Aquarello was a musical group which blended

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

and jazz. The trio included keyboardist

Hans-Joachim Roedelius Hans-Joachim Roedelius (born 26 October 1934) is a German electronic music, electronic musician and composer, known as a co-founder of the influential 'kosmische musik, kosmische' groups Cluster (band), Cluster and Harmonia (band), Harmonia. He ...

, based in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and two

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

musicians, multi-instrumentalist Fabio Capanni, and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Nicola Alesini. They were active between 1991 and 1998, recording and releasing three albums.

Overview

Core members

(1991–1998) * Fabio Capanni (1991–1998) * Nicola Alesini (1991–1998)

Collaborators

*Arlo Bigazzi - recorder, bass guitar, nature sounds, mixing. Producer. (1992) *Laszlo von Ramhorst - percussion, bass, keyboards, harmonica, flute. (1993) *Felix Jay - electric piano and keyboards. (1993)

History

The first Aquarello album, ''Friendly Game'', was released under the three artists' names but is listed as the debut Aquarello album in the discography on Roedelius' official website. Fabio Capanni played a wide variety of instruments on the album, including electric and acoustic

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, marranzano, and bouzuki. The trio were joined by Arlo Bigazzi on ''Friendly Game'', who in addition to serving as producer, played recorder and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

. He also co-wrote the song "Fiori" with Roedelius and Capanni and share arranger credits with the three members of Aquarello. ''Friendly Game'' was released by the

label Materiali Sonori in 1992. Their second album ''To Cover the Dark'', was their first release under the Aquarello name. It was released in 1993 on the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Deep Wave label, the trio were joined by multi-instrumentalist Laszlo von Ramhorst and keyboardist Felix Jay. von Ramhorst played

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

, bass, keyboards,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

, and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

on the album. Aquarello's third, eponymous album was released in 1998 on the U.K.-based All Saints label. It was the only album on which just the trio played with no additional musicians collaborating. 12 of the 14 tracks were recorded live at the Visual Music Festival VI in

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

and most of this material are live versions of pieces which appeared on the first two albums.

Discography

*1992 : ''

Friendly Game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

'' (studio album, as Roedelius, Capanni, Alesini) *1993 : '' To Cover The Dark'' (studio album) *1998 : '' Aquarello'' (live album)

Notes

References

*Alesini, Nicol
MySpace: Nicola Alesini - IT - Jazz/Ambient
*CD liner notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Aquarello Musical groups established in 1991 Italian jazz ensembles 1991 establishments in Italy Italian jazz musicians