Citadelic festival 2023 

MAY 26 - 17H                    at MAIN STAGE
   Rema Hasumi-Giacomo Merega Duo (JP/IT)
            the New York thing

For this special occasion, NYC-based musicians Rema Hasumi and Giacomo Merega will perform improvisations that draw from their work together in a project that explores movements from Lassus’ Prophetiae Sybillarum as a starting point (with Noah Kaplan, Eli Asher and Andrew Smiley) alongside rarified duo arrangements from their latest recording Udnie with Todd Neufeld on guitar.

There was a time, maybe 20 years ago or more, when Genoa-born Giacomo Merega dreamed of becoming a straight jazz bass player. Exposure to fellow renegades at the Berklee College of Music, like guitarist Bryan Baker, and later to his New England Conservatory mentor Ran Blake, took him down a rabbit hole of searchand-discovery that led him through the looking glass to an alternate universe of sound—one that cherished tones, textures and patient exploration above hip reharmonization and burning virtuosity. And there’s been no looking back for Giacomo.
After relocating to New York, he fell in with a kindred group of Brooklyn-based musicians on the improvising scene who were more committed to sharing in sonic rituals than swinging their way through The Real Book.

Rema Hasumi, born in Fukuoka and based in Brooklyn, NY, is an improvising pianist, sound artist and vocalist whose work is characterized among others by blending Japanese traditional folklore, jazz and free improvisation.

Rema Hasumi - voice & synths
Giacomo Merega - guitar

OTHER CONCERTS MAY 26

 

with the marvelous support of De Vlaamse Gemeenschap and de Stad Gent