R.I.P. Oophoi

[hjalmer]

correspondence from oophoi about arpe di sabbia

>
> glad to share with you this unforgettable experience, and that you are enjoying this new music so much. I really appreciate your deep thoughts and such a deep listening.
> yes, a magical night, surrounded by mountains and brooks, nocturnal birds and invisible insects, ghosts of the past and memories, and I was all alone with my machines, building the soundweb for a small audience of 60 friends.
> I have composed this music just for this new experience, to describe a deep communion with Nature.
> The first feedback from Kristian, at Nextera, has been a deep surprise, he didn't believe his ears because of these 2 hours+ of different styles and feelings, from total darkness to sublime light, from the abstract freeforms through to the fragile melodies, from the "old" Oophoi to the "new one".
> We have decided to release it as it was recorded - no studio gimmicks, no editing or manipulations - because I wanted it this way: a pure and uninterrupted flow of sounds.

> this  will be my last solo disc for a lot of time, I know that many "fans" are angry about my "superproduction", so I have decided to listen to their prayers. They are right. I have produced and recorded a lot of music recently, and now it's time to focus on my studio and my instruments. "Arpe di sabbia" has enough new Oophoi music to discover.
> My only desire now is to release on official cd some of my back catalog discs, if I'll find enough money; I'll also join Mike Griffin for a collaboration disc, but I don't know if this will ever see the light of day.
>
> thanks again for sharing your feelings, and for posting such beautiful words on the Forum
>
> best
> to you
> Gigi

[mgriffin]

Thanks, everyone, for sharing remembrances and pictures.

I probably will have more to say on this later, but wanted to put together some kind of comment about the passing of someone who was important to me and to Hypnos. My blog post was just posted:

http://hypnos.com/wordpress/2013/04/12/oophoi-gianluigi-gasparetti-has-passed-away/

[nuun]

I will miss the man and the artist.
His deep sincerity.
His great heart.
His generosity with grace.
His talent with simplicity.

I feel really sad.
For him, his wife, his friends.

[mgriffin]

correspondence from oophoi about arpe di sabbia
...
> this  will be my last solo disc for a lot of time, I know that many "fans" are angry about my "superproduction", so I have decided to listen to their prayers. They are right. I have produced and recorded a lot of music recently, and now it's time to focus on my studio and my instruments. "Arpe di sabbia" has enough new Oophoi music to discover.
> My only desire now is to release on official cd some of my back catalog discs, if I'll find enough money; I'll also join Mike Griffin for a collaboration disc, but I don't know if this will ever see the light of day.

I do remember a time, near the end of Umbra, when Gigi received a bit of criticism from some people about the large quantity of music he was releasing.

I should also say, though, that many people eagerly purchased everything released under the Oophoi name, and in many cases everything released on the Umbra label (most of which was not Gigi's own work, but that of such artists as Seren Ffordd, Tau Ceti, Sostrah Tinnitus, Perceptual Defence, Netherworld, Busso de la Lune, and probably a few others I'm forgetting).

For a while (probably in 2005 or so) Oophoi was the best selling artist on the Hypnos Online Store for a couple of years. At that time, I was ordering about $1,000 worth of Umbra CDs per month, and Gigi made all of them by hand. As soon as a new box would arrive, I'd put them up on the store and they'd sell out within a week or two. Things slowed down by the end, as these things inevitably do... but for a while, people were absolutely rabid to get their hands on anything on the Umbra or Penumbra label (though I'd say, for many listeners the obsession extended only to the Umbra label - Penumbra seemed judged by many to be an oddity, releasing only 3" CDRs under 20 minutes in duration).

It's also interesting for me to read Gigi's comment about our collaboration. At the time we started it, he very much wanted to record something together but seemed to have mixed feelings about releasing it on CD. To him, the point seemed to be not so much that we must put out a CD together, but that we should share some sounds, mix some recordings together, and see how it sounded. Today, I can't help regretting that I didn't take that project through to completion. The recordings sound good enough to release, with a tiny bit of editing, and mastering... I suppose I should have nudged him about it again, rather than letting the matter sit for years.

[chris23]

Such sad news. I consider Oophoi to be one of the greats. I have a deep appreciation not only for his music, but for his willingness to be a champion for young or relatively unknown artists. /salute

[Anodize DB]

As a tribute to Gigi & the important body of work he produced in the field, this weekend's edition of my Sunday Evening Sinewaves radio show will devote its middle hour to the work of Oophoi, both solo & in collaboration. Tune in here:

http://www.homegrownradionj.com/DJs/shows/Sinewaves.htm

[fatman]

I only started listening to Oophoi's music about a year ago. I had heard of him prior to this but his music was very elusive to find and expensive through the normal mainstream music channels.

After reading rave reviews of Spirals Of Time I was able to buy a copy through  Hypnos at a bargain price (compared to other sites) and got I hooked on this wondrous ambient masterpiece. Over the ensuing months I managed to collect most of Oophoi's albums and a significant number of these directly from him. We exchanged quite a few emails over the last twelve months and he was always so  generous with his time, discussing his music and sharing anecdotes. Even in the latter stages of his illness he was always prompt to respond to emails and maintained a positive outlook on things.

I was a fan and only swapped emails with him so I can't really say that I was a friend but I wish that I had have been and would have liked to have known this very friendly and generous person better and perhaps I would have in time - but time ran out.

I suffer from a chronic painful medical condition  and many nights I have listened and meditated  to albums like Spirals Of Time and Signals From The Great Beyond and found them very effective in helping to ease the pain

Vale Gigi ... your music has had a profound impact on me and you have left a wonderful legacy of many albums behind for us to listen to and remember you.  We have lost a great talent

[mgriffin]

Fatman - welcome to the Hypnos Forum, and thanks for sharing your story.

[Ein Sophistry]

This is incredibly sad. Gigi is one of the giants of my ambient universe. The first album of his I'd heard was not actually one of his "major" releases (The Spirals of Time, Celestial Geometries, Athlit) but Time Fragments vol. 2. I was instantly captivated, particularly with the second track, "The Last Farewell." I don't think I'd ever been moved in quite that way by ambient music before. The sense of longing was so palpable, it was almost too much.

I quickly became one of those rabid fans of whom Mike spoke. In fact, it was my need to collect all of his Umbra and Penumbra recordings that initially brought me to Hypnos. It's too bad that the Penumbra releases in particular didn't receive more positive attention. There are some fantastic gems there.

I never corresponded with Gigi personally, but it seems like he was a wonderful, generous human being. Certainly his music brought us all a little closer to the stars. May they now welcome him as he so ardently welcomed them.

[judd stephens]

I miss him already, such a great artist.

The other night about a week ago, I was falling asleep to Oophoi.  As sometimes I do, I'll put my hands on my chest and stomach and do a little energy work (reiki).  As I was drifting off in a hypnotic state, I went to a place I've often thought of lately while meditating, a house in the sacred valley of Peru with a patio.  In this particular night while listening to Oophoi I "returned" to this place, but for the first time it was night.

The patio was lit up quite brightly though by the enormous full moon in the sky.  This half asleep dream now shifts into me looking into the moon through a telescope, or at least seeing the moon from that perspective, big, with the full body occupying the entire picture of my viewing.  I'm observing all the details, marveling at the craters and features while oophoi's drones are gently dominating...

I then realize consciously that the name of this album is Mare Tranquillitatus, which is of course means Sea of Tranquility, on of the many so called seas on the Moon.  It was so weird how the effective imagery the artist conveyed mixed with my intuition or subconscious, and led to that "vision", but it was quite a little experience.  Having listened to only a handful of his music it's only right to cherish and find out as many as possible.  Thank you...

[Antdude]

  Here is the link to his Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%C3%B6phoi

It's brief, but is fairly up-to-date and includes a pretty comprehensive discography of his solo releases and collaborations.

Hopefully, this will help some of you in your search for more of his music.

[NBLR]

It's really sad news.
I'm a big fan of Oophoi, and i listen his music already for some years.
Very big talent and great person died. His music not only healing one, not only helps to heal and relax a psychic tensions (although it is important!).
It's wonderful listener's experience for nature, space and planets, ancient world, prehistoric world, and even maybe divine world! (I think so).
1-2 years ago I sent some emails to him (my impressions from his music), and he answered me. He wished me a some amazing New Year wishes! It was great and very surprising!
Also i sent to him some pictures with wonderful siberian nature (i has make these pictures on the nature), because I'm like the Nature, like he was. And he enjoyed with these photos (he tells).

O my God. How it is possible? He wasn't the old man...

R.I.P.

[solyaris]

That's very sad :-(

I known Gianluigi Gasparetti personally...

1) about the Deep Listening review:
I discovered him through the great webzine "Deep listening", an amazing magazine regarding electronic/ambient music reviews he was used publishing evry three-monts (initially writing himself alone and with some collaborators in last years). Pheraps no many people here know this magazine, wrote only in Italian language and sold only by correspondence in paper format (also in recent internet-era ...).
In our e-mail conversations I tryed many times to convince him to translate the review in english language, because I though the content was absolutely valid worldwide, but he have been always so pessimistic on the realization of the English version and the diffusion on internet with a weblog or something... we had long mail conversations about that ...

2) about Oophoi music
If I well remember, around year 2000 or a bit later, Stefano Musso (in art Alio Die) gifted to me the Deep Listening magazine issue (btw at that time Stefano used to sell strange music cds in a stand in some fairs of used books, comics and vynils... btw, at that times I also discovered Alio Die's album gems..)
So I started some time after an e-mail friendship with Gianluigi that became my "ambient music" CD supplier/reseller... (that was time when internet was not so diffused here in Italy...) I purchased from him so many CDs of great unknown artists and I really appreciated music he realized with nickname Oophoi! I think his drones are really at a very high level of "deepness" and I listened his music for many years. By example Athlit, Mike Griffin published and mentioned properly here, have been a masterpiece in ambient/electronic music.

3) about his discovering of my music
In 2004 (times when he was also sort of editor/manager of "Umbra Records" CDR label ) I sent to him  a demo CD, just to have his honest opinion...he was entusiast and insisted on publish that "demo"... I followed his suggestion and "Western Detunes" (my first album); was published by him.  A good story: my nick "solyaris music" come after a converstaion with him ... because our love for Tarkovskij's movies.. he suggeted to use an alias as "LEM" .. but I decided at last for "SOLYARIS" as a tribute to the movie.

I have to be always be beholden tohim because that.. because I started to express myself in music in what today I call "my way"!

After the pubblication of Western Detunes, I confess I had discussions with Gigi, because some "commercial" behaviours on music duffusion and reselling/ re-pricing of my music by certain web sites ...(btw without any advantage for myself...) so we decided to separate our ways and himself suggested to me to diffuse my music with a personal website. I did that with happiness and peace for everybody :-).
I admit my relationship with Gigi stopped at that times more or less. Sometime I had to complain about some behaviours and the friendship finished. Yes, Gianluigi talked to me about a misterious desease but, I admit, he was so hermetic that I thought he was not so sincere ... I gone wrong! Mea culpa :-(
A part the personal issues, the feelings I had also reading the last issues of Deep Listening magazine editorials, was his big pessimism about (ambient) music diffusion, music evolution nowadays... life in our society... to such an extent he closed the magazine forever :-(

2) About music he loved and culure & history he divulgated
Looking backward my last years, I see indeed how many I am at one with him now! I mean regarding his conception about ambient music, his infinite love for Steve Roach music! and above all for Klause Wiese tibetan singing bowls drone music. He was a deep lover and connoisseur of Wiese music (he met him  some times as far as I know, and they realized some albums togheter) and almost every Deep Listening magazine was containinig a sort of serialized chunks of stories around Popol Vuh, Wiese and sufism ... ?! :-)
Yes, I know that big part of my musical culture started after his thoughts, his music.
I have to be grateful to him ...


Buon viaggio dall'altra parte Gianluigi!
Che tu possa stare immerso in drones di bellezza infinita làddove sei..
giorgio

[mgriffin]

Jacky Ligon, a fan of Oophoi and a lurker on this forum, wrote to me today to let me know about this blog tribute he just posted.

http://www.xen-arts.com/2013/04/rip-oophoi-gianluigi-gasparetti-19582013.html

[Michael Allison]

Very sad to hear about his passing. He wrote me an email once many years ago and said how much he enjoyed my work. Stunned really. We were the same age too. Many great ones are slipping away these days.

[drone on]

Posted Friday on the Gterma website:

"News about the premature departure of Gianluigi Gasparetti, better known as Oophoi, has saddened the ambient community today.  Gigi had struggled with persistent illness and an equally aggressive treatment for a long time.  Last year his studio equipment came up for sale and around the beginning of this year he started planning for some of his unreleased works to be distributed among different artists and labels.  We here at Gterma once again wish to thank for all the musical treasures he recorded and released on his lovely Umbra label.  But for now, his journey must continue beyond the boundaries of our known horizon."

[Scott M2]

In a "keep in touch" e-mail with Gigi a couple of years ago I was telling him how I was being distracted from album completions by my activities in photography, videos and poetry. I included an earlier version of this poem which I thought was appropriate for him because of the title. His comments were kind and had poetry of their own. Now with his passing, for me the piece will always be bonded with him.


mare umbra

the celestial lakes
coalesce and rise

beyond the vortex
where the world is drawn

to the silence of the moon

and within the precision and detail
of its introspection    to birth

an atmosphere of enigma
and the sound of rain

[Julio Di Benedetto]

My deepest sympathies go out to Family, friends and fellow fans.  How privileged I am that his music touch me / us to the core.  Thank you.

[GLACIAL MOVEMENTS]

Hello to all,

yesterday there were the funeral of our friend Gigi. Now he rest in peace in the small cemetery near his home.
I have no words to describe my deep sadness, because first of all Gigi was my friend, a true friend with whom i shared many things...

how can i ever forget all the listeings that we did together in the Kiva? And what about long walks in the paths near your home with  Alessandra? I remember that i was always going grazy you about the mastering of my CDs ... you released my first work on your label Umbra, and you gave me the opportunity to express my thoughts trough sounds ....You've been a true pioneer in many fields, but above all, a great friend. I'll miss you a lot, but your memory will always live in me, until the end.

I will never forget you!!!!

Alessandro

[9dragons]

Listening to Signals from the Great Beyond as I write this. On the verge of tears, but the beautiful thing is, I've been feeling out of sorts lately and these sounds in my headphones have just righted my way and reminded me of the great and golden mystery of this life. His musical name Oophoi is, I believe named after an Egyptian deity whose visualization is a wolf standing at the prow of a solar boat. Ophois, or Upuaut, was known as the scout or the opener of the ways. Truly a good moniker for a man whose music is so gloriously otherworldly, and takes us so far out into other worlds. I wish I could thank him face to face but instead I will go outside and toast the stars with a beer. Tante Grazie Signore Gasparetti.