Ensemble Voyagers is an open ensemble created by Daniele Montagner which explores the musical roots of Western Civilizations and infuses their sound with contemporary tonality.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Daniele from Ensemble Voyagers about their music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create?
I come from Italy, and our style can be defined as eclectic.
The Ensemble Voyagers created by Daniele Montagner is an “open” ensemble dedicated to the exploration of musical traditions, passing through medieval music to the present day.
We try to play with different musical instruments, we think to play, we infuse the sound with a contemporary approach.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
We live in a world and in a time of multiple and heterogeneous musical traditions: it is therefore important to know the history to root the future. There is no univocal direction towards the future: there are a plurality of historical and temporal ramifications that go both towards the past and towards the future and that branch out into the present. There is an “open” time, multiple and heterogeneous.
Making music for me is a necessity I would say spiritual, I will do it as long as there is this need.
What inspired you to start the Ensemble Voyagers project? What motivates you to keep creating?
The “tonal” and temporal center of each moment is each of us, with our own awareness and perception. An Ensemble without borders was therefore needed because there are no frontiers in music. Music is dialogue and confrontation and has the ability to combine minds and emotions without fanaticism, helping to renew one’s identity. It is also vital to get out of academicism with an overly formal and almost ritualistic flavor that mainly engulfs Western European culture.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
I am a “mercurial” person and I am fascinated and interested in new technologies. I graduated in music in Italy, doing classical studies at the Conservatory. I dedicated myself in my youth to avant-garde and experimental music. Then I became interested in jazz language and worked and produced an ethnic-world project. I played in symphony orchestras and opera houses and played as a soloist and in classical and ancient music groups.
So technology for us is like a technical tool available to further improve the sound and its expressive needs and possibilities. But, since our recordings are based on the originality of the sound of instruments and voices, for us technology is the technical tool to capture the beauty or roughness of the original sounds and their reverberations in natural environments.
For training and study we are used to get the most out of our instruments in terms of technique and expression and the technology is therefore at the service of the maximum and best possible “sound taking”.
In fact, in our music creations we first imagine the architecture of the composition, the spatial arrangement of sounds and colors, like a picture or a scene from a movie. When the image is clear we prepare and arrange the chosen sounds and instruments. In fact, we are interested in putting the sound of an instrument in the right place. .
What was the last song you listened to?
The soundtracks composed by Nino Rota.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl as a romantic ritual in listening to music …. The CD for the clarity and purity of sound … the MP3 for the speed of fruition even in quality (if done well).
But when I want to listen to music at 360 ° in all its breadth, power and sound possibilities I go to my friend Manu Saladino’s studio and sound engineer, I lie down on my favorite chair, he turns on the sound systems … and I feel in paradise…
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I get on well with Spotify … also because if I have to follow them all I should live seven parallel lives at the same time … and I can’t do it yet … I love being in nature and with my animals, playing together, they make me feel good.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
- https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/5M59HAjFRpTp4wVs8zSD9R/profile
- https://artists.spotify.com/c/artist/4vteWZ5X3uLeMJNCdQEuR5/profile
- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UColRV3gJSj3YC61SPl2Khxw
- https://www.youtube.com/c/danielemontagner?app=desktop
Anything else before we sign off?
Be yourself, serenely and work with light in your heart and mind.
