PMS (5)

Caterina Bianco (violino, voce, tastiere, live electronics); Martina Mollo (pianoforte, voce, live electronics). PMS has its roots among the classroom desks of «S. Pietro a Majella» Conservatory of Naples when the pianist Martina Mollo met the violinist Caterina Bianco. The artistic and human synergy that began instantaneously between these two young women leads them to experiment with music, gradually shifting from their shared background (classical music) towards an original language, imbued with the most varied influences, from Queen to Metallica, from Radiohead to Bjork. In the following years the two artists worked side by side on many projects, the first of which was Ethereal Dark Orchestra, then followed by Rua Port’Alba’s world music, Quartieri Jazz’ Gipsy jazz, Foremare and ‘e Zezi’s folk music, while at the same time they work together with the most important artists of the Neapolitan dark scene: Argine, Edo Notarloberti, Ashram. 2012 is effectively the birth year of the PMS duo, with the recording of some works by Samuel Barber rearranged in a very peculiar way that gives the two musicians the inspiration to compose their own music. Their style lays its basis on classical music but is a complete expression of their own musical thought, without any filter. This is the reason of the name chosen by the duo, the Premenstrual Syndrome, shortened to PMS, to evoke an impunity for the bold stylistic choices, for the deliberate pursuit of dissonance, the harshness of the dense harmonies: the same impunity that is “allowed” to women when affected by PMS, excusing any excess because it comes from that peculiar condition, a condition that comes from the simple fact of being a woman. The album «Premenstrual Syndrome», out in February 2016, collects, almost in just one breath, the songs that represent best the latest period of the duo’s production. A deliberately short album, that seeks to leave the listener longing for a follow-up, a tension that doesn’t resolve, but will stay hanging until the next album comes out.