Supports: Lapingra, Musica da Cucina; Venue: Circolo Degli artisti, Rome (Italy)
By: Lara Cappelli
Amiina is an Icelandic Post Rock band formed in 1996. Their second album “Puzzle” has been just released and Amiina reached Italy to promote it in four dates, one of those was in Rome.
| The first to open the night was Lapingra, a Rome-based “Minimalist/Alternative” band formed in 2007. When I first noticed that the stage was full of toys, I tried to convince myself they were all some kind of lucky mascots. I later proved myself wrong as those toys were actually the instruments Angela Tomassone and Paolo Testa used to play their music. I have to admit that the idea of basing music on animals’ cry that comes from an electronic kid toy might be creative and surely new. But if the whole audience starts laughing while you “tune” your instrument, I don’t really know how positive that sign is. I just wonder how they demand to be taken seriously. Anyway, Lapingra are about to release a new album later this year so we’ll see what comes out of it. |
| After Lapingra experience, the audience could handle anything that the night offered them. And so it was: a mini-stage was set up in the middle of the audience and from down there a guy asked the public’s attention. This guy, Fabio Bonelli, forms a band called Musica da Cucina (Kitchen Music) where the instruments used are, of course, kitchenware. Fabio makes a sporadic use of his voice and guitar, and bases his music on the sound of cutlery on plates, the whistle of kettle, the tinkling of glasses and so on. At some point I really got lost into his music, in the sense that I couldn’t get the point of it anymore. Then again, taking seriously a man who plays whisks and pans might turn out to be quite a challenge. Sure enough, Musica da Cucina had pretty much the same impact on the audience Lapingra had, and when the audience started to had enough of it, they approached the stage where Amiina were about to start playing. |
| The first thing that you notice while attending an Amiina concert, is their way of standing on the stage: despite the pretty serious kind of music they convey, they present themselves in a rather facetious manner that they keep with them even when facing different kinds of problems. This date wasn’t kissed by fortune indeed; firstly violinist Hildur Ársælsdóttir wasn’t able to join them for the whole tour. Secondly, the stage was full of every kind of instruments, from violins to gideon harps and musical saws, that made you wonder if some space was left to Amiina themselves at all. That made it very hard to move from one instrument to the other but still they kept smiling and maintaining the atmosphere well relaxed and spontaneous. Although their music isn’t to have a wide use of voice, all the members took their time to say something to the public and joke with it. The only fault of the show was the length of it: after just a one-hour-long show, the audience was craving for more so Amiina came back on stage to play the encore; that was actually “Ásinn”, the same song they played at the beginning of the show. Nevertheless, the concert has been a pleasant one, where the standing point was the professionality and versatility every member showed in playing all sorts of instruments. |
Links:
Lapingra MySpace
Musica da Cucina MySpace
Amiina MySpace
Amiina Official
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