Remo Anzovino (born 12 February 1976) is an Italian composer, musician and criminal lawyer.
In the early years of his artistic activity, he composed music for theater and sound design; he later found its way into a personal relationship between silent cinema and music: by inverting the relationship between images and sounds, in his concerts he offers songs with the accompaniment of silent film sequences that serve as a sort of visual soundtrack. A strong visual element, the fusion of languages used, and the immediacy of the melodies are all peculiarities of his compositions.
Biography Anzovino was introduced to music at the age of 10, and he soon developed a natural aptitude for writing.Remo Anzovino – Essenza Glocal (Locals Magazine, 14/11/12) In eighth grade he founded The Left Hand Band together with his school friends. The singer of the group was his brother Marco, three-years younger, who became a popular songwriter ("Radio1 Premio Recanati" plaque, 2001) and rhythm guitarist whom he shares each subsequent experience with. He recorded with the band in 1994 an album called Malìa (on cassette), nowhere to be found today.
In 1994, while he was still in high school, Anzovino was hired for his first stage music for a theater show from Fabio Scaramucci's Ortoteatro company, finding its way into the instrumental language.La nuova in pantaloni (Il Piave, 24/03/07) In the same year he began to work with some agencies for the music of promotional and commercial films. In 2002 he ventured for the first time with the music for a silent film commissioned by the Cineteca di Bologna. In the period 2002–2007 he gave a soundtrack to more than thirty silent films, mostly true masterpieces of the period, working with major film libraries and participating in festivals in the area, including the "Cinema Ritrovato" in Bologna (2004) and "Le giornate del Cinema Muto" in Pordenone (2003).Immagini da ascoltare – musicare un film muto oggi (Wuz, 14/03/07)
In 2005 he composed a score for symphony orchestra for the film Nanook of the North: A Story of Life and Love in the Actual Arctic premiered in the charming Piazza San Marco in Pordenone, with the simultaneous screening of the film, receiving more than 10 minutes of applause. The following year, the soundtrack won the Special Audience Award at the Bolzano "Rimusicazioni" festival. In 2005 he won second place in the Prix dedicated to Maestro Angelo Francesco Lavagnino. In 2007 he received the "Moret D'Aur" prize by a jury of twenty journalists of Friuli Venezia Giulia, as an Emerging Character in showbiz. In 2011 the same jury, after only four years, rewarded him with the "Moret D'Aur" as the representative showbiz personality of the region.Servizio del TG3 Friuli Venezia Giulia sulla premiazione avvenuta il 10 ottobre 2011
On 15 June 2006 he released his first album, Dispari (which collects a milonga inspired by Tina Modotti (Que viva Tina!), and some of the themes originally composed for silent movies – here reconceived in a completely autonomous way. The album reached the #1 position in the Italian jazz chart on iTunes, and all subsequent albums would do the same.
In March 2007, his composition "L'immagine ritrovata", taken from Dispari, was chosen by Simone Cristicchi as the main theme opening and closing the docu-movie about asylums "Dall'altra parte del cancello" (directed by Alberto Puliafito), which was attached to Cristicchi's eponymous album (Sony BMG) published in coincidence with the San Remo Festival victory: Cristicchi also used the composition in his theatrical performance"Centro di igiene mentale – Storie di matti e di manicomi".
On 3 September 2007 Anzovino was invited by Ente dello Spettacolo and La rivista del Cinematografo to perform at the 64th Venice Film Festival with a specifically written show. He proposed a new experiment: reversing the usual relationship between music and images accompanying the execution of songs with sequences taken from silent film masterpieces, making each piece match with a completely different movie. The music is the real protagonist, images comment her emotional/psychological content serving as a veritable visual track.Messaggero Veneto 16.9.2007 Le musiche per il cinema di Remo Anzovino On 17 January 2008 he participated in the Maurizio Costanzo Show on Canale 5 channel.
On 1 October 2008 he released his second album, Tabù, a musical meditation on contemporary transgressions. This album established him as the new revelation of the Italian instrumental music. A disc with a strong rhythmic vitality and ideally dedicated to the movement of the body as a tool of liberation of instincts. The rhythm section was headed by U.T. Gandhi and Danilo Gallo; Mauro Ottolini joined the album on trombone.
On 26 April 2010 Anzovino released his third album, Igloo – Piccola sinfonia per orchestra e duetti contemporanei, on which the encoded symphonic movements – entrusted to an orchestra of more than 40 elements – are counterpointed by the duets between Anzovino and some of the greatest Italian musicians on the international scene: with Franz Di Cioccio's drums (PFM), with the clarinet of Gabriele Mirabassi, with the bass of Enzo Pietropaoli, with the guitar of Bebo Ferra, and with the two Top Jazz 2009 artists (the annual referendum organized by the historic magazine "Musica Jazz") Francesco Bearzatti on saxophone and Luca Aquino on trumpet. It is a record that represents a bridge between classical music and the most contemporary jazz music. The cover was created by Davide Toffolo, one of the most important Italian cartoonists as well as leader of the punk rock band "Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti". After working for the piano-drums duet of the title track of Igloo, Anzovino and Franz Di Cioccio consolidated their relationship into the project of a live set: Di Cioccio on drums and Anzovino on piano, one against another, to represent the clash between two fires, and the meeting of two generations of musicians and two worlds.
In December 2010, he featured as a special guest the album Primitivi del dub (La Tempesta Dischi) by "Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti", produced by Paolo Baldini: he played Fender Rhodes and clavinet on the song "La rivolta dell'avvocato" (literally, "The lawyer's revolt"), so titled in his honor.
In March 2012 he participated together with Dargen D'Amico and Roberto Dellera from Afterhours, as music composer/piano special guest/string director on the album Fili invisibili (Metatron) by DJ Aladyn, in the eight-hands song "Mi vuoi bene".
In June 2012 signed the theme song and deadlifts for LA7 channel's show In Bianco e Nero, an early-evening summer programme of the black and white masterpieces of American cinema, including The Killing and Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution, and The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin. The theme song chosen for the program was "Giostra", from the album Igloo.
On 8 October 2012 his fourth album Viaggiatore Immobile (Egea Music) was released, produced by sound designer Taketo Gohara, with orchestral arrangements by Stefano Nanni and cover signed by Oliviero Toscani. For the first time one of his discs was also released in LP format.
Some principal musicians of the orchestra of La Scala in Milan contributed to the album recordings – and with them some prominent musicians such as Vincenzo Vasi, Alessandro "Asso" Stefana, Mauro Ottolini, Edodea Quartet (directed by Edoardo De Angelis), Achille Succi. The disc ends with the song "9 Ottobre 1963 (Suite for Vajont)", performed with 42 male voices of the Ruda Polyphonic Choir directed by Fabiana Noro, in memory of the Vajont tragedy.
On 18 February 2013, the newspaper"Il Fatto Quotidiano published in its first page the incipit manuscript of "9 Ottobre 1963 (Suite for Vajont)" and the image of Anzovino with the heading "Soundtrack of the Week", reporting the following thought of the composer: "Music can sometimes help memory."
On 15 September 2013, the 50th anniversary of the disaster, Anzovino was invited by the Vajont Foundation (which brings together, among others, the municipalities of Longarone, Erto and Casso, Castellavazzo and Vajont) to hold a concert on the dam, in the heart of the landslide in Erto, that drew 2,000 people, in a climate of great emotion. The composition "9 Ottobre 1963 (Suite for Vajont)", which Anzovino opened and closed the concert with, was recognized by the Vajont Foundation as the official music of the memory of the tragedy.
On 7 October 2013, Anzovino won the "Premio Anima" award "to the growth of an ethical conscience – music section," for his composition "9 Ottobre 1963 (Suite for Vajont)", a piece composed by the pianist in memory of the Vajont tragedy. The award is given every year under the patronage of the Presidency of the Italian Republic to enhance the contribution made by the art world personalities and culture that have excelled in their respective categories for the value of content and communicative power of the message and the significant contribution to the growth of the culture of ethics and accountability in the country. The jury – chaired by Luigi Abete – gave this explanation to the award: " "9 Ottobre 1963 (Suite for Vajont)" is a strong and overwhelming composition showing Anzovino's great human and artistic sensitivity: only a son of that land could compose it."
On 2 December 2013, preceded by the single "No Smile (Buster Keaton)" – a homage to the comedian – the album Vivo was released. This was his first live album, and the fifth of his discography. It contained the recording of the concert held on 20 December 2013 at the "Auditorium Parco della Musica" in Rome, the DVD video of the "Concerto della Rimembranza" concert on the Vajont dam, and a collectible photo booklet with photos from the concert in Rome signed by Gianluca Moro. The album cover is a photo of the band that has accompanied Anzovino in the recordings, formed by Vincenzo Vasi, Marco Anzovino and Alberto Milani, taken in the tent/dressing room a few minutes before the concert on the Vajont dam.
In an interview with Ernesto Assante for Repubblica.it, Anzovino explained his choice: "I have always felt to be an unconventional pianist, I tried to form a band and put around the piano some new and original sound. I wanted to express a liberating idea of the piano, which becomes as the lead singer of a rock band in a concert that is definitely a party, where the Music changes night after night."
On 7 December 2013, the Lelio Luttazzi Foundation invited Anzovino to hold a special concert for piano solo in honor of the great artist from Trieste at the "Palazzo delle Esposizioni" in Rome, as the event of the exhibition "LelioSwing 50 anni di storia italiana".
On 19 April 2014, Vivo was released in a double LP gatefold 180-gram vinyl edition, with an attached DVD of the historic "Concerto della Memoria" concert on the Vajont dam, all enriched by a photographic dossier of sixteen full-color pages in collectible vinyl format signed by Gianluca Moro.