S17 E5: Massimo Pupillo

In the last few 6 or 7 years – and bear with me here - I’ve become much more interested in the nature of the relationship between humans and other species, forces or whatever – animals, birds, trees, plants, the elements… nature, I guess. I think the genesis was when I listened to a conversation with the novelist Richard Powers and he was talking about his book The Overstory and how we should think of ourselves as being part of life itself, not think of living in terms of “our life” – a subtle distinction – but his conclusion was that it would help us all live more harmoniously. But the human obsession with domination, together with our selfishness I guess - and we’re going back centuries here – has led us down a very different path where anything non-human is deemed as being there to serve us. That doesn’t make any sense to me, it just feels destructive. It also made me think of our relationship with our senses – hearing, seeing, smell, taste and touch and, as hearing is the first sense that we experience in the womb, about how we listen to music – is it about pleasurable listening or is there more? Should we be going back further into times past to re-evaluate our relationship with sound? When I think of Guido of Arezzo, the monk who first started creating “music” by plotting notes on a page, was that when music first became objectified as a score on a piece of paper, almost imprisoned on the page? Should music really be more about a creative act of improvisation where it shapeshifts and changes each time you perform it? Is that how it keeps its energy? How do we listen with more intention? I’m getting to the point, you’ll be glad to know! OK, well, Massimo Pupillo has just unleashed an absolute beast of a record with his band Zu. It’s called Ferrum Sidereum (cosmic iron – yes, it sounds better in Latin) and it’s one of the most phenomenal pieces of music that I’ve heard in a long time. One hour 20 minutes of incredible energy that bridges that gap between its creators, the vitality and energy of the natural world and me the listener. I once read music described as “our umbilical cord to mother nature”. This record feels like that. https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently. Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives. - brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™ - cover art by Giles Sibbald - doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste