AN INTERVIEW TO MARK DRUSCO (The Voice of the Moon)
A.M. Mark Drusco: musician or composer?
A musician is basically a performer who often performs
someone else’s works. A composer is a creative author. So I’m a composer.
A.M. What’s your artist background?
I’m entirely a self-taught person. However, apart from the
other arts, talking about self-taught person in music it’s a misleading word,
because even now, in common opinion, music needs masters and pupils. It’s pretty
absurd, it’s like saying that Picasso would have needed a master to become
Picasso. No, I breathe music like Van Gogh breathes colours
A.M. How did the “Supernal Armony” project come up?
In 2011, when I was planning “Supernal Armony” -
Over-sensible Harmony - I left behind all about contemporary music because the
stabilised and levelled off harmony of pop music ,with its repetitive and tired
sonorities, and the impersonal, misleading and electronic technicisms of
cultured or avant-garde music weren't possible anymore. So “Supernal Armony”
was the project aimed to instil new impulse, new vibrations and new contents in
the XXI century music for the XXI century human being. To be more exact, a
project for a new man on a new Earth. “Supernal Armony” is harmony into the
Unknown, that forwards itself to a spiritual territory, whose sonorities
transcendent it, yet investigate and recall that. It’s not by chance that my
first CD is called “The Memory of the Unknown”. If my music can express much and
reach the magic centre of “Primordiality”, thus the man of this time will find
the way to rethink and re-join the " Being", the one that provides us a shelter:
the Earth. Only music can do that. 
A.M. In which musical context can we put it?
“Supernal Armony” is a new deal so it’s a forerunner.
A.M. What’s the source of your inspiration?
When an artist takes up the extreme challenge to create
something new, as a matter of course he’s alone in “the Solitude of the
Vastness”, and he can only draw inspiration from the energy of the Unknown that
surrounds him. That energy is for me the source of every creative impulse. My
tribute to the Unknown is also my reason of artist.
A.M. What do you mean by over-sensible harmony?
It’s an harmonic balance over the boundary, that is the
Unknown. It’s a balance which is the narration of inner adventures and the
sharing with the energy of the Primordiality. My music investigates the Unknown
but looks for the Primordiality. If I could ever achieve my aim, thus my harmony
would be “primordial”, that is “timeless and still in the heart of the time”.
Free from all ties but bound to the energy of the Eternity.
A.M. According to what criteria do you compose your tracks?
My music has got a vertical structure, on the contrary pop
music or experimental music are horizontal. Verticality and Horizontality are
antithetical. The first one creates vertical harmonies, where every note of an
instrument is vertically bound to that of other. Therefore, two instruments
don’t accompany on each other, but they proceed bound to the general harmony.
They face each other, they follow each other, they alternate each other, they
split each other and then find each other, but always in the same harmonic
context. The vertical music structure creates investigations, vibrations,
dialogues and narration similar to the words in literature. By contrast, the
horizontal
music structure – that of pop music, indeed – creates
melodies, apart from the intervals of solo instruments, and more often than not
instruments work as accompanists of the main one: the human voice. The limit of
pop music is just the voice, that is opposite instruments without any truly
harmonic bound, but voice rises in order to tell a human story, that has nothing
to do with instruments. You may say well to turn to the medieval vocal
polyphony, if you would like to raise voice like harmonic principle.
A.M. What are the instruments used and the sonorities of
your tracks?
The ancient instruments such as the harpsichord, the
theorbo, the viol. And then the strings: the violin, the viola, the cello and
the double bass. In my music the harpsichord describes the details of an
adventure into the Unknown, while the cello and the double bass, like inner
voice, tell the emotions of that adventure. The harpsichord along with the cello
– the perfect union – proceed vertically supporting each other, reflecting each
other, looking for each other, separating each other and finding each other just
like a love game. That’s why love and music are comparable. They’re much the
same in affections too. The shiver provided by an harmony is very close to the
pleasure taken by two lovers.
A.M. What’s the message sent by the notes of your music?
It’s an adventure tale of the soul. Something boundless and
yet long-lasting. Something like the conscious abandon along with a path not yet
walked. I compose music for humans who are fond of the Beauty of this Earth and
appreciate its aim: “love is the abandon of an aware smile which examines the
Beauty unconditionally”. I compose music for free men, for dreamers who know
that dreaming isn’t anything like the projection of a more authentic and
incommensurable reality of each firm and yet uncertain form of existence.
A.M. Could you define the originality of your research in
the contemporary music field?
I breathe music, it’s quite natural to find harmonies like
breathing. However, if you carry out research, music contrasts with you its own
endless energy of synthesis. And if you walk the path of the synthesis, I mean
the way of the universal harmony, at all costs you can’t agree anymore with the
concept of originality, that is of stylistic research end on itself. And then
I’m so ancient that I seem new, and I’m so new that I seem ancient. Perhaps,
that’s my originality.
A.M. What’s the difference between composition and
improvisation?
None, if we talk about creation of music. Improvisation is
always the beginning of every “inspiration”. Sometimes you make a mess with
notes and you end to reach the sublime, though.
A.M. What’s the relationship between music and poetry?
Music and poetry share the abandon. Without any total
abandon you can’t love and create.
A.M. Is there a meeting point between “Supernal Armony” and
the record market?
“Supernal Armony” is a music and publishing collection by
Rupe Mutevole Edizioni. It’s an innovative project, you may say, as each CD will
contain music and short literary works, these ones in booklet format. Num. 1,
“The Memory of the Unknown” is already available and has got 10 tracks of mine -
however, we wish we could insert music made up by other contemporary composers
as soon as we can, with whom I share the music path of Supernal Armony – and
the first part of “The Way of the Unknown”, by Haria, an
extraordinary writer and shaman.
The CD can be purchased at:
http://www.reteimprese.it/pro_A40124B185890
