After the happy experience named Musicamimica Musicamimica (2002)¹, a cover of an original sound poem of Enzo Minarelli, the useful collaboration between the poet and the two musicians, Claudio Parodi and Luca Pagani has still gone on producing a new astonishing work. It belongs no doubt to the best tradition of experimentalism, as it is capable of melting the experience of the well known international sound poet, the italian Enzo Minarelli, with two young, skillful musicians able to play many instruments and above all, so sensible to feel the presence of the poetical voice as something concrete, touchable.
1999 Millennium Poem keeps the voice in a prominent position according to the theory of Polypoetry³, one is not allowed to say that herewith there is no theory as the famous Marcel Duchamp’s sentence boasted about Dada. It is true the contrary, during the whole year which was necessary to conclude the work, poet and musicians gathered together monthly at the recording studio³ coming into the room with precise scores and performing projects, more the result of rational meditation than improvisation.
The voice plays the role of the prima donna leading all the elements of the work together, but the music track develops an autonomous line building up an outstanding dialogue with the voice itself. Far from being didactical, the music happily creates a healthy atmosphere round the words.
Sometimes one can say that it is a sound poem he is listening to, but it is not, sometimes it resembles the typical jazz session, but it is not, let’s say that as it is not not a song, 1999 Millennium Poem brings the poetic side of literature first into the world of orality and vocality, and then into the marvelous world of experimental music.
Technically speaking the text, twelve sections English written in 1999, takes advantage of a voyage made by the author from Bologna to Wien and Prague in the1998 summer, and through the flowing of the images of the trip one can see the whole images of a century dying, and at the same time the dawn of the new one. Each section has been reinterpreted by music, where some northern African instruments develop a rare, precious atmosphere, some parts needed such a special treatment that sixteen tracks were not enough to satisfy the esthetical request.
Apart from the high level of the contents, surely shared both by the poetical and musical side, the real common item is the feature of repetition, this extremely important, historical method of composition, from Poe to Hopkins, from Reich to Glass, from Cage to Ligeti, still shows itself in 1999 Millennium Poem, and after so many paths of mutual fusion, after a long going through the roads of the sonorous world, it reaches at the end the same solitary sound of a beach, the end similar to the beginning, in a perfect circular loop.

(1) It is available in miniCD, Rabbia Editions, Chiavari, 2003 and in video, V-Idea Production, Genova, 2003.
Musicamimica Musicamimica is included in the solo CD Coralmente me stesso, produced at PUC São Paulo, 1997 by Enzo Minarelli.
(2) Vocalità & Poesia, Reggio Emilia, Elytra, 1995.
Manifesto della Polipoesia, Tramesa d’Art, Valencia, 1987.
VoicImage, an international selection of essays about sound and image in contemporary poetical experimentalism, Visible Language, special issue 35.1 May 2001 Rhode Island School of Design, Chicago, USA. La Voce della Poesia, vocoralità del Novecento, Udine, Campanotto, 2008.
(3) Studio Osvaldo al Via, at VTA, Genova.

The video 1999 millennium poem, the same title of the sound poem used as a sound track, is first of all, as theorized times ago (1), a video sound-poem. Here, unlike all his previous video works, Minarelli’s attempt has been that to create a series of images which, in a direct o indirect manner, could facilitate the act of listening to the sound poem; as everybody knows, the image is prevailing against the sound, so he has tried to use natural images, in the sense that they come directly from the real world (actually some journeys he has made to the United States in the period 2006-08) without any electronic interferences.

(1) Enzo Minarelli, The singing blackbird: voices, images, technology in Polypoetry, in VoicImage, Visible Language 35.1, Providence, Rhode Island, 2001. See also, Enzo Minarelli, La Voce della Poesia, vocoralità del Novecento, Udine, 2008, pp.40-45.

1
"come here baby!" "pay attention the water is deep!" oh medusas!" "stay here!" (voices of a woman to her children)
"hallo" a man answers to the mobile phone
"give me a cigarette" a girl says to a boy
"I’m hungry" a child shouts
"here the comb" a young boy to a girl
"I want to kiss you" a boy to a girl
"unfasten your bra!" a boy to a girl
"if you want you can sit down near me" a girl to a boy
"let’s go" a man to his wife
"mum I’m thirsty" a child
"buy the newspaper" one shouts
"I’m cold" a child to his father
"stop crying!" a man to his child
"can I have a bath...mum?" a child
"I want to undress my slip" a baby
"get off!" a wife to her husband

2
1 "20 dead saturday night coming back from disco"
2 "two babies just born found in a rubbish bin"
3 "Brazil Central bank crack"
4 "Parks full of syringes"
5 "Fiat manager shot down"
6 "Suicide student ‘cause flunked"
7 "Kills the wife she was with a younger man - then he shoots himself"
8 "telematics change your life"

3
1 the clouds over me lying on the Belvedere grass move like busy persons
2 just bought the record ‘fear of music’ at the flea market
after few minutes a person asks me if I wanted to re-sell it
3 Florianigasse is not a road it’s the place where I found a telephone to call my love
4 the thread of yellow grass was stuck into a wheel of my car it has been there for the whole travel from Bologna to Vienna and Prague
5 the things I’d like to buy but I can’t
6 I’d like to be in Prague just to see Kafka’s places - the women described by Milan Kundera and the Jewish cemetery
7 the museum of the dolls is the pleasure of the mini life
8 has haus is a wonderful modern building in front the old cathedral asymmetries against regularities many square windows and a door to reach the underground metro

4
1 God is the computer/farewell computer/welcome computer/
2 the solution is the global action/farewell global action /welcome global action/
3 homologation is responsible/farewell homologation /welcome homologation/
4 the strategy of cancer/farewell cancer/welcome cancer/
5 the progress of pollution/farewell pollution/welcome pollution/
6 the victory of destruction/farewell destruction/welcome destruction/
7 the stress of depression/farewell depression/welcome depression/
8 the resistance of hunger/farewell hunger/welcome hunger/

5
1 the black is my colour after the suicide of a son
2 be a rebel for ever never bend down!
3 the marriage is an absurd institution
4 I’ll never enter again into this wedding bed
5 a continuous living transgression
6 as a rebel loved by the people who couldn’t be rebels
7 the hole through a pink dress when she was shot down
8 yesSissi yesSissi yeSSSSisssi yeSSSSS

6
1 never go down
2 never mention it
3 never write it
4 never let it go
5 never throw it away
6 never criticize
7 never disappoint
8 never get red

7
1 the research of success/farewell success/welcome success/
2 the usefulness of the fashion/farewell fashion/welcome fashion/
3 the spectre of the unemployment/farewell unemployment /welcome unemployment/
4 the failure of the family/farewell family/welcome family/
5 the stupidity of television/farewell television/welcome television/
6 the necessity of violence/farewell violence/welcome violence/
7 the transparency of the sea/farewell sea/welcome sea/
8 the inevitability of the hurricane/farewell hurricane /welcome hurricane/

8
LINZ-LYNCH
MAHZOR-SHANNAH
KEPA-KAFKA
RABBI-GOLEM

9
1 politicians are all the same
2 corruption is everywhere - you need to get the money at the right moment
3 even the seasons are not the same
4 what sort of food are we eating
5 I am not interested in anything
6 get a move! I’m hurry
7 poor guy he has suffered a lot
8 they are ruining football

10
DIALOGUES

1
A an old man
B a child
A don’t think too much
A do it come on
B I’m afraid I fear it I’m unable to concentrate

2
A customer
B seller
A how much is it?
B it’s too expensive
A have you got it cheaper?

3
A lover
B lover
A you hurt me please slower
B it’s ok now
A oh yes

4
A daughter
B father
A where are we going?
B to the supermarket ... it’s closing
B we miss milk and bread

5
A student
B teacher
A do you teach me English?
B of course
A but not like that

6
A lover
B lover
A how long have you loved me?
B since that night
B maybe since ever

7
A lover
B lover
a you always ruin all
B are you sure?
A yes, you are a monster

8
A patient
B doctor
A am I so seriously ill?
B yes, you are
A let’s try it

11 a
1 who’s got most points?
2 who has put the bomb?
3 who pays for the damages?
4 who prays God?
5 who writes a love letter?
6 who grows up the sons?
7 who shouts "down the bureaucracy!"?
8 who gets the petrol into the sea?

11 b
1 where are the values?
2 where have you parked your car?
3 where have you seen her?
4 where is the train going?
5 where was a free space?
6 where do you like to sit down?
7 where do you sleep tonight?
8 where do you buy a house?

11 c
1 why are you tired?
2 why do you always speak?
3 why don’t you want to work?
4 why don’t you sleep at night?
5 why don’t you speak?
6 why don’t you walk?
7 why do you stop?
8 why do you stay here?

11 d
1 what do you want?
2 what do you see there?
3 what are you searching in him?
4 what do you expect?
5 what do you give me instead?
6 what do you earn?
7 what do you take with you?
8 what is raising?

11 e
1 which part do you choose?
2 which travel do you want?
3 which book do you buy?
4 which sandwich do you eat?
5 which girl do you like?
6 which team do you support?
7 which party do you vote?
8 which poem do you read?

11 f
1 STOP !
2 GO ON!
3 ABSOLUTELY!
4 AGAIN!
5 KISS IT
6 READ IT
7 HIT HIM
8 LEAVE HIM

12
1 the reduction of parties/farewell parties/welcome parties/
2 the death of writing/farewell writing/welcome writing/
3 the absence of free time/farewell free time/welcome free time/
4 the difficulties of taxes/farewell taxes/welcome taxes/
5 recycling of dirty money/farewell dirty money/welcome dirty money/
6 the increase of exploitation/farewell exploitation/welcome exploitation/
7 the end of dream/farewell dream/welcome dream/
8 the beauty of poetry/farewell poetry/welcome poetry/