Fire Museum Presents: Paolo Angeli
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St.
Philadelphia
June 9, 2026
There’s something going on in 2026 where the shows I give the least forethought to end up blowing me away the most. Like when I saw JJJJJerome Ellis at First Unitarian, I basically knew nothing going into last night’s performance from the Sardinian musician Paolo Angeli, other than that he plays some kind of interesting home-made guitar-slash-other things.
I didn’t know the extent of it: his instrument – his instrumental station, really – is truly an extension of his body; he plays a bizarre hybrid-combination of guitar and violoncello, with foot pedals that are connected to motorized propellers that strike different strings so he can play basslines with his feet, changing the pitch with his fretting hand, all while keeping the thumb and all the fingers on his picking hand free and independent to play an extensive kind of contrapunto. Like a drummer, he would balance different rhythms with his feet – polyrhythms abounded – while performing an intricate mélange of finger-picking, strumming, plucking, scraping, bowing, and straight-up hitting and striking the strings and the body of the instrument. (There's even some kind of daxophone situation going on at the bridge. So many sound possibilities!)
This would express itself in a variety of ways, whether he was picking out a timeless, expressive harmonic-minor melody, achingly expressive and dynamic, or delving into free jazz territory, with chromatic gestures and prepared strings (sliding a card or a stick between them, producing metallic, almost industrial microtonal sounds). On top of all that quadratic complexity, he also sang with beautiful, masterful, emotional presence and elaborate and quick-darting melodic lines that rivaled his dexterity on the instrument. The instrument itself was a strange, inventive marvel – seemingly everyone in the crowd snuck a picture at this thing at some point – but it struck me, watching Angeli play, that no part of it was there without a deliberate purpose, no aspect of the instrument was without consideration. You could almost feel the hard-won effort and trial-and-error in the process of arriving at this point. It was clear in his playing, too: watching the incredibly patient way he developed his ideas, whether compositionally or improvisationally (or somewhere in-between), shifting from one set of sound-making tools to the next with clear developmental purpose, his feet sliding mere inches to the left or right to make a percussive or melodic sound, his strumming hand picking up or putting down a bow without skipping a beat – Angeli played for something like 90-110 minutes, without stopping – I entered a trance not unlike the trance I sometimes go in when I’m practicing or playing for hours with barely a break.
In other words, for all the obvious talent and intelligence and depth of feeling and knowledge in Angeli’s playing, I mostly felt in awe of the work he must put in to get this all across, the hours and hours of practice and devotion to craft. It was overwhelming music at times. With the aid of effects pedals and clever tools and tricks to make strings sustain hands-free, Angeli worked up such a roiling, orchestral sound all by himself that you’d be forgiven for thinking, with your eyes closed, that he’d been replaced by a full-scale post-rock band, if not an actual orchestra.
Admittedly, I nodded off at one point, during one of the more gentle passages, but a moment near the end brought me back to full, undivided attention: slowly at first, then with an unexpected thrill, I noticed that he was bowing out an interpretation of one of my favorite songs ever, Björk’s “Unravel," a song I see as a hymn to the indomitable power of the creative, loving human spirit; I asked Angeli after the set if he’d planned on playing that or if it just occurred to him in the moment, and he warmly told me that it’s one of his favorite songs, too, and he planned it, but hadn’t performed the song since 2007-ish. I softly sang along, touched and immensely pleased that this master musician in my midst must also love this song, enough to want to carry it in his body. Truly, it was hard to find words for what I heard: this was a massive, virtuosic, incredibly heartfelt performance by an immensely gifted and generous artist. He’s on tour all over the states, not an easy thing for international artists to do these days; if you’re in the next city he hits, give him a warm welcome.
