Marco Centasso UM/WELT

Sunday, May 24, at 18:00
main stage

Marco Centasso (double bass), Sarra Douik (voice, oud), Manuel Caliumi (bass clarinet, alto saxophone), Riccardo Sellan (electronics)

Photo: promo

Um/Welt is a new project by Italian double bassist and composer Marco Centasso, who was born in 1992 and after graduating in jazz double bass (2020), has continued to refine and expand his string playing technique. In 2023, he was ranked fourth among the best emerging talents by Musica Jazz magazine. In this project, Centasso draws inspiration from the concept of Umwelt (environment), developed by German biologist Jakob von Uexküll: organisms do not simply inhabit the environment, but actively co-create it through their own experience of the world. The quartet builds its hypnotic music through the interplay of pairs: acoustics and electronics, composition and improvisation, the deep sounds of the double bass and bass clarinet, and the bright textures of voice and oud (Arabic lute). The latter is performed by Tunisian musician Sarra Douik, who sings in Arabic, English and invented languages. The lyrics move between imagined and tangible worlds – depicting planet collisions, desert coming to life, and lullabies from post-human worlds. The quartet’s floating music draws on contemporary jazz, electronics, and fragments of Arab and broader Mediterranean music traditions. Their debut album, released last year, earned the Italian double bassist the Nuova Generazione Jazz prize and fully comes alive in concert as an immersive and transformative experience.

Program exchange in collaboration with Circolo Controtempo (Jazz & Wine of Peace Festival).