AdC

“Imagine the dynamics of life as depicted through sounds; or the contrasts you see in everyday life, expressed in light and colours. This is what many artists have tried to do in the past, and still try to do today, in their own language. This is what we try to do now, and will try to do tomorrow, in our own language. We just try to capture our daily impressions: no matter whether this is progressive rock or not” (Accordo dei Contrari, from an interview to Progarchives, February 2011).
Welcome to Accordo dei Contrari’s music. The band is actually a unit of four different persons, each with his life, experience and (sometimes opposite) viewpoints. This is the reason for the name Accordo dei Contrari, which is the band’s self-definition, meaning ‘Council of the Opposites’.
Accordo dei Contrari was formed in 2001 in Bologna, Italy, conceived as a vehicle for making original instrumental music. For three years they worked as a trio with Cristian Franchi on drums, Giovanni Parmeggiani on keyboards and Alessandro Pedrini on guitar. In 2003 Daniele Piccinini joined the band on bass, but soon Alessandro Pedrini departed. They became a quintet in January 2004 with Cristian Franchi on drums, Giovanni Parmeggiani on keyboards, Daniele Piccinini on bass, Marco Marzo on guitar and Vladimiro Cantaluppi on violin. After two years of rehearsals they understood that being a quintet was a simpleminded way of doing things. In 2006 Vladimiro Cantaluppi left the band, making the best choice at the worst time – just one month before recording. Paradoxically, Accordo dei Contrari, born to refuse to work as a quartet, recorded their very first work as a quartet (Cristian Franchi on drums, Giovanni Parmeggiani on keyboards, Daniele Piccinini on bass, Marco Marzo on guitar), and the album Kinesis was the result. With two days of live-recording in studio in June 2006, with short overdubs of violin and sax in October-November 2006, Kinesis (AltrOck 2007) was critically acclaimed and won the Progaward for the best Italian album of progressive rock in 2007.
Since 2007, they have focused their attention on improvisation, polyrhythms, and on playing together and interacting musically on stage: they wanted to grow up as a living rock group. They started playing some gigs during the period 2008-2009 in Europe (AltrOck festival in Milan, Italy; Progrésiste in Verviers, Belgium; Cheese Prog festival in Strasbourg, France; Gong festival in Parma, Italy; Freakshow Artrock festival in Würzburg, Germany) and worked on new compositions, both acustic and electric. They were engaged in 2010 for the prestigious NEARfest 2011 in Bethlehem, USA, before it was unfortunately cancelled. In the meanwhile, the started collaboration with Richard Sinclair (ex Caravan, Hatfield and the North, Camel).
They have recorded their second album, Kublai, in July 2010 at Mauro Pagani’s Officine Meccaniche, in Milan, and have now published it as a self-production in April 2011.