“ (...) I don't believe in schools of composition! They (nonetheless) limit our minds that, instead, need room for freedom (...). I believe more in " love at first sight " with the sound experience...”. These passionate and determined words are Enrico Francioni introduction in the booklet of his CD Segni del tempo (Signs of the times). These signs represent a door through which the listener can enter Enrico's world of music, feelings and experience. He offers a journey through his most relevant memories, constantly linked to the ancestral experience of sound, always taking place in different and original ways, both inside and outside oneself. The ability of being surprised and to enjoy the thousands of colour variables of this experience appear like an essential condition both for him as a player and as a composer, though the classical meaning of this word does not actually fit him. Rather, Enrico experiments the sound that, as he himself describes in the introduction of his work, “(...) needs to wander in eternal, loosing itself and finding itself again and betraying itself, maybe to be reconfirmed soon afterwards (...)”,respecting and incarnating his desire for formal liberty until it loses the definition of a specific role.
Of course the most important element is that Enrico Francioni is a double-bass player and that the basis for his research on sound is this essential instrument, the double-bass. In this way he interprets its sound language, besides enjoying brave experiments with other instruments, he always maintains the same personal liberty and idea of exploring the features of sound that guide his instrumental performance. Last but not least, we must highlight his professional partnership with Fernando Grillo, hereby defined as the "unique maestro", that has given his research of sound a personal footprint. Enrico has dedicated to him one of the most exciting tracks of this CD, the Ricercare.
Francioni presents here ten compositions, three of which are for solo double-bass, while the other ensemble pieces include strings, (Pasquale Farinacci, violin, Aldo Zangheri, viola and Gabriele Zoffoli, cello), harp (Patrizia Carciani), flute and piccolo (Francesco Manna) and guitar (Aldo Vianello).
The opening is the solo flute of Flabrum, where the journey in sound is based on improvisations, though one can perceive some tonal basis but with free rhythm, reminding one of a concerto's final cadenza.
Impulsi is the first track for solo double-bass. It creates a meditative atmosphere, recalling exotic worlds with its sounds, whether these are harmonic or pizzicato notes, placed at intervals that space out from the Western semi-chromatic division.
Record’en flans is written for flute and double-bass. Its structure includes a final fugue and a Grave end, reminding one of the "theme with variations" in the classical structure. The first part is characterized by a refined and extremely detailed alternation of sounds and harmonics up to a distinct change in the character, with a series of "variations", with a free use of thematic notes. The piece continues with a poignant harmonic and melodic game between the pizzicato of the double-bass and the staccato of the flute. The final fugue is created by a counter-point section and a Grave.
The solo violin is the protagonist of Contr’tast, where there seems to be a kind of recitativo, in which the bow "sings" with feeling and pathos, while the other emission techniques producing sounds "accompany" this melody, that is at times resigned and, sometimes, even obsessed.
With Cluster we enter into a dream atmosphere, between the ancient-style cantilena of the winds and the double-bass with its psychedelic approach. The winds' shaping and sound emission technique remind one of the ticking of a clock and the mechanical movement of a machine. Also poignant are the balances between the sound of the flute and the intervention of the double-bass.
Ricercare is a highly fascinating track. It consists of a small thematic cell (typical of a Ricercare), repeated at different heights, with the most different technical combinations, both compositional and instrumental.
The composition for the Trio opens with an ostinato with a series of increasingly rhythmically animated variations. In its development, the sounds are gradually included in a pre-existing carpet of sound, suggesting the impression of a gradually changing "colour", almost a contemplative Adagio. After a brilliant rock-like Allegro, the Fugato for three voices begins, presenting echoes of the French baroque musical style, with dotted notes and diminutions. The Andante that follows echoes Handel's airy andante. The melody, based on a harmonic minor scale, once more provides us with echoes of the East.
I segni del tempo is the CD’s title-track. This composition won awards in a number of international competitions. Here, Francioni's music can be compared to a "liquid suspension", as defined by the Italian writer and musicologist Alessandro Zignani, in the introduction of this CD.
In the Cinque piccoli pezzi (Five little pieces) the guitar is the protagonist, with a marvellous sound and pleasing atmosphere. Cantilena has a special place, reminding one of an ancient melody spotlighted by mordents, like the style of the popular songs of Southern Italy.
Lastly, Zauberspiegel, characterized by the equivalence harmonics = reflections. This piece has a strong character, almost a fairy tale, for its analogy with the bourdon note of a bagpipe, though with clear Eastern reminiscences, not only for the scale used in the melody, but also for the references to other Western instruments, thanks to the use of particular timbres in the double-bass.
Let us give this last piece the task of confirming this baffling ancient and magic atmosphere, shared as a fundamental characteristic by the sound and the memory. Let us hope that Enrico's journey through both these elements has not yet come to an end, and that there will be further future sound experiments in his "constant research using sound".

Thanks to Alberto Pavoni for contribution.