GIOVANNI
The world without photography will be meaningless to us if there is no light and color, which opens up our minds and expresses passion.
After having had the great fortune of meeting my soulmate and sharing an immense and wonderful love, I wanted to transform the cruelty of having lost him, beyond the promise I made to my husband, into beauty, by giving life to this project, as our story deserved, and so that sorrow would not prevail.
I thank from the bottom of my heart all those who contributed their knowledge and kindness to this tribute, a first step toward publishing my beloved Giovanni’s music!
Pierre Fuchs (Luxembourg), by my side from the start, faithful to his promise to my husband and who did incredible and meticulous work as a sound engineer and without whom I would never have been able to publish all of Giovanni’s music solo!
Guillermo Cides (Argentina-Spain, Catalonia), who restored and brought certain bass songs back to life, but also with the Chapman Stick, like Per Sempre, for which he also agreed to co-compose on a basis found on the “ideas” MiniDiscs of Giovanni, adding a beautiful guitar part and, finally, by restoring the Pareidolia album! Indeed, who better than a master of the Chapman Stick, Giovanni’s music could have!
Rafael Perera (Brazil-Luxembourg), who agreed to be part of this adventure by sharing with me his incredible talent in creating sublime montages of my travel images for Eccentricità Orbitale and for the trailer of this website. His kindness and generosity are invaluable, especially since we had only just met and he had never met Giovanni!
Daniele Camisasca (Italy, Aosta Valley), photograph of great talent who offer me his incredible and enchanting “bird flight” by drone on Dérives sensorielles, Atropine! (soon online) And with which we still have plenty of other projects to accompany Giovanni’s music!
https://www.instagram.com/camisascadaniele/?hl=it
Fabio Mangione (Italy, Sicily), who agreed, with great simplicity, to contribute to this project with his very beautiful photos of Etna erupting, taken by night (publication to come in the next video montages).
Giovanni Oddi (Italy-Malta), the great friend of my Giovanni, who made a wonderful translation of “Quel che importa” into English and reread all the Italian texts translated into English, with all the love he had for Giovanni!
Rossana Valentini (Italy-Luxembourg), who made a Bellissima translation of Letters to Uchronia in her beautiful garden one summer afternoon and proved to be a valuable proofreader of all the texts in Italian.
Allen Stevens and Ekaterina Dimcheva, (England-Bulgaria-Belgium), for their generosity with in immediately agreeing to participate in this project under Ekaterina’s guidance who introduced me to her husband, Allen Stevens, to make this beautiful translation of Letters to Uchronia, a precious text for me because it was addressed to my husband, and also because it was the first realization of this project.
Luca Vittori (Italy), musician, childhood friend who wrote this magnificent text about Giovanni, his friend and musician (see Home, From Luca Vittori), and thanks to whom I discovered Quel che importa!
Giancarlo Mei (Italy), childhood friend who had the wonderful idea of republishing 2 years later the text written by Luca Vittori the day after Giovanni’s death, and which I had not been able to read in 2020.
Matteo “Molecola” Di Marcobernardino (Italy), thanks to whose work today we can listen to “Quel che importa” composed by Giovanni, when he was just 25 years old!
Patricia Lippert (Luxembourg), for her loyalty!
https://www.patricialippert.eu/
Guillermo Maciel (Mexico), musician whom we never met, but who offered his time to exchange different messages (from which the one you can read on the home page is extracted) which all contributed to helping me to start the year 2023!
Noah Kohn (Luxembourg), who took with friendship, at the request of Giovanni himself because he believed in his talent, the very beautiful photograph of the cover of ‘Letters from Uchronia’!
Eric Bassin (France-Luxembourg), who reread the French versions, with his beautiful eyes from which nothing escapes!
Francesca Di Legge and Alfonso Giuliani (Italy-France), who reread all the texts in Italian with great attention and friendship!
Federica Pasca and her sweet mother Anna Fornaciari (Italy-Luxembourg), for their rereading of my first translation of Letters to Uchronia!
Rachel Steiner (France-Luxembourg), who did a magnificent rereading of the translation of Luca Vittori’s text.
Carles Fernández Lloret (Spain, Catalonia), who reread with friendship the French translation of the text by Guillermo Maciel.
Maria Pia Montobbio (Spain, Catalonia-Luxembourg), who made room for me in a tight schedule and reread with the greatest attention and much friendship the Italian translation of Guillermo Maciel’s text.
Anne Exbrayat (Belgium-Luxembourg), thanks to whom I was able to meet Rossana Valentini!
‘Poldo’ Paolo Aghemo (Italy), alpine guide, met on Etna who introduced me to the Camisasca family.
All those with whom I spent beautiful moments in the immensity of their superb corner of the Earth:
* The guides of Etna North (Italy) or Sons of the Volcano, with a special thought for Vincenzo Greco.
https://guidevulcanologicheetna.it
* Raija for his kindness her warm welcome in her beautiful house in Ivalo, in Finnish Lapland.
* Sofia Vasquez for her good humor between Chile and Bolivia.
* Mauricio Orellana who made us laugh so much at the Salar d’Atacama (Chile) to the Bolivian border.
* Jaime, who you can see in the photo above, and who was a tireless player and wonderful guide of the Uyuni Salar, in Bolivia.
* Oyunaa and Gamba, with whom I made a dazzling crossing on foot of the vast steppes and Khangai mountains of the Orkhon Valley, in Mongolia.
* All the nomadic families of Khangai who welcomed us with great hospitality in their beautiful yurts and delighted us with their delicious dairy products.
* Abdel and the Bedouins with whom we made a fantastic walk-crossing of Wadi-Rum, the Rainbow Valley, to Petra.
* Youssef, the king of dishes designed like works of art, in the middle of Wadi-Rum desert, Jordan.
* Mani, the Tuareg with a heart of gold, “free man” as he wrote it in the sand in tamasheq, who offered us a wonderful tour, a week’s walk, of the breathtaking and magical Tassili n’Ajjer (Sahara), in Algeria!
Spacer Design, (graphic design) for making me such a beautiful website!
spacerdesign.com
"I have always been fascinated by the idea of "being an instrument", like a brush dipped in color that is used by a painter moved by that natural energy that creates shapes, cosmic geometric balances, always in harmony with the immortality of the universe.
Mick Karn once told me that music is the only art without a specific form. Only us with the instrument we play can give it shape. Then it doesn't matter if people like what you do. The important thing is that it is authentic.
I began studying context rather than music theory as a boy. I realized that I had to rely on what made me resonate with the "vibrational whole" to rebuild emotional networks through the power of a universal language.
There was a great musical ferment in Ascoli Piceno between the mid-80s and 90s, which then produced, above all, nationally renowned bassists such as my friends Mario Guarini and Roberto Pascucci, or the very famous Saturnino Celani but also the pianist and composer Giovanni Allevi, with whom I had the honor of sharing some musical projects."
Giovanni.
"Giovanni Cognoli was born on September 13, 1968 in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, between sea and mountain, the same Friday when Pier Paolo Pasolini's film "Teorema" was censured. Independent composer and musician, his favorite instruments are the electric bass, whose potential he explored from a very young age, and the Chapman Stick, an innovative instrument rich in sound, which he was introduced to in the early 2000s by the musician Virginia Splendore.
Active in the recording industry since the early nineties, Giovanni Cognoli always remains faithful to his primary aim of creating something artistically significant as a priority, regardless of the commercial results which he has always considered, ultimately, to be not essential.
The study and influence of the ambient and minimalist music of Brian Eno, Steve Reich and the initiatory music of David Sylvian and Robert Fripp and, above all, the meeting with the bassist Mick Karn contributed to early directing his stylistic research in the field of instrumental and experimental music.
His spectrum as a solo musician is, in short, that of a predominantly fretless and piccolo bassist with the use of tapping, and various effects rich in sublime colours - an epigon of looping since the 90s (#1) - with melodic lines and jazz chords and with ambient atmospheres, even if his music is essentially unclassifiable."
His wife, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli:
#1: Some of which were recorded live, which allowed him to have different musical layers when performing a composition solo.
Your music is like a protective shell, while having the lightness of a beautiful iridescent soap bubble similar to those we loved to play with as children, and into which I slipped when you died. Your sense of humor brightened our daily lives. We gave names to lots of things and I also had different names for you, when you simply called me « mon Amour ». You were, in turn, « mia Bellezza » or « ma Beauté » (my Beauty) and you told me then that you had never before been called "botte", « barrel » in italian, or even « mon Tout Beau » (my All Beautiful), “tubo” meaning « pipe » ;)
On October 24, 2020, cancer, as a result of ocular melanoma, ripped my Giovanni, but it could not take away our love, now his music which supported me to face a world without him. So, I started going out only with an mp3 player to be able listen to the recordings I had made during his concerts and they encouraged my in my every step! Then, I had the feeling that through his compositions, he was always with me, until, gradually, he was inside me.
A few hours before that fateful moment on the morning of October 24, I told him: “Your music will live on! » and this promise evolved into «Regarde avec mes yeux » (#1), title of one of the 6 albums and of the musical biography, to discover some of his pieces against a background of images of places he loved or would have liked to see (#2) which have in common a minimal environmental impact, on our earth, because they are sparsely populated.
So, while listening to his music and making it sound in different parts of the planet, I went to meet Sami in Lapland, indigenous people in the heights of the Bolivian Andes, nomads from the steppes of the valley of Orkhon in Mongolia, Bedouins in Wadi Rum, Jordan, and Tuaregs in Tassili, Algeria, I drew incredible energy from all these places and I rubbed shoulders with women and men who gave me, in turn, the strength to continue and keep my promise alive!
Etna which gave me the photos of several covers of its albums, and where I made numerous excursions with volcanologist guides (#3), those whom I call the “sons of the volcano”, because they were all born on Etna, has become a precious refuge where I can gain height to metabolize the horrible reality that forever deprived me of my love. Malta, in the sea depths of which Etna is said to have been born, was my first trip. There, lives his great friend, another Giovanni, who accompanied us to during my husband's last days and thanks to whose support he was able to die at home.
«Eccentricità orbitale», was the first video montage produced, in October 2023, and the common thread of the images is the profusion of water, an essential element for life, with skies full of colors and light, like the music of my Giovanni!
His wife, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli
#1 “Looking through my eyes”, only title not given by Giovanni, with « Ci sei » (You are here), discovered after his death on his “idee” / ideas minidiscs.
#2 Filmed during my travels.
#3 Of Etna North : LINK
"Mi ha sempre affascinato l’idea di « essere strumento », come un pennello intinto nel colore che viene usato da un pittore mosso da quell’energia naturale che crea forme, equilibri geometrici cosmici, sempre in armonia con l’immortalità dell’universo.
Una volta, Mick Karn mi diceva che la musica è l’unica arte che non ha una forma specifica. Solo noi con lo strumento che suoniamo possiamo dargliela. Poi non importa se quello che fai piace. L’importante è che sia autentico.
Ho cominciato sin da ragazzo a studiare il contesto, piuttosto che la teoria musicale. Ho intuito che dovevo affidarmi a ciò che mi metteva in risonanza con «l’insieme vibrazionale» per poter ricostruire reti emotive attraverso il potere di un linguaggio universale.
C’era un bel fermento musicale inconsueto, ad Ascoli Piceno tra la metà degli anni 80 e 90, che ha prodotto, poi, soprattutto bassisti di fama nazionale come i miei amici Mario Guarini e Roberto Pascucci, o il famosissimo Saturnino Celani, ma anche il pianista e compositore Giovanni Allevi, con il quale ho avuto l’onore di condividere alcuni progetti musicali."
Giovanni
"Giovanni Cognoli nasce il 13 settembre 1968 ad Ascoli Piceno, in Italia, tra mare e montagna, lo stesso venerdì in cui veniva sequestrata la pellicola di Pier Paolo Pasolini “Teorema”. Compositore e musicista indipendente, i suoi strumenti prediletti, il basso elettrico, di cui ne esplora le sue potenzialità sin da giovanissimo ed il Chapman Stick, uno strumento innovativo ricco di sonorità, a cui viene iniziato nei primi anni 2000 dalla musicista Virginia Splendore. Attivo discograficamente sin dai primi anni novanta, Giovanni Cognoli rimane fedele al suo scopo di creare prioritariamente qualcosa di artisticamente significativo, a prescindere dai risultati commerciali che ha sempre ritenuto, in fondo, non indispensabili. Lo studio e l'influenza della musica ambient e minimalista di Brian Eno, Steve Reich ed iniziatica di David Sylvian e Robert Fripp, e soprattutto l’incontro con il bassista Mick Karn hanno contribuito ad indirizzare precocemente la sua ricerca stilistica, nell'ambito della musica strumentale e sperimentale.
Il suo spettro di musicista solo è, in somma sintesi, quello di un bassista prevalentemente fretless e piccolo con uso di tapping, ed effetti vari e ricchi di colori sublimi (epigono del looping sin dagli anni 90’ (#1) - con linee melodiche e accordi jazz e con atmosfere ambient, ciò che rende la sua musica sostanzialmente non classificabile."
Sua moglie, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli
#1: Alcuni dei quali sono stati registrati dal vivo, il che gli permetteva di avere diversi strati musicali durante l'esecuzione di un brano in solo.
"J'ai toujours été fasciné par l'idée "d'être un instrument", comme un pinceau trempé dans la couleur qu'utilise un peintre mû par cette énergie naturelle qui crée des formes, des équilibres géométriques cosmiques, toujours en harmonie avec l'immortalité de l'univers.
Mick Karn m'a dit un jour que la musique est le seul art qui n'a pas de forme spécifique. Seuls, nous, avec l'instrument dont nous jouons, pouvons la lui donner. Alors, peu importe si ce que tu fais, plaît. L'important est que ce soit authentique.
J'ai commencé à étudier le contexte plutôt que la théorie musicale quand j'étais très jeune. J'ai senti que je devais suivre ce qui me faisait entrer en résonance avec le « tout vibratoire » pour reconstruire des réseaux émotionnels grâce à la puissance d'un langage universel.
Il y avait un ferment musical insolite à Ascoli Piceno entre le milieu des années 80 et 90, qui produisait alors surtout des bassistes de renommée nationale comme mes amis Mario Guarini et Roberto Pascucci, ou le très célèbre Saturnino Celani, mais également le pianiste et compositeur Giovanni Allevi, avec qui j'ai eu l'honneur de partager quelques projets musicaux. "
Giovanni
"Giovanni Cognoli est né le 13 septembre 1968 à Ascoli Piceno, en Italie, entre mer et montagne, le vendredi où a été saisi le film « Teorema » de Pier Paolo Pasolini. Compositeur et musicien indépendant, ses instruments de prédilection sont la basse électrique, dont il a exploré le potentiel dès son plus jeune âge, et le Chapman Stick, un instrument innovant et riche en sonorité, auquel il a été initié au début des années 2000 par la musicienne Virginia Splendore.
Il publie régulièrement des disques depuis le début des années 90 et reste fidèle à son objectif de créer en priorité quelque chose de significatif sur le plan artistique, quels que soient les résultats commerciaux qu'il a toujours considérés, en fin de compte, comme non indispensables.
L'étude et l'influence de la musique ambient et minimaliste de Brian Eno, Steve Reich et initiatique de David Sylvian et Robert Fripp, et surtout la rencontre avec le bassiste Mick Karn ont contribué à orienter, très tôt, ses recherches stylistiques dans le domaine de la musique instrumentale et expérimentale.
Son spectre de musicien soliste est, en somme, celui d'un bassiste à dominante fretless et piccolo avec usage du tapping, et des effets divers et riches en couleurs sublimes (épigone du looping depuis les années 90(#1), avec des lignes mélodiques et accords jazz et avec des atmosphères ambient, même si sa musique est, dans le fond, difficilement classable."
Sa femme, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli
#1: Dont certains ont été enregistrés live, ce qui lui permettait d'avoir différentes strates musicales lors de l'interprétation d'un morceau en solo.
Ta musique est comme une coquille protectrice, tout en ayant la légèreté d’une belle bulle de savon irisée semblable à celles avec lesquelles on aimait jouer enfants, et dans laquelle je me suis glissée à ta mort. Ton sens de l'humour illuminait notre vie quotidienne. On donnait des noms à plein de choses et j’en avais aussi différents pour toi, quand tu m’appelais simplement « mon Amour ». Tu étais, tour à tour, « mia Bellezza » ou « ma Beauté » et tu me disais, alors, que l’on ne t’avait jamais avant appelé « botte », « baril » en italien, ou encore « mon Tout Beau », « tubo » qui signifie « tuyau » ;)
Le 24 octobre 2020, le cancer, consécutif à un mélanome oculaire, m’a arraché mon Giovanni, mais il n’a pas pu me retirer notre amour, ni sa musique qui m’a soutenue pour affronter un monde sans lui. J'ai ainsi commencé à ne sortir que munie d’un lecteur mp3 pour pouvoir écouter les enregistrements que j’avais faits durant ses concerts et ils encourageaient chacun de mes pas! Alors, j'ai eu le sentiment qu'à travers ses compositions, il était toujours avec moi, jusqu'à ce que, progressivement, il soit en moi.
Quelques heures avant ce moment fatidique de la matinée du 24 octobre, je lui avais dit : « Ta musique vivra! » et cette promesse s’est muée en Regarde avec mes yeux (#1), titre d’un des six albums et de la biographie musicale, pour découvrir quelques-uns de ses morceaux sur fond d’images de lieux qu’il aimait ou aurait aimés voir (#2) et qui ont en commun un impact environnemental minime, sur notre terre, car peu peuplés.
Ainsi, tout en écoutant sa musique et en la faisant retentir en différents points de la planète, je suis allée à la rencontre de Samis en Laponie, d’indigènes dans les hauteurs des Andes boliviennes, de nomades des steppes de la vallée de l’Orkhon en Mongolie, de Bédouins dans le Wadi Rum, en Jordanie, et de Touaregs dans le Tassili n’Ajer, en Algérie, lieux dans lesquels j’ai puisé une incroyable énergie et où j’ai côtoyé des femmes et des hommes qui m’ont donné, à leur tour, la force de poursuivre et de faire vivre ma promesse!
L’Etna qui m’a offert les photos de plusieurs couvertures de ses albums, et où j’ai fait de nombreuses excursions avec des guides volcanologues (#3), ceux que j’appelle les « fils du volcan », parce que tous nés sur l’Etna, est aussi devenu un précieux refuge où prendre de la hauteur pour métaboliser l’horrible réalité qui m’a pour toujours privée de mon amour. Malte, dans les profondeurs marines desquelles serait né l’Etna, a été mon premier voyage. Là, vit son grand ami, un autre Giovanni, qui nous a accompagnés, chez nous, lors des derniers jours de mon mari et grâce au soutien duquel il a pu mourir à la maison.
« Eccentricità orbitale » a été le premier montage vidéo réalisé, en octobre 2023, et le fil conducteur des images est la profusion de l’eau, élément essentiel à la vie, avec des ciels plein de couleurs et de lumière, comme la musique de mon Giovanni!
Sa femme, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli
#1 Seul titre qui n’ait pas été donné par Giovanni, avec « Ci sei » découvert après sa mort sur ses minidiscs « idee » / idées
#2 Filmés au cours de mes voyages.
#3 Ceux de l’Etna Nord : LINK
La tua musica è come un guscio protettivo, pur avendo la leggerezza di una bellissima bolla di sapone iridescente simile a quelle con cui amavamo giocare da bambini, e nella quale mi sono infilata quando sei morto. Il tuo senso dell'umorismo illuminava la nostra vita quotidiana. Davamo nomi a tantissime cose e anche io avevo nomi diversi per te, quando mi chiamavi semplicemente “Mon Amour”. Eri, a tua volta, "mia Bellezza" o « ma Beauté » e mi dicesti, allora, che mai prima d'ora ti avevano chiamato "botte", e nemmeno "mon Tout Beau " (Il mio tutto Bello), "tubo" ;)
Il 24 ottobre 2020 il cancro, conseguenza di un melanoma oculare, ha rapito il mio Giovanni, ma non poteva portarmi via il nostro amore, né la sua musica che mi ha sostenuto nell’affrontare un mondo senza di lui. Così ho iniziato ad uscire solo con un lettore mp3 per poter ascoltare le registrazioni che avevo fatto durante i suoi concerti che incoraggiavano ogni mio passo! Ho avuto subito la sensazione che attraverso le sue composizioni lui fosse sempre con me, finché, poco a poco, l’ho sentito dentro di me.
Poche ore prima di quel fatidico momento, la mattina del 24 ottobre, gli dissi: “La tua musica continuerà a vivere! » e questa promessa si è tradotta in “Regarde avec mes yeux » (#1), titolo di uno dei 6 album e della biografia musicale, per scoprire alcuni suoi brani sullo sfondo di immagini di luoghi che amava o avrebbe voluto vedere (#2) e che hanno in comune un impatto ambientale minimo, sulla nostra terra, perché scarsamente popolati.
Perciò, ascoltando la sua musica e facendola risuonare in diverse parte del pianeta, sono andata ad incontrare i Sami in Lapponia, gli indigeni sulle alture delle Ande boliviane, i nomadi delle steppe della valle dell'Orkhon in Mongolia, i beduini nel Wadi Rum, in Giordania, ed i Tuareg nel Tassili, in Algeria, luoghi da cui ho tratto un'energia incredibile e dove sono stata a contatto con donne e uomini che mi hanno dato, a loro volta, la forza per continuare e mantenere viva la mia promessa!
L’Etna, che mi ha regalato le foto di diverse copertine dei suoi album, e dove ho fatto numerose escursioni con delle guide vulcanologiche (#3), quelli che io chiamo i “figli del vulcano”, perché sono nati tutti sull’Etna, è diventato anche un rifugio prezioso dove poter guadagnare quota per metabolizzare l'orribile realtà che mi ha privato per sempre del mio amore. Malta, nelle cui profondità marine sarebbe nato l'Etna, è stato il mio primo viaggio. Lì, vive il suo grande amico, un altro Giovanni, che ci ha accompagnati negli ultimi giorni di mio marito e grazie al cui sostegno, egli ha potuto morire a casa.
“Eccentricità orbitale” è stato il primo montaggio video prodotto, nell’ottobre del 2023, e il filo conduttore delle immagini è la ricchezza d’acqua, elemento essenziale per la vita, con cieli pieni di colori e luce, simili alla musica del mio Giovanni!
Sua moglie, Bénédicte Postel-Cognoli
#1 Titolo non dato da Giovanni stesso, con « Ci sei », scoperto dopo la sua morte sui suoi minidiscs “idee”.
#2 Riprese durante i miei viaggi.
#3 Quelli dell'Etna Nord : LINK