Quasi disorientalizzati is an improvisational session with Dario Lo Cicero (bamboo flute) and Manlio Speciale (violin) recorded in 2003. It seeks places where different cultures, intervals and scales meet in music.
The video was made 7 years later by Dario Lo Cicero, using images of the bamboo flute actually used for the original recording along with violin parts, books belonging to the composer Lou Harrison, and other related objects (bamboo, instrument cases...). Lou Harrison, seen in the video with Bill Colvig, was one of the first Westerners who experimented with different combinations of musical instruments and scales, often microtonal, from different parts of the world.








Enjoying on Youtube a performance of Partant pour la Syrie, by Paula Bär-Giese, the flautist Dario Lo Cicero has fun trying a "virtual duo" with a Claude Laurent crystal flute.
Such flutes were highly appreciated at the Royal Court of Holland: the King Louis Bonaparte had one, and presented another one to his court's flutist Louis Drouet. Drouet himself was recently supposed to be the actual author of the music of Partant pour la Syrie, formerly attributed to Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland. Both this song and the flute used here (thanks to "Signora Nina"!) were made on 1807. No variation or embellishment by Drouet on this song seems to have survived, meanwhile the flautist supplied his own.
It could be better, if recorded with a good equipment. We apogize for the image quality and sound distortion, but it was made for fun, enjoy it as is anyway...