Gabriele Mitelli & Rob Mazurek - Star Splitter

2019 CD release.

Here is one more example of a musical project inspired in literature. Star Splitter, the duo by the multi-instrumentalists Gabriele Mitelli and Rob Mazurek, makes reference to a poem by Robert Frost, in which this author tells the story of Brad McLaughlin, a farmer who failed to produce agricultural income and decided to burn his house to get the insurance money necessary to buy a telescope and spend the rest of his life contemplating the stars and the planets above – of course, getting a dayjob as a ticket seller to eat and pay his expenses. He christened the telescope as Star Splitter, because «(…) it didn’t do a thing but split / A star in two or three the way you split / A globule of quicksilver in your hand / With one stroke of your finger in the middle.» That’s exactly what the Italian and the American intervenients do to music.

Having the patrimony of Chicago’s AACM and the concepts of Sun Ra and Bill Dixon as their main resource, they split, bend and turn inside out the free jazz / creative jazz tradition, using a cornet, a soprano saxophone (Mitelli), a piccolo trumpet (Mazurek), several electronic devices and amplified objects (both), and also their voices. The result is a beautiful jazz extravaganza that will marvel the fans of Chicago Underground, São Paulo Underground, Exploding Star Orchestra, Tortoise, Gabriele Mitelli European Quartet and O.N.G Crash. Yes, jazz is turning cosmic again…