As long as you come to my garden, the sixth release in the cherished Die Schachtel’s series “Decay Music” as well as the debut of the duo Damāvand (Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli) on our label, is a tribute to the Armenian troubadour Sayat Nova, through his lyrics and freely inspired by the cult movie about his life The Color of the Pomegranates (Nřan guynə, 1968, USSR) directed by Sergei Parajanov.
The feature film tells the life of the poet, who lived in the 17th Century, from childhood in the royal court, to retirement until his death in the monastery of Haghpat, through a series of episodes, static like paintings that do not tell but show, evoke, they suggest through metaphors, analogies, surrealist flair, dreamlike landscapes, liturgical pauses.
The six tracks are inspired by the dreamlike imagery contained in the movie, weaving sound textures ranging from ambient to noise, to references to the musical tradition of the Middle East.
Gianluca Ceccarini and Alessandro Ciccarelli alternate, without fixed roles, with analog synths, drones, amplified common objects, generative music, audio samples from the film and acoustic instruments such as the tar – a stringed instrument of Persian origin, the trombone and the cornet. In addition, two of the songs on the album contain Sayat Nova’s poems recited in Persian by Nahid Rezashateri.
The sound materials are revealed gradually like episodes, evoking the visual suggestions staged by Parajanov in the movie. As long as you come to my garden is intended as an imaginative journey to distant spaces and indefinite archaic times.
Hosted in the series signature cover, a silver-silkscreened deep black cardboard with an evocative photo (by the authors) of a mysterious semi-circular structure as the main image, on which the silkscreened clear plastic sleeve (another signature of the series) superimposes the “alchemic” custom lettering designed by Bruno Stucchi – dinamomilano, As long as you come to my garden is pressed on high quality heavy black vinyl in 300 copies, and may easily be one of the most exciting debuts not only on the Die Schachtel label, but on the entire landscape of the new creative Italian music.
DAMĀVAND is a musical project by Gianluca Ceccarini (electronics, electroacoustic objects, tar) and Alessandro Ciccarelli (electronics, electroacoustic objects, trombone, cornet)
Gianluca Ceccarini, guitarist, electroacoustic experimenter, luthier specialized in the restoration and construction of plucked musical instruments for early music. In 2021 his first album Starving Night was released for the netlabel Laverna and in 2022 the Sarab Label published a CD version. He also works in photographic research, video-art, graphics and independent publishing with the Sarab collective.
Alessandro Ciccarelli is an author who ranges between different languages: photography, video, sound. He is involved in several collective research projects in the musical and theatrical fields. His solo records are released under the nom de plume Elnath Project.
released April 14, 2023
Composed and performed by Gianluca Ceccarini (electronics, electroacoustic objects, field recordings, tar), Alessandro Ciccarelli (electronics, electroacoustic objects, trumpet, cornet, trombone)
Vocals on tracks 1 and 6 by Nahid Rezashateri
Mixing La chambre d’Éliane
Mastering Andrea Marutti
Produced Fabio Carboni and Bruno Stucchi, Die Schachtel
Design and typography Bruno Stucchi, dinamomilano.com
Photography Gianluca Ceccarini, Alessandro Ciccarelli, Nahid Rezashateri