Genre: Experimental, Drone, Ambient Music
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Norge-Italia
In 1925 Roald Amundsen with pilot Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen and American Lincoln Ellsworth flying a pair of Italian built Dornier-Wal sea planes came close to crossing the North Pole by air, a prestigious feat not yet achieved.
Amundsen then proceeded to contact Umberto Nobile and asked him to embark on an Airship expedition over the North Pole.
They had to modify the original N1 airship which had been built for Nobile by the Italian State Airship Factory to make it suitable for Cold weather and long range performance.
Nobile was then proposed as Pilot and Amundsen was expedition leader.
After much debate they were ultimately proven to have been the first to have flown over the North Pole, and quite possibly the first humans to have reached it!
The combination of Amundsen’s spirit of adventure and the genius of Italian engineering culminated in a major triumph not just in aviation history but as feat of human endeavor.
We must also remember that the Italo-Turkish war in Libya in 1911-1912 heralded the first use of the Airplane in warfare (first reconnaissance mission and first aerial bombardment). Also Italian innovation in aircraft was cutting edge and one of the leading Theorists on Aerial strategic warfare was General Giulio Douhet, his work had a profound effect on his contemporaries of the time.
In 1928 Nobile decided to embark on another expedition this time under total Italian control. With financial support from the city of Milan and very limited support from the Mussolini government, they managed to build the Airship Italia.
The flight over the North Pole was a success albeit on the return journey they encountered a storm which caused the Italia to crash just 30kms from Svalbard Island.
A recovery search was initiated in which several countries were involved and with the embryonic global village burgeoning with the advent of a more widely distributed media vis-à-vis Press, Radio and Dispatch news reels, the world was encaptivated by the developments that ensued.
After 48 days afloat on icebergs Nobile and the survivors were eventually rescued by the Soviet Icebreaker Krasin.
200,000 screaming Italians welcomed Nobile back to Rome, but alas Roald Amundsen perished in an effort to locate the Italia as part of the rescue operations.
A highly entertaining version of these events is recounted in the Russo/Italian movie ”The Red tent” starring Peter Finch as Nobile and Sean Connery as Amundsen.
Regardless of the debacle that followed Nobile earned his place in aviation history.
In mid 2011 Daniele Santini owner of TIBProd Italy commissioned a duo project from Mark O’Leary with himself on electronics. Mark immediately suggested this concept as subject matter, Daniele Santini enthusiastically accepted.
Ironically as an 11 year old child Daniele painted an image of an Airship which was a very advanced abstract interpretation.
Daniele proceeded to construct and send various sounds to Mark which he worked with, developed his own material, assembled and brought his constructions to Hub Studio where Donncha Moynihan worked on mixing and post production.
A video Norge III can be viewed on YOUTUBE.
The music tries to encapsulate the atmospheric environmental ambience of a Dirigible and is a tribute to the achievements of Umberto Nobile.
TIBProd. Italy 