This episode of Outer Travel, Inner Journey, is a love story– of a dedicated and soulful musician’s love affair with his instruments.
Meet Antonio Alemanno. He is a multi-instrumentalist and composer who has traveled here and there discovering the language that speaks his soul– MUSIC.
His journey started exploring the distinctive, bright, and powerful sound of charango. It’s a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family that produced the Motorcycle Diaries movie’s popular music. Antonio learned the charango and transcribed more than ten songs from a composer from Buenos Aires, whom he met and heard the stories behind the songs from. It was at this moment that Antonio became acquainted with the nuances of music. The stories and emotions behind it may be very emotional and intense but one could not necessarily hear that from the songs. Stories could drift away from the instrument, like how he didn’t connect with the charango stories.
So Antonio’s journey discovered the respective translation of an instrument’s and music’s tradition into new contexts and its practical use as a language of the soul. He and Alex delved into a productive discussion of contentious narratives around this. To him, art, like a human soul, has an inner journey and an outer story expressed in it. He explains that putting music in a different context does not necessarily remove its sacredness; it depends on what you do with it.
While learning the Oud, an Arabic lute, Antonio finally unraveled the secret to learning and speaking with music. The Oud was a delicate instrument to learn, but he just went on, tried, and took the challenge.
With the help of one of his teachers, Antonio has opened the gate to learning by surrendering to the instrument. Playing and composing came out naturally from him because he was learning from the instrument in much the same way that the instrument is learning and feeling what his soul speaks of. To him, it was the realization of ‘bringing something in a different context with full respect to the tradition’.
Links mention in the podcast
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Podcast Highlights
- The instrument has a life in itself and it can teach you. In one of my classes, my teacher said, I am not letting go– like I am putting too much where it needs very little. It was like a gate opener. It revealed a lot to me. An instrument is on its own, but how you relate to it makes you one with it. If you blend with it, music becomes your language. – Antonio Alemanno
- Music is vibration. What I learned from Yoga and now reaffirming with you is the art of surrendering. Instead of trying to control something, let the music and the instrument teach you. Hear each other’s language. Each one is teaching each one. – Alexandra Kreis
- The inner voice may not always be right. But how do you know? Truth can be so relative and individual at times. Observe where truth resonates more and follow those vibrations. – Antonio Alemanno
- Antonio’s Superpower Wish: Getting the green on the traffic light. Will power. When faced with a challenge, my will power gets shaken too. In yoga and music, it’s about listening. It’s about relating to your inner voice and intuition. At the end of the day, you will have to find a compromise. It’s not easy, but if you have a strong feeling about something, try it. Do it. – Antonio Alemanno
- Will power can be so easily abused and misperceived. But the beauty of will power, combined with intuition gets you good results. People can say what they want, but you’ll know what is true and you’re going to make it true for you. – Alexandra Kreis
Guest BIO
Antonio Alemanno, from Italy, has been traveling here and there; wherever his calling is bringing him. He is a professionally trained multi-instrumentalist (double bass, cello, oud, charango, frame drums, electronics) and composer, graduated at Sibelius Academy in Global Music (MA) Helsinki, Finland. He has developed a distinctive rhythmical and melodic approach, in which he borrows and blends the different colors and nuances of the instruments he plays. He is also a Hatha yoga teacher and practitioner.
