O.A.K. Oscillation - Alkemy - Kreativity

SHAMAN FEET 2011


Jerry Cutillo 2012

“What’s more inspiring than traveling and sharing the magic that belongs to all human beings? There are many languages ​​but the meaning is one and only fear can keep us apart.“ Jerry Cutillo

Efforts to create new musical formulas led to the production of “Shaman feet”. Kamuz, doshpuluur, balalaika and ethnic flutes, supported by loops & noises made a magic connection between two different cultures, only geographically distant. After meeting the Siberian dance group Aurora Borealis, Jerry immersed himself in the traditions of the so-called “little peoples of the north” and developed a modern reading of shamanic traditions. Evenks, Yakutsky and other ethnicities were in the ensemble and their dance was hypnotic and full of exotic suggestions. Jerry was impressed with their body language and began working on connecting their rituals to modern European sounds. (Dance of the shadows).  

Shaman feet was recorded at “Blue moon studio” in Bodicote (England) and published in 2010. It featured Glenn Cornick on bass and Maartin Allcock on Bouzouki. 

In May 2011, O.A.K. were still promoting the new album when Claudio Rocchi, the Italian minstrel of the “peace & love generation”, tuned in to Jerry’s alchemical oscillations. Mino Di Martino from “Albergo Intergalattico Spaziale” had baptized the young Jerry Cutillo with the psychedelic water and the names of Claudio Rocchi and Juri Camisasca, both friends of Mino, often recurred. The opportunity to share musical vibes on stage with Juri presented itself years later but, for Rocchi, Jerry still had to wait a long time. Finally, in 2011 the guru of the Italian psychedelia lit his iridescence towards O.A.K. alchemical oscillations. Tales of parallel lives alternated with Shamanic  mantras in a multimedia show but the spell was somehow broken by a thin veil of disillusion. And to the line of Rocchi’s most famous song “Reality doesn’t exist” Jerry Cutillo sadly added: And so the dream !   

On the first decade of the new millennium, the name O.A.K. had become synonymous of avant-garde and music research. However, carving out a slice of notoriety in the small ghetto of the Italian prog music was quite another thing. And when manager Iaia De Capitani called the band to play at the Prog exhibition in the autumn of 2011, Jerry wore his Siberian suit, plugged in his electrified balalaika and played something that the “die hard progheads” couldn’t expect.   Step by step, Jerry reached the top of his world music adventure and the participation of the queen of Tuvan overtone singing, Sainkho  Namtchylak, at the 20th O.A.K.’s  anniversary, with  the following appearance at the Shangai Wood & Wire Festival, were astonishing. Jerry found himself on stage with Sainkho and Maart and saw the western and eastern traditions become one, as he had dreamt some years before.

Another leading exponent of Tuvan throat singing, Choduraa Tumat, appeared at the Lido Theater in Rome. Jerry’s compositions matched perfectly to her Tuvan traditional songs. One of the best O.A.K.’s line up took the stage and provided an extremely wide range of sonorities. 

The braves were : Mauro Gregori on drums, Louis Ortega on bass,12 strings grt and mandolin, Al Bruno on el grt, Francesco De Renzi on keyboards, Jerry Cutillo on vocal, flutes and ac grt. 

(O.A.K. & Choduraa Tumat -Teatro del Lido) 

Poster