The December 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast features theremin music from Canada, Germany, Italy, Finland, and the USA. Host Rick Reid interviews Gilda Razani and Hanzō Wanning, members of the German duo Honey Bizarre.
FEATURED MUSIC*
- "Sagittarius A-Star" - Stephen Hamm (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
- "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" [Mozart] - Gilda Razani with Hanzō Wanning (Dortmund, Germany)
- "Cosa Prova Una Scimmia Nello Spazi" - Vincenzo Vasi (Bologna, Italy)
- "Suru" - Kepa Lehtinen (Helsinki, Finland)
- "Silent Night" - Armen Ra (West Hollywood, CA, USA)
*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances.
ADDITIONAL MUSIC
- "Opera Glasses" - Phlogiston Theory & Ron Allen (Denver, CO / Seattle, WA, USA)
- "Time Shadows" - Phlogiston Theory (Denver, CO, USA)
- "No Static at All" - Phlogiston Theory (Denver, CO, USA)
- Excerpts from "Kirkyard Greyfriars," "Little Deep Miss Strange," and "Lagrange Game" - Honey Bizarre (aka Bloody Red Roses) (Dortmund, Germany)
INTERVIEW GUEST
- Gilda Razani and Hanzō Wanning of Honey Bizarre
CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS
- Visit the Theremin 30 Calendar of Theremin Events for links and details of events mentioned in this episode.
MEDIA LINKS
- The Theremin 30 Playlist on YouTube includes music videos and concert performances of songs featured in this podcast.
CONTACT
- Write to the show: theremin30podcast@gmail.com
- Record a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theremin30/message
- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theremin30/support
CREDITS
- Producer/Writer/Host: Rick Reid
- Opening and closing announcer: David Brower
Copyright 2023 Rick Reid
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TRANSCRIPT
Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI. It may contain some errors.
David Brower 0:04
This is Theremin 30. 30 minutes of theremin music news events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now here's your host from Denver, Colorado, USA, Rick Reid.
Rick Reid 0:19
Hey, welcome to the December 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast. This month I've got music from the USA, Canada, Finland, Germany and Italy. And my interview guests are Hanzo vining and Gilda Rosani they'll be talking about their latest music project called Honey bizarre. Let's get going now with a groovy new single from Stephen ham that Theremin man here is his psychedelic sci fi themed track called Sagittarius A star.
We launched into the music with a spacey new track from Stephen ham called Sagittarius A star. It's the first single from a forthcoming album. You can see the music video performance of the song on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. And after that I played Hell's vengeance boils in my heart, better known as the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, performed there by Gilda Rosani on Theramin with an orchestral backing track by Hanzo, Vining, Gilda and Hanzo are my interview guests this month and later in the show, I'll be visiting with them about their new music project called Honey bizarre. After the next break, I've got music from Vincenzo Vasi and from Kipper Liikanen. So stay tuned
I'm gonna stray from the usual format a little bit here to make room for extra music and interview time. There isn't much on that Theremin 30 calendar for the next few weeks to talk about so I'm skipping my usual calendar segment this month, but you can always see the calendar on the Theremin 30 website. If you have a Theramin related event you'd like me to put on the calendar send me a note with all the details you can reach me with the contact form at Theremin thirty.com Italian thereminist Vincenzo Vaci recently released a 10th anniversary remastered edition of his Roxio electrico album that's available for download or you can order a limited edition CD cassette or vinyl LP from his Bandcamp page. Here is the first track on the album. Cosa proba una schema and Ella I don't know how to say it. In English. It's called what a monkey feels in space.
We started that set with Vincenzo Vaci with what a monkey fields in space from the 10th anniversary edition of his rasio electrico or electric arm album. You may also know Vincenzo as part of an eclectic Italian duo called oppo Poyo. After that I played su or sadness from finished thereminist and film composer kept by lentinan you can watch the music video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Coming up later in the show I've got a Christmas classic from Armin raw. And after the break I'll visit with German duo honey bizarre so stay tuned.
Earlier in the show, we heard classical music from gilda Rosani and Hanzo Vani. They are also known for experimental jazz and for some fascinating purely electronic recordings. I spoke with them a few days ago about their current music project, honey bizarre. Gilda Razani and Hanzo Vani. Thank you so much for being on the Theremin 30 podcast.
Gilda Razani 16:24
Thank you for having us.
Hanzo Wanning 16:25
Yeah, thank you. So glad
Rick Reid 16:29
I've played your music on the show over the last four years a few times. And one time it was released under your names. And one time it was bloody red roses. And another time. It was about Aphrodite. And now you've got a new band. Tell me how did the two of you get together? And why do you have all these different names?
Gilda Razani 16:51
About Aphrodite is another band. We play there with the drama and Tani visa, it's new formation, this new song and a little bit more than bigger and more dreamy,
Hanzo Wanning 17:08
dreamy more.
Rick Reid 17:10
For people that aren't familiar with you to introduce your part in the musical collaboration, What instruments do each of you play?
Gilda Razani 17:17
I play of course, the Theremin. And I play also a saxophone and I play the arrow phone and I play the soma type. And of course, I like to make this electronic rules and noises and so on.
Rick Reid 17:34
And Hanzo How about you?
Hanzo Wanning 17:35
I'm a classical and jazz piano player and composer. But since my youth I'm deep in electronic music of all parts of all sides. Also,
Rick Reid 17:44
how did the two of you become musical collaborators?
Gilda Razani 17:51
We met up in a bar and talk about music. And so after time, we started to make music together.
Rick Reid 18:01
And how long have you been performing together and recording together?
Gilda Razani 18:04
Oh, I think 15 years
Hanzo Wanning 18:06
15 years,
Gilda Razani 18:07
15 years, Yeah.
Rick Reid 18:09
Wow.
Gilda Razani 18:09
We're married too.
Rick Reid 18:11
Oh, well, that makes it convenient for rehearsing.
Hanzo Wanning 18:16
With all the positives and negatives
Rick Reid 18:23
did you become musical partners first, or did you get married first?
Gilda Razani 18:31
No, we started the saxophone Piano Duo. And then after time we founded a band and so on and so on.
Rick Reid 18:39
I really enjoy the variety of music that the two of you create bloody red roses in particular, which happened just before the COVID lockdown this wonderful, almost frightening electronic music that I would expect to hear in a horror film.
Gilda Razani 18:55
Yeah, bloody red roses is now Honey Bizarre.
Rick Reid 19:01
And it's a very different sound. Now it still has its basis in electronics, but it has a sort of almost an ambient sound to it. It's almost an ambient I want to say jazz but that's not quite right. How do you describe honey? Bizarre?
Hanzo Wanning 19:14
Yeah. It's quite difficult to describe because it has so many sides, but you're right. It has a strong ambient side of music in it. What would you say?
Gilda Razani 19:28
Ambient side but also a dancing side to side and this is because the sentence is music for dancing and dreaming. The songs deepness Strange is more Indian and LeBrons game is more than that
Rick Reid 19:58
what's your process for compose? Sing this wonderful music to start by improvising on your instruments or
Gilda Razani 20:05
Yeah, at first, we improvise. And then we sew the material, and then we improvise again. There's some good ideas from the first improvisation. Yeah. And so after time after time, after time, we say, Okay, this is the main theme. And this is a good group. And then we make a composition.
Rick Reid 20:29
Hanzo what would you add to that?
Hanzo Wanning 20:31
The first step for me is that I'm looking for some electronical sounds, or soundscape, or electronic elements when I'm putting them together. So I'm in general able to improvise, because I always make a new kind of instruments. For me, just for the improvisation, it's, I need some preparation, before we can start. And with all the colors in my book, then we start sometimes one or two hours, then we listen to everything and fall asleep. And after we we listen once more. And sometimes we have only one little idea in this one hour, which we really like. But sometimes we also had an improvisation about 20 minutes, and we take the whole improvisation, just because they're also recording MIDI. I sent this MIDI data also two very different songs again, but we had this material in general, and we use it for nails, let's say 99%, with very, very different.
Rick Reid 21:33
The Theremin draws attention to itself, both in concert and in recordings, because it's so different. So how do you balance out the Theremin with all the other instrument sounds you have available to you?
Hanzo Wanning 21:45
Very often we are looking for some hot spots for the theremin. So it's not the instrument which you can listen to the whole time of the song. It's very nice to have some spots for
Rick Reid 21:57
it. And then of course, Gilda you play other instruments. So you might choose a saxophone instead of a Theramin sometimes,
Gilda Razani 22:03
yes, but in Honey Bizarre, I do not play the saxophone I play is the arrow for I play. Also, there's so much anti but I play also from Holon it's called a will phone and it's like electronic. Saxophone, also with other sounds is the kinds of electronic saxophone.
Rick Reid 22:25
You have several different theorems. I know you have Mogae and you have a sub scope.
Gilda Razani 22:30
Yeah, but I don't play anymore. I play only the Etherwave Pro and the Claravox in the moment. I like to play two different sides of Theremin music. I like the classical Theremin playing, but also I have own sound. I created my own sound because I love Jimi Hendrix. And it's my role model. I like to play like guitar and because of that you can use in in the song deepness strange. This is my sound, distorted sound somehow I created
Unknown Speaker 23:22
How did this honey bizarre project come about?
Gilda Razani 23:25
We first study with roses, but we let this formation and created us new and so now we are honeybees. About Aphrodite is more jazzy, and honey bizarre is the old bloody red rose.
Rick Reid 23:42
And the bloody red roses songs. I just just loved everything I've heard and music videos are wonderful. You're so creative in so many ways. Besides music. The visuals are just just amazing.
Gilda Razani 23:54
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Well, to that you can see it also in our honey bizarre formation.
Unknown Speaker 24:06
I see on the photography that you've done so far for honey bizarre that there's an airplane theme. How does that relate to your music? And how did you come about that?
Gilda Razani 24:14
In our info, we said that we are driving in space with full words. Improvising for freedom and, and dancing. So we make our photos in very old airplane.
Unknown Speaker 24:30
We had a photo session in a museum of airplanes in Austria.
Rick Reid 24:37
So you have a new album coming out in January
Gilda Razani 24:39
because the vinyl is finished in March. Our release is in March. Not in January.
Unknown Speaker 24:46
how can listeners hear the first single or two from the new honey bizarre album?
Gilda Razani 24:50
You can go to Spotify or iTunes or Apple Music or Deezer or other and then you can hear our two singers From any desire or you go to our web site and then in the spring we have our IBM release there it's also to all flooding red roses song now or honey bizarre. You can hear it.
Rick Reid 25:15
Okay.
Gilda Razani 25:15
Yeah, yeah
Rick Reid 25:29
another recent project you did, which is the Queen of the Night aria from a magic flute? How did that come about? What motivated you didn't record that
Gilda Razani 25:38
only, I mean, not not
Hanzo Wanning 25:42
just for fun.
Unknown Speaker 25:46
Just for fun, one of the most difficult pieces in opera
Gilda Razani 25:51
because I like to play. So in this way, it felt good.
Rick Reid 25:56
You get to visit with some of the other well known Theremin players around Germany.
Gilda Razani 26:01
I hope to see them soon. But I think perhaps because of Corona, I don't see them for quite a while. Yeah, quite a while. I hope that this is in the future. No problem.
Unknown Speaker 26:14
Well, thank you so much for visiting with me today. I really enjoy your music and I encourage people to find any of your bands online because they are all wonderful.
Gilda Razani 26:26
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It means a lot for us. You're saying this.
Unknown Speaker 26:34
To learn more about honey bizarre click on the link in this month's show notes at Theremin thirty.com You can also see their music video for a little deep Miss strange on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Let's finish the episode and this calendar year with the lovely holiday him here he is Armen Ra with silent Night.
Unknown Speaker 29:17
A big thank you to Steven Hamm, Gilda Razani and Hanzo Wanning, Vicenzo Fonzie, Kepa Lehtinen, and Armen Ra for sharing their music with us, and to Gilda and Hanzo for visiting with me about their honey bizarre project. I'm also very grateful every month to the listeners who support this podcast with small one time or monthly donations. I wish everyone listening a very happy and peaceful holiday season and a wonderful new year. I'm your host, Rick Reid, and I'll see you again in the year 2024.
David Brower 29:50
You've been listening to the Theramin 30 podcast visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin 30 dot com
