Different Things 2005 CD $15.


Fans of Guilty, Virginia Splendore's debut Stick duet CD with fellow Italian Stickist Roberto Fiorucci, will only need a few seconds of this new release to understand the title. Different Things is all about exploring new directions in Splendore's music, lots of new directions, as different from Guilty as they are from each other. On this second outing virginia and Roberto are joined by a diverse cast of musical characters for a much more developed sound.

These 16 tracks were recorded in a variety of ways over a period of two years. Some are just Virginia playing Stick to overdubbed synths, drum machine, voice. Others have a very "live" feel. The awlways shifting instrumentation includes clarinet (Raffaele Magrone), guitar (Fulvio Pietrobono), acoustic and electronic drums (Andrea Moneta), Stick Bass (also Moneta), vocal (Splendore) and a special guest solo by Tony Levin. Virginia artfully orchestrates this sonic diversity to reinforce the linear arrangements of the individual tracks, and the whole record flows in a very cinematic way.

Guilty 1999 CD $15.


Many Stick featured recordings are somehow distinctive, as each artist tends to go his or her own way on this instrument. From the start of Virna Splendore's live concert career in and around Rome, her music bears her distinct personal profile, and is recognizable by gently shifting polytonalities, harmonious enough at first listen, but haunting in the strange transitions and juxtapositions of chords against melody.

As a Stick/Stick duo going by the name of "SplendoRe", she and her friend Roberto Fiorucci have recorded a debut CD, "Guilty", containing fourteen of her distinctive compositions, played beautifully across twenty strings.

Virna's deceptively simple melodic themes seem to float on offset, neighboring chords ambiguously expressed and arpeggiated. Yet the transitions have strong movement and an amazing logic of their own.