Can a steel cable of 16 mm diameter, sixty meters long be played like an instrument? Yes, it can! Trk#1 is a theatrical show, a choreography on a cable, and a concert given with the longest string ever played in the world.
Trk #1 comes from Andrea Loreni and Tiziano Scali’s wish to carry on the research for a project started a few years earlier.
So that four extraordinary musicians, with extraordinarily diverse backgrounds, are involved in it (Julia Kent: cello, Raffaele Rebaudengo: viola , Federico Fantuz and Bernardo Russo: guitars).
Two guitars, a viola, a cello and a steel cable with a diameter of 16 mm: twenty-one strings. Twenty-one strings vibrating to play the fear of the unknown, the anger, the loneliness, the rebellion and the loss of the tightrope walker’s self. Twenty-one strings vibrating to break down the barrier, searching for the light.
At first it is just the dialogue between the tightrope walker and the void. A dialogue made of silences and inaudible noises, ampli fied by the sensitivity created by the height, the risk, and the concentration which takes form in the air through the simple return of the sound produced by the movement and swing of the taut rope. The cable – that we hear for the first time – returns the sounds of what the tightrope walker transmits to it as he walks on it. If he is nervous the cable will be nervous, if he can stay calm, the cable is calms down.
Then, an intangible and magical art evolves through improvising with musicians, electronics, and technology: the inner dialogue of the tightrope walker. The music is created by the movement and its interaction with the musicians. It is defined in a sort of continuous meeting, just like the balance of the tightrope walker: never still, never equal to itself.
In this show the emotions transmitted to the cable will be amplified and made audible to the public. The fear of facing the unknown will become a sonic opportunity, creating the inner soundtrack of the tightrope walker’s crossing.
