Photo Credit: Dovile Sermokas

The types of worlds and emotions artists like Olivia Belli evoke in their music harken back to the initial days of music when the likes of the greats like Bach and Beethoven were poised at their benches, masterfully crafting works that’d go on to inspire for centuries. Today, Olivia Belli is doing the same with her masterful work as a pianist with her 2024 release, ‘Intermundia,’ out everywhere on February 23rd. We talked about not only the new music, but introspective visuals, movie scores, and more in this back-and-forth exchange. 

Kendra: Growing up during the period of some of the most processed pop in music history, the beauty of instrumental music went over my head until college. However, when did you fall in love with the piano and all that it could do? 

Olivia Belli: Music has always been part of our family life, we had a room dedicated to music where I spent a lot of time having fun with our pianos, violin, a small organ, or listening to my father’s vinyl collection. At eight years old I started taking lessons and I immediately realized that I would never stop.

Kendra: When you started in music, which came more naturally – playing the piano or composing your music? 

Olivia Belli: Both; I loved making up my own melodies but felt I needed to learn more from great composers to improve my musical imagination: it’s like writing a book, if you don’t know enough words your writing won’t be completely satisfying. I, therefore, studied as a concert pianist, played the great Maestros of the past and present, and in a contemporary context also attended the traditional composition course.

Kendra: Let’s talk about the present now and your 2024 release, ‘Intermundia.’ You noted that you were exploring “the world of thin places.” Now that the record is ready to go, how do you feel ‘Intermundia’ represents those places audibly? 

Olivia Belli: The main goal was to give voice to the essence of those truly special places, “places between worlds” where the earth touches heaven and therefore I used a compositional element that gave me this opportunity. I returned to Gregorian Chant and its eight modes, Octoechos: eight melodic patterns, each of them representing a state of mind through which our soul can transform and evolve from the material state to divine perfection. Each song/location is composed using a mode of creating, or at least trying to create, a journey from darkness to light. HopeI managed it!!

Kendra: You’ve dropped a handful of singles off this record thus far, but I wanted to shout out “Mirando” because the video made me feel somewhat introspective between the music and the way you moved about the clip. You said every song started with a feeling, were you feeling introspective when “Mirando” started to take shape?

Olivia Belli: Recanati and the House of Giacomo Leopardi are very dear to me. I spent many times wandering there and I always felt a very strong connection with it, so much so that I wanted my children to be born right there where, from the window of the village’s tiny hospital, I could admire the “blue mountains” as the great poet defined them. 

It is a place where I perceive a state of lightness, incorporeity, and innocence that allows me to escape from the dimension of reality and move onto the plane of imagination and inner reflection. So the answer is yes, when I go there it’s because I need to recollect myself with my interiority.

Kendra: Instrumental music and movie scores go hand in hand, and with that – if you could pair ‘Intermundia ‘ with a recent movie release, which do you think it’d go well with and why? 

Olivia Belli: ‘Le otto montagne,’ a movie directed by Felix Van Groening and Charlotte Vandermeersch. 

It is based on the homonymous book by Paolo Cognetti and won the Jury Prize at the 75° Cannes Festival. It is a story of transformation towards the essential coming back to the origins.

Kendra: Time for a side note – with it being February, I’m asking everyone for their favorite and/or the best love song they’ve ever heard…

Olivia Belli: An Italian evergreen, “Il Cielo in una Stanza” by Gino Paoli; also “Daring Love” by Ane Brun but I think “Playing Love” by Ennio Morricone for solo piano from “The Legend of 1900” is a beautiful love song without words.

Kendra: Lastly, with ‘Intermundia’ out on February 23rd, what else can fans expect as we continue rolling forward in 2024? 

Olivia Belli: I’m finishing a sort of Deluxe version of ‘Intermundia.’ I worked for almost two years on Intermundia and there were more places/songs that I wanted to share with my fans and listeners. I had to make a selection but now I can add a few more stages to this “journey.”