Creativity Is Loneliness…Is Not Being Cool // An Interview with RICCARDO PRENCIPE from Corde Oblique

• Hello Riccardo Prencipe and welcome to WL//WH. Let’s go to the hot news, a new album for Corde Oblique divided into 2 parts; Post-Metal /Folk-Gaze, and Dark/ Ethnofolk music. What necessity arose for this decision?

Thanks very much for inviting me. The time of gestation was gone, I felt the new work was ready after 4 years of selection, 4 years of work, 4 years of natural creation. It naturally reached this form: like twin brothers, apparently different, but these two sides are twin brothers.

• You left a note on Bandcamp that the album is inspired by the movie “Cries and Whispers” by Ingmar Bergman. I want to ask about that, what was going on in the artistic mind of the composer who wrote this new music for Corde Oblique? …and what does this movie mean to you?

It was a movie about a private drama and narcissism. In this period I was, and I still am in a private drama. A lot of people have to share life moods in private, artistic, and public. I really felt this way. The movie has a lot of red, just like the artwork, and it’s mainly indoor. Working on an album in an authentic way is mostly private research, waving into our dramas, and going through them as deeply as you can. Working on our narcissism can also be a great way to grow.

• I see in the credits of the album a multitude of musicians who participated in the recordings. I also see the names of Spiritual Front, Irfan, Ashram, and the Italian actress Maddalena Crippa. How easy or difficult was it to “orchestrate” this entire group? And what is your criterion when choosing the musicians and the other artists who will accompany you in the studio?

It’s actually hard. I tend to differentiate a lot in each song, cause I don’t like a monotonous style in other ’s albums. Therefore I tend to differentiate my painting board. This takes time, cause it means (for example) that you have to make an appointment with a singer, do rehearsals, and recording, just for one song. This is why my albums are quite complicated in the production, but this is the way I do. Example: to record the song with the actress Madalena Crippa, I drove 4 hours by car, and 4 hours back, to record just a short song of 3 minutes. but she was the voice, and I had to be there.

• Does the composer’s fulfilment come from the musicians he chooses or from the applause when the stage lights go out?

I’d really say: both. It’s important to write the right lyric for the right singer, the right melody for the right singer, and the right mood for the right musician. The rest is in the audience’s hands. We don’t do mainstream Pop Music but we invest a lot of time, energy, and money to make albums, so numbers and faithful listeners are important for us as well.

• In the upcoming concerts of Corde Oblique, what will be the line-up?

Sometimes for “needs” we travel as a duo, guitar and voice, with loops, effects and backtracks. In some cases there are exceptions, in Sofia we performed with two voices (our Rita Saviano and Denitza Seraphim), in Naples we will perform with the full band (quintet and also with the voice of Caterina Pontrandolfo), shows change time by time, situation by situation.

Luckily, the concerts are going well, we have already held some in Rome and Bulgaria (together with the Bulgarian voice Denitza Seraphim), also present in the album, and soon we will be in Naples, then Jesi, Portugal, and Germany. As a live voice, there is our very talented and precious Rita Saviano, who sings 5 ​​pieces on the album and has been with us for several years. I appreciate both Rita’s vocal versatility, which allows her to sing many songs from our repertoire, but also her power, furthermore, like me, she too has a musical life and a life in the humanistic world.

When we manage to move into full formation we are also with Umberto Lepore (bass), Alessio Sica (drums), and Edo Notarloberti (violin). I would also like to mention the percussionist Michele Maione, who did a magnificent job in the volume “Whispers”.Among the other vocal guests, I cannot fail to mention Caterina Pontrandolfo, present with us on all the records for 20 years and the actress Maddalena Crippa, who recites a song with her vocal style that I would define as “monumental”.

• Please tell us, where will the band appear in 2025?

At the moment we have shows in Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, and Portugal. We really look forward to joining our fans worldwide. Fans can do a lot to help this process. We were/will be in: Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Germany, maybe China, maybe Serbia. Looking forward to performing in front of those people who kept us alive.

• On the occasion of the 3 official and very beautiful video clips for the album, I want to ask you why, and how you chose the songs “A Step to Lose Balance”, “The Nightingale and the Rose”, and “Eleusa Consumpta”  to be “filmed”?

Though all of them were shot by and with us, I tend to consider a true video clip just “The Nightingale and the Rose”, it has the attitude of a true video, and also the concept (by the director Ritis Titas) perfectly matches with it. The other videos have been shot just as a way to give a video content to fans. Fans’ support is crucial for a band to survive. We will never stop thanking all those people who do not listen to music just on YouTube, but support the music with Spotify, Bandcamp, or by purchasing the album, and, in especially, coming to the show.

• I was surprised when I heard the cover of “Souvenirs d’un autre monde” by Alcest by Corde Oblique, and it is even included in the new album. What motivated you to “touch” Alcest?

I went to their show in Leipzig, they played in a beautiful venue the day before us.  I listened to metal until I was young, though their style was not a revolution, it was very personal and had something really charming. I started to listen to them. I met them briefly at breakfast the day after in the hotel. Very nice guys. In time I started to play their song for fun, and it became a cover.

• The lyrics are an integral part of the album. I’d like you to tell us what inspires you to write lyrics, and with what “sensation” do you choose lyrics and poetry from others to set to music?

I started to write poetry when I was 15, I wrote a lot, and a big part of it became the Corde Oblique’s lyrics. Now I also like to write songs with vocals but without the lyrics, since I am a big fan of Lisa Gerrard and Sigur Ros. What most inspires me a lot of times, is writing lyrics after I have visited a place, an art museum, or a church, and when and if I am really impressed by one of these places, I connect it to an emotional state, and it becomes verse, the verse becomes a song.

• What is the process when you compose, do the lyrics come to your mind first and then the music or the opposite?

Composing is like an accident. It’s always different and we need to be able to understand when it’s a good accident, when it’s a failure, when it’s time to trash, when it’s time to stop. As less social you are in that period as better will be the quality. Creativity is loneliness, is not being cool. It’s when you can really deal with yourself. And be ready to accept the good and the evil vibes that you have.

• Would you like to recommend a book for us to read, and an album that you always listen to with particular interest, and why, please?

“La Researcher” by Proust, “The Stones of Venice” by Ruskin, and Paul Celan‘s art writings, those are the books that most helped me in my work as an art historian and creative musician.

• Corde Oblique have a great range in the music they play (postrock, post-metal, darkwave, ethereal, folk, neoclassical, neofolk, shoegaze, to name a few), and I wonder where all this art within you comes from. Where do you come from artistically?

My wide range of listening and my attitude toward obscure sounds brought me to this. In the beginning, I was more into Mediterranean sound, close to something like Madredeus, acoustic, now postrock, and dark ethereal sound are very strong inside my feelings. In this sense, I’m quite close to my first period, just like a teenager with more experience.

• Any assumptions about where Corde Oblique will lead us in the future?

I never plan in advance, I let things flow and follow the flow. I wish to be able to play in the countries that want to listen to us, in front of our long-term fans. We have already started the first concerts to present the album, the audience is reacting well, and it seems that the interest in this album is stronger than the previous ones, the requests for the concerts have also increased. Obviously, we are happy about it, but many musical projects often have a short duration due to disinterest or poor reception from the public, we are happy, in our small way, to still be here making music after 20 years.

Riccardo Prencipe, photo by Manuela Pace

• What does the name Corde Oblique mean to you?

The name means “obliquous strings”, it’s the display of the strings when you take the guitar in a classical position. Since most of the songs come from my guitar, I wanted to give a name related to it.

• Mr. Prencipe, thank you very much for this interview, last words on you!

Some time ago I heard an interview with an Italian singer-songwriter who said: “The important thing is not to be successful, the important thing is to do what you were born to do in life, if you do it you are happy, even if you don’t do it on a large scale”, I notice that people who do what they were born to do in life have much less frustration.

In my own small way, I am grateful to life for giving me the chance to do what I was born to do: a musician and an art history teacher. The fact that I play for 100 people and not for 100,000 does not alter my satisfaction, this is what we must understand and this is what I hope all musicians who make a certain choice understand. The great genius Duchamp said: “it will take 50 or 100 years to find your true audience, but those people are the only one that counts”.

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