Today we’d like to introduce you to Ludovica Manzo
Hi LUDOVICA, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Before I start let me just say that I’m very saddened by what’s happening in LA, and I really feel for it.
So I am a musician, and my first instrument is the voice. My research revolves around experimental electronic music, art pop, composition and improvisation.
It may sound strange, but I started by being quiet for a fair amount of time. As a teenager, I started going to listen to my friends in the rehearsal room in Naples. While they were playing, I would sit on a table and listen. Occasionally I would be asked to do some back vocals, but I would deny myself. Everything was too exciting, too emotionally strong, so much beauty that the voice wouldn’t come out. I can’t honestly say how I then got on stage, presented my music around the world and devoted so much time to my voice. Probably because something inside me knew that it was the only thing worth putting so much effort into in my life. So I studied jazz singing and electronic music at the Conservatory, ethnomusicology and music aesthetics at the University, and played with many groups of the most varied music.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing is simple…fortunately! In my case I believe that the greatest difficulties mostly belong to two categories. One internal and one external. One of the most difficult things when you do creative work and you want to bring it outward as your mark in the society in which you live is self-legitimation. Feeling entitled to express in complete freedom is a feeling that for me has been conquered over time, and it is always a new negotiation with myself. When I succeed it gives me deep joy and a profound feeling of wholeness but it is not always so easy. The other aspect has to do with how the society you live in sees your work. In Italy, where I live and have studied, creative work is not always sufficiently valued and legitimized. This has to do with the systems of support for culture, in terms of economic possibilities, and sometimes with the skills of those in positions of responsibility in this area.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work moves around the voice and its encounter with electronics and the experimentation of sound environments and musical forms. In recent years I have dedicated myself to projects that combine extemporaneous composition with the song form, a process that I have carried out with the duo O-Janà together with the electronic musician and pianist Alessandra Bossa. We recorded two albums, Inland Images (2018) and Animal Mother (2023), both on the independent label Folderol. We have been lucky enough to play in many countries, Norway, Portugal, Morocco, Canada, Hungary and many more. My research also converged in the audio/video performance Serpentine, for solo voice/electronics and live visuals, together with the visual artist Loredana Antonelli. Here I was able to explore the form of solo performance and the interaction with visual art. Playing with a 10 meters screen behind me is a fantastic experience for me, and the immersive dimension of a performance is something very fascinating. I have collaborated with many ensembles including the electroacoustic improvisation trio Acre, with whom we recorded the album Different Constellation (Aut Records, 2019), the Oeoas orchestra, born in Naples, made up of 100 improvisers from all over Italy, whose album Alicia was released in 2020, the folk/ambient trio Sinér, the Italian guitarist Marcello Giannini, and many others.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Unfortunately, I learned something that many of us already knew, that the system of hyper-productivity and rampant anthropocentrism in which we live is harmful to us and to the planet that is our home.
I was quite lucky, I didn’t lose my job and I spent the lockdown time in a nice place near the sea. The perception of a nature that was awakening precisely thanks to the fact that the human being was forcibly silenced really made an impression on me. Not seeing planes in the sky but many more birds, seeing videos of wild animals appearing in places where they previously stayed away, it was all very powerful. Personally it reminded me of how important it is not to always feel at the center of everything and to know how to wait and observe what surrounds us. Unfortunately, however, it seems that as humanity we are still too immersed in our egocentrism and have not learned anything from this experience, just read the programs of the new governments of the major Western countries in terms of climate and economy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ludovicamanzo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ludovicamanz_o/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CsWPvGWgK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: https://folderolrecords.bandcamp.com/album/animal-mother
Image Credits
Cetti Lipari
Paola Favoino
Sharon Ritossa
