La Riva: Along The  𝄐 

2020-2021. Graphic Scores, Installation, Performance, Recordings.

Murate Art District Progetto RIVA

Reflecting on relational ecology and the plants that live and die along the banks of the Arno River in Florence, La Riva: Along The  𝄐 included a series of graphic scores, an installation, a research residency, performances, and studio recordings. The project reflected on questions such as: How can we listen to the plants that live and die along the Arno? How can we reposition, rethink, and extend sense-relations, and what would the music of this interplay be?  Can we bring our awareness to these plants, so often ignored in the city of Florence, and listen to them as fellow beings in order to highlight our co-existence with them?

Drawing from the spaces and movements left by the Common Reed, the Ribwort Plantain, and the Pondweed plants found along the Arno's banks, Stromberg transposed the empty spaces left by their growth structures, their sway in the wind, and their movements in water into musical forms. This led to a series of graphic scores, or what Stromberg calls ‘Drawing-Scores’, that are performed by Renato Grieco (double bass), Francesco Pellegrino (saxophone and clarinet), and Francesco Toninelli (percussion and vibraphone).  Neither entirely classical in structure nor entirely improvised, this project serves as an homage to the ephemeral, constantly changing nature of plant relationships along the Arno River, while highlighting the human/plant interplay as musical potential.

This project formed part of a larger research platform at Murate Art District (MAD) called Progetto Riva which also involved a residency at MAD in Florence. For more information about Progetto Riva, click here www.murateartdistrict.it/en/progetto-riva/progetto-riva/