I’m so excited to share this episode on International Women’s Day! And it’s fitting that my guest today is not only one of the coolest women I have had the pleasure to meet, but she is also a sage and inspirational fountain of creativity, energy and talent. With this episode I’m going straight to my interview with today’s guest - Maddalena Ghezzi. Maddalena is a musician, singer, composer, artist and improviser. She has been working in the field of jazz, improvised and experimental music since moving to the UK in 2009 and her work draws inspiration from the natural world, literature, visual arts and the socio-political status of our world. Here we chat about her new release, Emeralds, which is a collaboration with synth player, composer, producer and pianist Maria Chiara Argirò. Emeralds is the latest in her Minerals series of EP releases done in collaboration with an other musicians. Maddie’s music is enigmatic, atmospheric and her compositions and voice will carry you to new places that feel both metaphysical and tangible at the same time. We chat about collaborations, composing, creativity, cuisine (new year baby polenta, chiavi della cucina, Dolomites and puzzone) and sci-fi!

DēngYuè Records

was born in 2020 and is an independent record label run by Maddalena Ghezzi. DēngYuè Records releases all the collaborations part of her series Minerals.

Logo design by Leonardo Ghezzi

@dengyue.records

“

MINERALS

is a series of collaborations with musicians I love and a dual journey. On one hand it is about going deeper in my practice, my use of the voice and interacting with different art forms. On the other hand it is a personal and emotional journey to challenge my perspectives, exchange energies and experiences within my community and look through different lenses to interpret reality.

The aim is to document a process of artistic and personal growth and to build, through the years, a compilation of meaningful exchanges and an anthology of notes of my processes.

Each work will be released at random intervals, whenever the ground is right for another collaboration to sprout.
”

— Maddalena Ghezzi on Minerals

Emerald

16th December 2022

with synth player, composer, producer and pianist Maria Chiara Argirò.

on the outside is accompanied by an animated collage video by art collective Libri Finti Clandestini and photographer and film maker Tanguy Bombonera. on the outside is an unapologetic music world where women take their space.

Supported by Help Musicians.

Listen to it here or below and then buy it here!

As part of the Emerald release there was a limited edition of 10 handmade Concertina Errata folded by Libri Finti Clandestini in Milan and decorated by Maddalena Ghezzi in London, one is seen below and I am a proud owner of one of them! Each concertina is unique and decorated with collages, comic art, text and more.

The “Concertina” is a book created with only one piece of paper folded with parallel and equidistant folds as if it was an accordion. The concertinas errata, "wrong Concertinas", were devised by Libri Finti Clandestini in 2014 as concertinas with non parallel nor equidistant folds, which at first may look wrong but at a closer look are unique.