A life behind

Album info:

“Max and I recorded a couple of hours of completely improvised music on the evening of September 25, 2009. We recorded using drums (and some percussion) and an acoustic guitar. After that, we overdubbed the rest of the instruments, working on the arrangements and sound.”

“I played the bass (an old Eko), a Celtic harp, and my beloved (low-cost) Fender Telecaster (1985). Meanwhile, my brother recorded various percussion instruments, including a glockenspiel, water sounds, a zipper, a whistle, and even a few coughs and the creaking of a stool. Any noise generated during the session was included in the compositions.”

The project was born by chance during an afternoon jam session between two brothers, Max Pieri (drums) and Marco Pieri (guitar). They began by improvising freely and spontaneously, without anything planned or written. The outcome was so inspiring that they decided to turn it into a more structured and organized work.

A Life Behind is an experimental album, as the title suggests, encompassing all the musical knowledge accumulated by two experienced and successful musicians.

It is a journey through improvisation, evolving from a live improvised session with acoustic guitar and drums by Marco and Max Pieri.

“We have been playing together for a long time, and this project is a sort of ‘compendium’ of all those years spent searching for our own way of making music. It pushes the boundaries of creating music, allowing us to free our creativity in its purest form.”

The Pieri brothers gaze at us from the vintage black-and-white cover, not yet adolescents. Then we find them on the back, intent on playing, and inside, as adults—but in color. The images evoke the fairytale-like and dizzying sensation of a journey through time, one we know is real and not imaginary.
Marco and Max Pieri record here a free improvisation on acoustic guitar and drums, which they later enrich and complete through overdubs, filling what must have seemed like an incomplete recording. Frisell and Baron appear as clear stylistic references, and the two brothers are remarkable musicians. The frequent changes in rhythm and atmosphere in Romantic Demodè closely recall Zorn’s collage music, though without the same radicality and sense of risk.
What we have here are two extraordinarily talented musicians, with great refinement and mastery over dynamics, timbres, and atmospheres. However, what appears somewhat weak is the overall project—the compositional and narrative aspects. If this were a film, we might say: excellent cinematography, brilliant actors, but the direction and screenplay are not entirely satisfying.
Though the album seems born out of a strong desire to reunite and play together, at times we struggle to grasp the deeper musical meaning of the work. The quality of the original improvisation for acoustic guitar and drums—on which guitar, electric bass, Celtic harp, glockenspiel, percussion, and various noises were later overdubbed—has influenced the final result, for better or worse.
Far from being free or radical improvisers, CroMaxc instead move with great confidence and finesse in a realm that blends contemporary rock, film music, folk influences, echoes of broadly ancient music, and a constantly present jazz foundation. They may not lead us into unexplored worlds or always manage to move us (but how many other types of music can we say this about?), yet we are left admiring the high level of craftsmanship, their unwavering love for music and instruments (including the recording studio), which they handle skillfully and effortlessly.

Andrea Gaggero for Jazzitalia