Enzo Fornione: The Orange Side

Description

The Orange Side is a project that arises almost entirely from the spirit of improvisation. A thematic line acts as a guide, yet harmonies, arpeggios and rhythm are free to move, allowing space for immediate feeling, the interpretation of the moment and the artist’s pure creative enjoyment.

In this way, a crossover style emerges: a meeting point between the sounds of jazz and the expressive world of pop, whose origin lies in the perception suggested by the colour orange. Orange is able to express energy and introspection at the same time, perfectly reflecting the meaning of this colour from several perspectives.

Warm and bright, it symbolises optimism, balance, concentration and determination. The tracks flow from these inspirations, placing colour at the centre of the musical imagination and using music as a medium through which each listener may project their own freedom and instincts.

The artist and the listener reach a meaning that goes beyond the simple visual perception of colour. A clear example can be found in “Emission”, where one can hear the breath and the balance of breathing; or in “Resus”, whose main components are positivity and growth. Track by track, this same path continues through “L’attesa” (“Waiting”), “In Est”, “In Ovest” – linked to determination – “Goodnight My Car” – abandoning matter in favour of spirit – and finally “Una sera” (“One Night”) and “Saturn”, where the listener may discover harmony in simple things.

The piece “L’isola di polvere” (“The Dust Island”) also remains connected to the colour orange and to its multiple meanings. In the past, and still today in some countries, orange has been the colour worn by prisoners and by those condemned to death while being led to the place of execution. This fact inspired the piece. In this context, the word “island” symbolises loneliness and detachment from the earth: a mysterious place, at times a scenario outside time. Within this darker dimension, the word “dust” takes on the meaning of sin, guilt and what we wish to conceal.

Structurally, some pieces, such as “Una sera” (“One Night”) and “In Est”, are based on one of the fundamental frameworks of jazz: theme and improvisation, or theme A-B followed by improvisation. The final piece, the only one in the collection to feature a different instrument, refers explicitly to jazz as a tribute to its country of origin: America.

Other compositions, including “Emission”, “Goodnight My Car”, “Aletia”, “Saturn” and “Resus”, follow the classic song format based on verse and chorus.

By contrast, “In Ovest” follows a path that might be described as flexible, exactly like a journey: departure, route, arrival, observation of the new, return and, finally, memory. In this piece, the musical path mirrors that process. The departure is represented by the first theme, A; the route by B, a more agitated rhythmic stage; the arrival by C, a line that recalls the original theme while moving through a different harmonic space; and the observation of the new by D, a moment of stability in which the right hand insists on a constant musical line. The process then reverses itself, returning through C, B and A like a journey travelled backwards. The final improvisation becomes the memory of that journey: what remains of it within its transfiguration, and within us.