Marco Cerletti - Random and Providence

The Chapman stick, which with its ten strings combines guitar and bass in one body, is even more complicated than it appears at first glance: a master of this unusual and difficult instrument, which many musicians have tried to play in vain, is the 36-year-old Marco Cerletti, who succeeds in the individual realization of musical concepts with such virtuosity. Far be it from the dexterous Swiss to spoil the diverse moods that his music carefully builds up with clumsy and bombastic technique. He does not use (for example) the Real Time Sampler technique in live performances, where the resulting delay loops immediately reveal every mistake, to make his work easier - on the contrary, he uses the technique, but does not allow himself to be exploited by it.
“Since my music is rooted in so many different traditions and is constantly exploring new areas, I cannot easily categorize it in one of the standard categories. I therefore prefer to call it „Random And Providence“, which is probably best translated as „chance and providence“.“
"Random and Providence“, a record title that is also the program. The moods change, but the pleasant overall impression of sensitive music without any stylistic fears remains. This is ensured in particular by one of Cerletti's fellow musicians, the Turkish multi-instrumentalist and singer Burhan Oecal. He has played with Nana Vasconselos, Bobby Watson and Steve Swallow, for example, and has recently worked intensively with classical pianist Maria Joao Pires and free jazz saxophonist Werner Lüdi. But even such unusual instruments as the Australian didjeridoo or the classical bassoon, which no-one would have expected to be played in such a combination, fit easily into the melody lines and rhythm patterns of Cerletti's Chapman Stick.
Marco Cerletti is not one of those musicians who feel comfortable behind studio walls, far away from the audience. He has been part of the Swiss band „Circus“ since 1972, with whom he recorded four LPs (back then on bass), but also gave over 400 concerts throughout Europe. In 1982 Cerletti founded the group „Basstardi“ together with two other bassists and a drummer, and in 1985 he went on a personal tour of the USA with Emmett Chapmann and others. There Cerletti also took part in live concerts by „Robert Fripp and the Crafty Guitarists“. In 1987, he began to develop his own program under the name „Marco Cerletti plays the Stick“.

''A virtuoso on the Chapman Stick. I hope he will be as successful as Andreas Vollenweider'' (Bremer, 01/91)