La musica perfetta è quella che sai ascoltare | Dario Faini | TEDxTorino
[Music] by show of hands, how many of you here in the room think that here, to avoid being vulgar, I'll use a euphemism, think that today's pop music can be defined as laxative, very well, I do exactly that, those who do my job are called song writers in the worst sense of the term, since you raised your hand, pop writers, as far as I'm concerned, in recent years I've had the fortune of writing with other pure authors but also with other singer-songwriters of the so-called indie scene, some pages of repertoire for some interpreters of the contemporary Italian music scene, Luca Carboni, Marco Mengoni, Emma Fedex, Francesco Renga, Alessandra Amoroso and many others, but so in the end, this pop, I use two terms that even seem high-sounding: minimalism and globalization, I'll explain right away. Take any Spotify playlist, since we are in the streaming era, for example, the top 50 of different countries in the world, even distant from each other, you will notice something incredible: half of the songs on these playlists have the same chords, the same sounds and seem to be produced by the same producer, from another point of view, the maestro Ennio Morricone. Morricone in his latest wonderful book, chasing that sound, written with Arresting De Rosa, talks about consumer music using a language very similar to that of advertising, which tends to simplify the message as much as possible to sell the product in the shortest possible time. He uses some key words: brevity, repetitiveness, incisiveness. It is no coincidence that these are key words used in today's pop music. The brevity of the melodic chalk is repetitiveness, incisiveness. It is no coincidence that the refrain is the refrain that must be catchy and memorable. All in a reassuring, recognizable and never disturbing context from the point of view of us songwriters, pop writers, who therefore make music. We have it for others. This way of making music can be included in the large family of applied music, that is, music written for something else or more, in the jargon, music on commission. This is to distinguish it from absolute music, which is music that is born free on a creative level without purposes or destinations. Applied music, which has always been criticized. It is enough to go back to the end, for example, to the end of the nineteenth century in the French Belle Epoque, for example, Erik Satie, who became Erik Satie for his absolute music. At the same time, he wrote music on commission. commission for circus and cabaret and for this he was denigrated and ridiculed because the circus and cabaret were the lowest places of art but let's get back to us mere mortals I dare say normal I in my very small world always had an ethical and aesthetic dilemma about what and how much freedom I had on a creative level when I had to adapt to this fantastic world that is the amusement park of pop and therefore what is the difference between being an artist and being a craftsman here can you be free on a creative level in a place full of limits and above all if these limits are not there what is the perfect music for me I'll show you an image this is the cover of my latest album as a solo project dar dust it is exactly like how I see myself on the left the composer who writes behind the scenes in the darkness writes pop music for others on the right the restless composer always looking for new languages let it be clear I could have remained in the reassuring warmth of my studio to write songs no decided to undertake this mission this mission called d'arda this search for my absolute music to do this I went back a bit to discover my origins musical I remember very well one of the long afternoons when I lived in Ascoli Piceno I was a boy studying classical piano I remember that I was actually studying one of Baker's English suites which was exactly this one in a study break I remember I turned on the radio and for the first time listening to this a sort of epiphany the polyphonic complexity of the five voices of Barche against the minimalist seriality of a Kraftwerk arpeggiator and right from Kraftwerk's Düsseldorf to take the car well just to quote one of their records both the highway in German to arrive at the Berlin to the Berlin of the legendary trilogy by David Hogg and Brian Eno Loiero Selogie and then to discover the whole electronic scene it was the second one as well as in the following years in the 2000s to discover dream pop the show that until arriving at the Iceland the Iceland of this new musical language of Sigur Rós a language made of infinite spaces rarefied atmospheres where the angelic or alien voice of John finds its place finds its space it is really from That afternoon my questions began that led me years later to go to that Berlin and that Reykjavik that I had imagined and dreamed of listening to the records and this to find my creative freedom I decided that it will have taken three records to have just to have the trip of my personal trilogy one for each city one in Berlin sea keys that the third is not the subject of discussion here because it will happen soon we will go to London I put together a team of friends creative friends we braved the cold of Iceland the spaces these infinite spaces made of earth lava and ice this then to go to the studio to record to write the music the same in Berlin we we savored golden I would say the multiethnic smells of the neighborhood of us with and then listen to the industrial echo of the suburbs of Berlin and then all this to be inspired and write find a new musical language here to put together all these pieces of the puzzle what were my musical origins so distant from each other I approached a concept that I find wonderful and unique which is the concept of incongruity when I was 10 At 9 years old, I moved from Ascoli Piceno to Rome to study psychology. I knew it wouldn't be my path, so I decided to start research for my thesis in the psychology of musical listening, which was what interested me. According to this discipline, one of the fundamental fulcrums of listening to the experience of listening to music is precisely that of expectation linked to attention. I'll explain without going into technicalities. For example, it can happen that while listening to music there is a starting point that can be this one and then take a nice walk and so you can go here. You can go here. When you reach a chord like this, a chord like this which has a physical and mathematical tension that your body physically, but I dare say also unconsciously, recognizes, is created and the expectation where this walk will end. And so it happens. This walk ended where we expected. But it can happen, for example, that something we don't expect happens. For example, moving from harmony to the piano of dynamics, we take a walk with an album from a very delicate intro, a detached pianissimo of strings, a forte orchestral arrives. It is no coincidence that it is called the surprise. From this harmony we find ourselves in an unexpected place which is that of novelty in the surprise and there is an encounter between Italy and incongruity that the composer but all artists can use to create various effects, dramatic effect, grotesque effect, humorous effect. Incongruity is the most beautiful place where it will be the place where the brave love to venture where those who make the search for amazement but also the probability of failure their strength. Here I am listening to the first single of dar das, my first, not within the very recognizable traditional piano. The left hand makes a movement which is the so-called Albertine bass. This electronic arpeggiator arrives which grows on a dynamic level until it becomes almost [Music] two totally different places, one much closer to that of classical music which, to quote another of my myths, evolved up until the early 1900s to be enjoyed in these concert halls where you sit still and listen with your head and electronic music which in the most well-known sense is enjoyed with the whole body. dancing, moving in the clubs, here I experienced these incongruities of mine to find the perfect music for me but I understood that obviously it wasn't the perfect music for others because for example for classical purists and it is banal ambient music for electronic music purists and too contaminated too for indy purists how can you be credible with a project like this if it comes from pop songs well I didn't listen to anyone I only listened to myself because the wonderful thing is that having visited these places that I told you about I found a new pool of creativity that improved me that I understood that if you are a place full of limits you can return to the places where you were free and be free learn to be free in a closed room that beyond one of a pro of a listening of a very cognitive and rational listening approach that based on your and the schemes and installment 1 science culture allows you to analyze the complexity of a song there is another level of listening which is the one where I want to be from the emotional one where the incongruities increase where the categories fall and above all where perfection does not exist and why then returning to we the perfect music does not exist the perfect music is the one you are listening thank you very much [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] already [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]