The "salotti musicali" (I prefer the diminutive Italian version to the grander French "Salon") always take place in the context of other art events, not out of modesty but as a choice: art as exchange, as reciprocal inspiration that transcends the visual, verbal or aural forms. Thank you to all the Chimera artists for hosting us.

The idea is to invite musicians who normally play "other" music, who have never performed together and sometimes not even met before the show.

The guidelines are loose, I suggest metaphors such as carpet weaving, where a main thread holds the whole together, a main narrative of motifs is added and then decorated and enriched by several people's manual and creative intervention.
Or I suggest colour palettes to be used in the creation of delicate and fragile musical patterns.
Or the idea of nomads who meet in an oasis, and sit down around the fire to tell each other stories from the far lands they visited.
We do it with sound and with attention to each other’s sensibilities.

I choose the musicians for these events in an alchemical way, as I feel, with nothing to prove it, that the resulting combination will be interesting and perhaps a pleasant surprise for musicians and audience alike.
The music is totally improvised and as such it doesn't 'work' every time, but it is always a worthwhile and unique experience.

In this I follow one of my own little chimeras, the idea that the combination of different human abilities can result in unexpected and surprising expressive forms of art (or artistic forms of expression?) and genuine creativity, sometimes starting a process of discovery and new friendships.
The element of accident and coincidence is important too, as it falls in a grander design, in that invisible thread that joins us all.
Placing the music in the context of other art work is a reason for inspiration and dialogue.

I dedicate my music to my wonderful son Joshua, a great little companion, just turned 12.
To my friend Annabelle and the inspiring depths in her paintings.
And to myself too, as a little celebration: after an operation to my left hand three years ago the doctors told me I would never play again, I am glad to prove them (at least partially) wrong.
Sometimes a chimera can be tamed or befriended too.

The musicians brave enough to accept my invitation tonight are:
Andrew Downs as Abigail Politely Decided Hammond Organ and loops - Davide Mantovani bass, percussion, breath synthesizer (EVI), Echoplex looper and Organic Drum Kit, with Ross Hughes sax, clarinet, flute, cavaquinho as Polaris - Richard Makin, reading from his book "Work in Process" - Giulio Risi keyboards - Rachel Musson sax - Saul Holding drums, percussions - Gianluca Lubona percussions – Renu Hossain tabla - Wendy Nieper voice - Pepe Arce guitar – and myself, Roberto Battista electric, acoustic, fretless, detuned and e-bowed guitars, toy keyboard and loops.