and sees the participation of Brian Ritchie and Gordon Gano of Violent Femmes and the innovative guitarist and producer Michael Brook (who worked with U2, Pogues, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel). Brian Ritchie produces four tracks of the album, Gordon Gano sang and played violin in “Sitting in Silence”, while Michael Brook plays his infinite guitar in two songs. Unrestrained songs, born from a melancholic province, acoustic basses and accordions, pocket tales about animals escaping from the circus, contorsionists and children who in a slaughter-house discover the darkest sides of life: these are the themes of the album. The second record is Bande Rumorose, an album with twelve new songs together with four songs of the first album completely re-arranged to make up an extraordinary melting-pot of committed songs, psycho-folk and rock. The version of “Freccia Vallona” proposed here has been played with the participation of French duo Corman&Tuscadù and in the cd there is also a version of Un Giudice, written by Fabrizio De Andrè, the great Italian songwriter. Percorsi di Musica Sghemba comes out in 1996 and the group changes again: melancholic songs and atmospheres full of underground energy take the place of the joyful mix of the debut. The album is received with great enthusiasm from the music critics and also on this occasion the guests are international: Trey Gunn with his magic stick-bass (who collaborated also with Robert Fripp and David Sylvian) and Guy Kyser of the unforgettable Thin White Rope, who stops his long period away from the stage for Yo Yo Mundi. During their career Yo Yo Mundi collaborated with many artists, among which Teresa de Sio (Neapolitan folk artist among the most known and important of the Mediterranean), famous Italian actress Lella Costa and many others for the project Materiale Resistente. A number of songs of the Resistance are re-arranged by Italian groups of the young generation and Yo Yo Mundi participate with the song “Banditi della Acqui”, inspired from WW2 tragedy of Cefalonia. In 2001 they publish a completely instrumental work, Sciopero is Yo Yo Mundi ’s soundtrack to Strike, Ejzenstejn's first silent movie. Silent cinema interaction with live music is re-explored to bring back the experience of the moving image and the tradition of live performance. Yo Yo Mundi’s direction towards playing instrumental is maintained in 2002 when they publish their latest album Alla Bellezza dei Margini. The instrumental track titled “Monferrina 2006” is an homage to their land, Monferrato, a land of hills and vineyards in the region of Piemonte. The beauty of the peripheries of the world and their marginal actors are celebrated in this work that catches Yo Yo Mundi’s essence at its best. The band has a huge history of live performances. Taking their music on the road is such a priority that they even played in Malaysa, as well as Switzerland, Austria, France and all the main music spots in Italy for a total of over 1000 gigs.
| Hi-res picures |
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| from Sciopero-Strike, pictures: Graziano Bartolini |
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| from Resistenza, pictures: Laura Polastri |
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Paolo
Archetti Maestri
vocals
electric guitar
acoustic guitar |
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Fabio
Martino
accordium
piano
sequencer |
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Eugenio
Merico
drums |
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Andrea
Cavalieri
electric bass guitar
acoustic bass guitar
double bass
vocals |
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Fabrizio
Barale
electric guitar
acoustic guitar |
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Sciopero (Strike)
Yo Yo Mundi, a folk rock band hailing from Italy, composed and recorded a
new score to Sergei Eisenstein's silent masterpiece Strike (Stachka).
Commissioned in 1994 by the International Silent Cinema Festival in Rome,
this passionate live musical performance has ever since been taken on the
road from cinemas to outdoor locations debuting in London in 2004.
'Strike' features historic experiments in the art of montage. In his films,
Eisenstein used editing to juxtapose apparently unrelated images to create
rapid and dynamic shifts in rhythm. This gives musicians an ideal basis from
which to interact with the moving image to create an all round musical and
visual atmosphere.
Sciopero, the Italian word for Strike, is also the chosen title of Yo Yo
Mundi's album, distributed in limited edition in the UK and the US.
A luxurious digipack CD contains both studio and live recordings and is
accompanied by extensive liner notes describing the project. It's a unique
instrumental work, in 19 sections, rich in acoustic subtlety and sudden
electric intensity.
Some comments on Sciopero
Sciopero is a potent blast of political pop - the Clash with accordion...
And some moments of real feeling came from the blend of Paolo Archetti
Maestri's ringing guitar sonorities with Fabio
Martino's vinegary accordion...
John L Walters - The Guardian
Sciopero - in all its hanging harmonies, upbeat militancy and haunting
accordion solos - is a supple and emotive soundtrack that is worthy of Ennio
Morricone himself. It's easy to hear the passages of escalating tension: the
band ratchets up the tempo; drums, guitars and voices chanting 'Sciopero!'
press in on the attention. Like waiting for a cloudburst, the floating sound
wafts until the band, dominated by its wonderfully melancholic accordion,
takes up the tune again.
Louise Gray - New Internationalist
The band's rat-a-tat-tat rhythmic folk-rock makes this 80-minute film
classic feel even more exciting... Scenes with children and small animals
are accompanied with waltz-time keyboards tunes and violent passages are synchronised to pounding folk rock.
Adrian Roberts - Morning Star
The joyous exuberance of the music of Yo Yo Mundi presents itself as the accomplished equivalent of the youthful fervour of Eisenstein.
Alberto Barbera - director of the Italian National Museum of Cinema
Review from the New Internationalist:
http://www.newint.org/issue374/mix.htm
Review from the Morning Star:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/free/culture/music/striking_out
Interview to Yo Yo Mundi by the Socialist Worker:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=7430
Review from a world music zine:
Yo Yo Mundi (Italy)
Sciopero (Strike)
Stern's Music/Mescal
Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin left quite an impression. I saw the silent era Russian film around 20 years ago, but the magic of juxtaposing images in a Jungian fashion is not something easily forgotten. I never saw the director's debut film, Strike, but it too is famous for its image juxtaposition, violent montages, proletariats heroism (Lenin's Russia) and grainy black/white footage. No doubt, Italian musicians and cineasts would grab onto this early 20th century masterpiece which toured around Italy. A silent-era film needs a soundtrack so Yo Yo Mundi composed one, Sciopero, lasting 43 1/2 minutes and sporting everything from (what resembles) Mexican rancheras and punk guitars with a bit of Italian circus thrown in for good measure. It's a toss up to whether France or Italy grabs the prize for most enthusiastic cineasts--not Hollywood movies, but a passionate response to international cinema. The Italian ensemble Yo Yo Mundi which consists of keyboard, guitars, accordion, drums, vocals and industrial noise samples, landed this plum assignment. They composed a soundtrack inspired by Strike in 1994 and over the course of that year, perfected the work, then in 1998, they produced this recording. They took an intuitive response to the film's images while creating a barrage of juxtaposed sound. This CD features live and studio recordings that comprise 19 tracks. The musicians added their own musical palette to Eisenstein's blend of comical and disturbing montages. All the Proletarians of the World features circus waltz accordion and organ along with tinkling percussion. Scum brings in the punk rock guitars and organ while Vodka, Fire and Provocation brings in a blast of electric guitars. Are They Playing? What Jokers! starts out as an avant-garde piece and soon captures the mood of a Mexican ranchera. The New International marries Russian exuberance with Italian folk music and the theme song which surfaces throughout the recording recalls Ennio Morricone's cinematic repertoire with its ethereal guitar and swirly accordion. This collection of musical fragments comes with an attractive and informative booklet which gives history of the film, the director and Yo Yo Mundi's involvement with the project. It is a rare musical occasion sure to please both cineasts and music fans alike.
Mescal, Stern's Music
http://us.geocities.com/pherlevi/crankycrowfall05.html
The plot of the film and notes on the director
The plot of Strike. Russia 1912. A factory worker, unrightfully accused of stealing, commits suicide inside the factory. His comrades soon find out the reasons behind his desperate action and they decide to organize a strike. A vast and organized secret service intelligence immediately informs the management who decide to end the protests. On one side workers strike to claim better working conditions; while on the other side the management resist and attempt to expose the workers' weakest links. In the meantime the prolonged strike is causing families to starve. Provocation begins: during a march a bunch of crooks, supported by the police and the management, set fire to the warehouse where alcohol is stored. The fire brigade, alerted by an heroic worker who manages to call for help, arrives at the place only to turn their water pumps against the crowd to disperse them. The civil protest is broken up by the police on horses, firing and charging the crowd: neither women nor children are spared. It ends in complete failure for the strikers who, in desperation, try to run away with their families, but are chased by the soldiers of the czar. The wild firing of the army completes the slaughter.
Stachka/ Sciopero/ Strike 1924 Produced by Goskino Studios in Moscow. Screened for the first time on the 28th of April 1925. Directed by S.M.Eisenstein. Camera operator and photography: Eduard Tisse.
The director: Sergei Michailovic Eisenstein (1898 -1948)
Born in Riga in Latvia on the 23rd of January 1898. In 1921 he works as set and costume designer at the First Workers Theatre Proletkult. At the start of 1924 he begins shooting Strike, finishing in 1925. In the same year, thanks to this film, he receives an award at the International Exhibition of Figurative Arts of Paris. He then begins to shoot his most famous film: Battleship Potemkin. In 1929 he finishes editing October. During the following years he goes travelling to Europe and in 1930 he signs a contract with Paramount for the making of a film in Hollywood, but soon after the same film gets cancelled. In 1931 he begins shooting Que Via Mexico! but he will never finish it.
In 1934 he gets married to Pera Attaseva and holds courses of filmmaking and aestethics at the Institute of Cinema in Moscow. In 1937 he begins shooting Aleksander Nevsky, screened for the first time on the 23rd of November of the following year. In 1942 he begins the preparation of Ivan the Terrible and his first organic book on cinema is published in New York, titled The Film Sense. He returns to Moscow in 1934 to finish editing Ivan the Terrible: the first part of the film gets the Stalin Prize of First Class in 1946, but on the 4th of September of the same year the second part of the film is condemned by a resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. He dies of heart attack on the 10th of February 1948.
Press, Info, Booking:
Beppe Simone
beppe.simone@gmail.com
mobile: + 39 328 7040802
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Listen
La Musica / The Music:
Ambaradan (filastrocca degli esclusi e del mondo che verrà)
Sitting in Silence (vocals Gordon Gano - Violent Femmes)
Monferrina 2006
La Casa del Freddo
Sciopero
L'uomo Che Aveva Catturato il Senso del Tempo
I Bambini imitano i Grandi |
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