Dedalus (1973)

Dedalus…. Włochy, rocznik 1973. Te dane już powinny wywoływać w nas odruch Pavlowa i powodować szybsze bicie serca… U mnie to tak działa. I dobrze mi z tym. Wychwytuję dzięki temu pozycje na które nikt nie zwraca uwagi. Bo i niby czemu ktoś miałby zwracać uwagę na jakichś tam przedpotopowych makaroniarzy z idiotyczną okładką…? Mnie zaciekawili…. Pamiętam , był to rok 1990 w krakowskim klubie „Pod Przewiązką”. Kupiłem w ciemno, nie bardzo wiedząc czy to włoski rock symfoniczny, hard rock, czy też słodkie San Remo. Po powrocie do domu wygoniłem kocura z fotela, przygotowałem boski napój i odpaliłem sprzęt. Już pierwsze sekundy potwierdziły zdecydowaną słuszność zakupu – zarówno napoju jak i płyty - fusion, światowa ekstraliga… To jedna z nieznanych perełek Złotej Ery, mistrzowskie połączenie psychodelii i jazz rocka. Słychać dalekie echa rozimprowizowanego Crimson z okresu Islands i Soft Machine z czasów legendarnej „5”. Czuć Canterbury i …wielką radość z tworzenia tych dzwięków. Swietna gitara, porównywalna z McLaughlinem, znakomity sax i wielkie, genialne skrzypce , natychmiast przywodzące na myśl Jean Luc Ponty’ego , Didier Lockwood’a , lub ( a może najbardziej) Davida Cross’a. 38 minut wspaniałego fusion. 38 minut wielkiej muzy zagranej przez wielkich muzyków. Polecam wszystkim miłośnikom wczesnych, wspaniałych improwizacji i bogatych aranży. Dla amatorów włoszczyzny – jazda obowiązkowa, zaś fani fusion - na kolana i czapki z głów! Oczywiście jak zwykle, moim, cholernie subiektywnym zdaniem….  Aleksander Król

In the basement of a power station in Pinerolo, Fiorenzo Michele Bonansone asked Marco Di Castri to play in his own group of experimental music. When the bass player and the drummer get replaced by Furio Di Castri and Enrico Grotto the group decide to play their own music and call themselves Dedalus. Sources of inspiration are Nucleus, Miles Davis, Bach, Soft Machine, Webern, Stockhausen, Adorno, iean-Luc Godard, Einstein, Joyce, mountains, night trips from Pinerolo to Torino, etc. The contribution of the Di Castri brothers is determinant for the style of this first phase

1973

Dedalus moves from the basement in Pinerolo up to a rehearsal room in a garret with a view on FIAT Lingotto’s superlelevated test track. A tape with original music is submitted to the attention of a well-known record label in Torino which returns it because “it’s like your music in on the seventh floor and the audience is on the ground floor.., you should go down a few floors at least”.In the Summer, the group is invited to play at the Napoli Avantgarde and New Trends in Music Festival. Dedalus is the revelation of the festival. Three major labels offer contracts for the first record, but Dedalus chooses a new label based in Milano called Trident, which seems to assure more creative freedom. In the Winter the first LP Dedalus (recorded at the Regson studio in Milano) is released and gets wide broadcasting on the radio. Italian tour.

1974

Enzo Carabetta, an alto sax player, joins temporarily the group in a series of concerts with the Circoli Ottobre for the campaign for the referendum for divorce. In the Winter they record (at the Format studio in Torino) the second LP Materiale per tre esecutori e nastro magnetico, without Carabetta and Furio Di Castri, who is already starting his career as jazz bass player. The record presents a crucial turn in Dedalus’ music. All references to any codified musical genre are abandoned to go in for a radical experimental approach to electronic music and musique concrete, improvisation and noise. Fiorenzo Bonansone adds new elements coming from contemporary classical, concrete and electronic music and composes most of the pieces.

1975-76

The second LP is released. Despite Trident’s discontinuance and the listening difficulty of the music, a few thousands copies of the record are sold. Concerts in Italy.Dedalus compose and record new material for a third LP which will remain unreleased until today. This material was a synthesis and clarification of the experimental research of the second record. Concerts in Italy and France.

1977

Enrico Grosso quits the group. Bonansone and Di Castri record some more material as a duo and play together with other musicians such as Steve Lacy. In the Summer, Bonansone and Di Castri make a trip lasting a few months through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal, carrying with them sax and cello.

1978-79

A period of experimentation, both with enlarged groups and with solo concerts. Search for new structures to organize improvisation with musicians coming from classical and contemporary experiences. At the end of 1979 the Dedalus group has practically ceased to exist.

1980-89

Dedalus broods underneath. Marco Di Castri makes videos on contemporary art for which he also takes care of the soundtracks. He stops playing in front of audiences but keeps on studying guitar and makes some experimental recordings. Fiorenzo Bonansone returns to his interests for musique concrete and devotes himself especially to the exploration, recording and utilization of nature’s sounds. He simultaneously begins studying composition again and joins several chamber groups. Enrico Grosso plays drums and percussion in several jazz and fusion bands.

1990-93

Bonansone, Di Castri and Grosso decide to revive Dedalus. A period of research and analysis without playing live follows. They rework and examine thoroughly the ideas at the basis of the material recorded and elaborated from ‘76 to ‘78.

1994-95

A period of live experimentation with different line-ups (duos, trios, quintets) including musicians coming from different musical experiences (classical, jazz, contemporary). Concerts in Italy.

1996-97

While part of the unpublished material of the 70’s is being prepared to be released on compact-disc, Enrico Grosso, for family reasons, must definitively quit, the group records in June1997, with a new line-up, the album Pia visione, which gets private distribution. The house “Elica” produce the CD “Pezzi inediti + materiali ....” that includes part of the unpublished material of the 70’s and a reprint of part of second LP “Materiali per tre esecutori e nastro magnetico”.In 1999 Marco Di Castri also must quit. In 2001 F.M. Bonansone renames Dedalus as Bonansone Dedalus-group that becames Dedalus Bonansone in 2002. The group now is made up F. M. Bonansone, cello and piano, Riccardo Chiriotto, trombon, Anita Cravero, flute. just awesome! (source)