Music has always been an essential part of Carlo Muscat’s life. Although his chosen profession was architecture – he graduated as an architect and worked in that sphere for two years – his one true love was music and the saxophone in particular (he has been playing the sax for the past 14 years).
“At one point, I realised that working in architecture was making me unhappy… it was certainly not inspiring me like music inspires me. So I decided to take a huge risk, leave my stable job and go to Paris to study jazz.”
Carlo is in Paris right now, doing just that. However, before he left for France a little over a year ago, he came out with a concept called the ‘Sound Catalogues’ – a project which would catalogue different historic events and people thorough contemporary music composition and performance.
“Basically, I selected certain historic events worldwide which inspired me the most and composed tunes to ‘capture’ the essence of each episode,” he explains.
To take one example, he read up about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and thus took a certain direction within his music composition, based on the emotions that the event evoked in him. This emotion will be transmitted when he and his fellow musicians will be playing.
After securing funding from the Malta Arts Fund, he set the outcome of the first phase, which is called Extraordinary Episodes into motion. This will consist of a studio album CD in France and live performance in Malta, probably later this year, with other performances being planned in other territories.
The tracks themselves will be recorded at the prestigious Studios La Buissonne in Avignon, which was selected for its outstanding profile in producing albums for some of the top musicians worldwide, with Carlo on saxophone as well as Sandro Zerafa (guitar), Joe Debono (piano), Italian Daniele Raimondi (trumpet), Hungarian Mátyás Szandai (double bass) and Lionel Boccara (drums) from France.
This group of musicians evolved from a collaborative performance during the 2012 Malta Jazz Festival and Carlo says that this project showcases the festival’s importance in terms of providing local artists with opportunities.
“Furthermore, it reveals the capability that experienced and novice local artists have in joining forces with well-known international musicians. This is also beneficial when considering the island’s recent ECOC designation,” he adds.
There will also be a public photographic competition to select the cover of the CD. In fact, this particular art form features heavily throughout the whole project. Photographic artist Elisa Von Brockdorff will be producing a set of portraits which will capture the project’s general concept. In addition, works by veteran photographic artist Ronnie Muscat will be utilised in the development of the project’s general graphic design. The local live performance will feature photographer Sergio Muscat, one of the most recognised Malta Jazz Festival photographers.
The project also has a presence online, so look out for more information on Facebook’s The Sound Catalogues. Sound Catalogues is being supported by the Malta Arts Fund.