Aquarello was a musical group which blended

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It ...

and jazz. The trio included keyboardist

Hans-Joachim Roedelius Hans-Joachim Roedelius (born 26 October 1934) is a German electronic musician and composer, best known as a co-founder of the influential 'kosmische' groups Cluster and Harmonia. He also performed in the ambient jazz trio Aquarello, and rele ...

, based in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, and two Italian musicians, multi-instrumentalist

Fabio Capanni Fabio is a given name descended from Latin ''Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

, 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 Nicola may refer to: People * Nicola (name), including a list of people with the given name or, less commonly, the surname **Nicola (artist) or Nicoleta Alexandru, singer who represented Romania at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest * Nicola people, ...

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

Overview

Core members

(1991–1998) *

(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 fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

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

, 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 Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

. 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 Italian 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 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 beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, 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 in ...

, and flute 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 The visual system comprises the sensory organ (the eye) and parts of the central nervous system (the retina containing photoreceptor cells, the optic nerve, the optic tract and the visual cortex) which gives organisms the sense of sight (the a ...

VI in

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

Discography

*1992 : '' Friendly Game'' (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