Touch Wood Antonio Forcione Quartet
Album info
Album-Release:
2000
HRA-Release:
11.10.2011
Album including Album cover Booklet (PDF)
- 1 Touch Wood 03:36
- 2 Tarantella 05:16
- 3 Mirror Mirror 02:24
- 4 Alhambra 07:56
- 5 Sunstep 05:42
- 6 Gigolo 04:15
- 7 Tango Suite/Libertango 07:08
- 8 For Vic 04:52
- 9 Watercolour 01:50
- 10 Nostalgia 06:28
- 11 Scrambled Eggs 04:24
- 12 Mirror 02:15
Info for Touch Wood
Touch Wood develops themes touched on in previous recordings, resulting in an album that is inspired as much by Italian folk music and Pat Metheny as it is by Brazilian, Spanish and Cuban music.
Antonio has spent the last two years perfecting the set and performing live with his new quartet. The three musicians with whom Antonio has chosen to work bring another dimension to this album, and the benefits of their close working relationship are very noticeable. Jenny Adejayan on cello, Adriano Pinto on percussion and Giorgio Serci on guitar make up Antonio's quartet, accompanying him on twelve and six string guitars and his custom-made, fretless Uddan.
Sabina Sciubba, who recorded once before with Antonio for the Naim Label, makes a special guest appearance on Touch Wood. Their album 'Meet Me In London' met with great critical acclaim. They duet on 'Mirror Mirror', which was written by Antonio and Sabina.Touch Wood also features gypsy singer Diego el Cigala, rising star of the Spanish Flamenco scene.
Guitarist magazine pretty much summed it up when they described Acoustic Mania as 'two players intent on redefining all known laws concerning what is possible with two acoustic guitars'.
Antonio Forcione, 12/6-string guitar, fretless Uddan guitar, percussion
Jenny Adejayan, cello
Giorgio Serci, nylon string guitar
Adriano Pinto, percussion
Enzo Zirilli, cajón, percussion
Sabina Sciubba, vocals
Diego el Cigala, vocals
Bob Stuckey, strings
Matheus Nova, electric bass
Helder Pac, congas
Josue Ferreira, vocals
Hailed as the ‘Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar', award-winning Forcione is considered one of the most charismatic and inventive performers to come out of Europe in recent years. He breaks the mould of most conventional, popular guitar sounds be it in the field of jazz, Spanish, African, Brazilian or improvised music. International tours have brought high critical acclaim from as far as Australia and Hong Kong to Russia, the Caribbean, USA and all over Europe.
Born in Italy in a small village along the Adriatic coast, Antonio first drew public attention at 13 when he toured with his own band throughout Italy as a guitarist, mandolinist and drummer. He got a diploma in art and sculpture from the Art Institute in Ancona, and studied music in Rome (as well as mime) before moving to London in 1983 in search of greater inspiration.
Unable to speak English, he initially resorted to busking in the streets of London's Covent Garden, and within 2 months he had won an award which led to a BBC television appearance before being whisked off to open for the pop group Barclay James Harvest on a major European tour for over a total of 300,000, people culminating in a concert at Wembley Arena. He never looked back.
He has performed in festivals and theatres from as far as Australia and Indonesia to the USA, Canada, Caribbean, Turkey, Lebanon and all over Europe, especially in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. His festival appearances include Womad, Glastonbury, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Koln, Verona, Granada, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Singapore Arts Festival and the Machoire d'Or in Montreux amongst others, as well as most major International Guitar festivals.
Antonio's constantly innovative approach to life has also led him to explore the realm of music comedy performance resulting in invitations to perform at comedy festivals throughout the world. He has performed with other comedians such as Boothby Graffoe, Django Edwards, Stephen Frost, Tanderika and Ursus & Nadeschkin, acted as musical director and performer for the award winning trio Ole, and formed the duo ‘Acoustik Maniaks' with guitarist Neil Stacey, as well as appearing in variety shows as a Solo comedy artist.
Artistic, intense, and formidably inventive, Antonio is a performer of genuine distinction. Ever unpredictable, his is a celebration of the unexpected elements in life, music of rare delicacy, humour and, not least, passion.
Booklet for Touch Wood