Rockerilla: 'Sculptures for voice and ideas'

AUGUST 2008

Rockerilla:

'Sculptures for voice and ideas'

On page 20, the interview conducted by Massimo Marchini:

Just by chance I came across the work of a young Neapolitan singer who struck me deeply with the clarity and purity of the intentions of her noble and culturally dense project. Her voice is extraordinary to the point of having won her the Demetrio Stratos award and Romina draws inspiration from the late singer of Area and her research into her voice, as well as from the work of the brilliant lady of the night, Diaman-da Galas.

Romina, tell us about how you approached music and how this, I imagine, evolved into such a courageous approach.

«I approached music with my body, as a child, without any prior

knowledge in the strictly musical field. I studied classical dance from the age of 6 to 14, then classical guitar until I was 18. But dance, in particular, influenced the evolution of my language at an objective analysis of my path, during which I gradually deepened the "voice -body”, "the body that gives itself voice", the "voice-action", to be and to say of being. These words are loaded with meanings, concepts and senses, leading my experience to the modes of creation, production and representation that characterize the current work: Aisthânomai, the drama of consciousness. The very word "courage" indicates a quality-condition at the level of status of the person in a homogenizing social context, for which individuality has and displays the strength to come out into the open.»

What were (and are) your main influences.

«Diamanda Galas and Demetrio Stratos, Fédor Dostoevsky and Marcel Proust, Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze. Jusepe De Ribera and Francis Bacon, David Lynch and Michelangelo Antonioni."»

Crazy and desperate studying. I imagine that to arrive at the technical and cultural results of your Aisthanomai you spit blood...

«For some time I was able to study my voice, free it and make it sound starting from the theoretical and practical assumptions of the Stratosian lesson, which was followed by an individual development on the levels of perception and knowledge of consciousness in the field of art (I am referring to etymology of the Greek term Aisthanomai) which merged into "putting on record". When I talk about art, I mean: creating. I am not referring to the sectors - painting, music, theatre, poetry - which I rather call "mediums". The "technical and cultural results" of my speech, along their line of development, are in reality solid assumptions: my conception of the sectors of the artistic world as means of interdisciplinary creation rests on a basic awareness deduced from studies of methodology and criticism of art finished with a thesis entitled *the place of music in audiovision", an abstract of which is currently being published".»

As in the case of many works by Galas, there is a singular depth also in the lyrical-conceptual work of your latest album, Aisthànomai. Can you tell us about it?

«For me, "lyrism" indicates a condition of "singular subjectivism" that finds its ideal dimension in performative and interpretative practice: the body-creator that expands its energies to infuse other layers of thought and sensation. However, it is an "intersubjective communication": on the one hand the subject exponent of his own research (I) on the processes of perception and the tools of knowledge, intuition as well as reasoning, which is aimed at the emotional and cognitive reception of others, in terms of necessity: on the other, the receiving, user and thinking subject (the listener and/or spectator) who problematizes.

I address the people who listen to me as individuals, single consciences, as an investigating and searching subject.

From the point of view of singing in the strict sense and of known techniques, in fact, "lyrical" is a territory that I tackle within a system full of contaminations.»

Tell me about your concerts. Can you create your own textures live? «The album and the performances are different territories, areas of expansion of my work with different characters and functions. From a strictly musical (electronic) point of view. working at the level of perception and sensation, the technical aspect and the audio diffusion parameters take on great importance. Listening to the recorded work is unparalleled, if you think about the possibility of touching the sounds given by a pair of headphones, where every movement of each sound can be clearly perceived on a spatial level.

For this reason, the ideal environment for my performances is circular or square, with quadraphonic diffusion, to give the listener the opportunity to perceive the movements of the sound."»

Where can your records be found?

«My work is currently sold and distributed by CdBaby for both buyers and resellers. More information was released in a press release.»