New Italian Futurists

Music performances featuring the new wave of Italian sound artists who are extending the revolutionary ideas of Luigi Russolo and the futurist movement in ways relevant to the 21st century. Russolo was inspired by intent listening to all the sounds around him, particularly the sounds of the modern urban environment and its industrial machines. He could hear noise as music, and advocated the use and transformation of this ambient sound palette into a new musical experience and language: one which would transcend the understanding of what is music. Since this revolutionary manifesto was first put forward in the 1920s, many sound artists have explored these ideas: field recordings, ambient sound, and a huge diversity of electronically produced sounds, are now commonplace within both art culture and experimental and popular music. Now, with the advent of the digital age, new vistas of sonic possibilities are opening up. Like Russolo, the above artists focus on dissonance, noise, rhythm, the microtonal, and improvisation, in an attempt to push the limits of musical perception. For the futurists "musical evolution is paralleled by the multipication of machines". Now, programming skills are replacing instruments, in a shift from hardware to software: sound is atomised and encoded. Russolo's Art of Noise has become a Science of Sound: a science that is moulded by a creative impetus, with the intention of producing new and exciting sonic (musical) experiences that extend both our senses and understanding. The above artists are at the forefront of this innovation.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

z.e.l.l.e Maurizio Martusciello is an electroacoustic composer and drummer involved in projects of both experimental and improvised musics. In 1999 he was awarded second prize in the International Electroacoustic Music Contest (CIMESP, Brazil). Nicola Catalano is a journalist for the Italian magazines Blow Up and Rumore, as well as a radio programmer for the national Italian broadcasting company RAI. He is a passionate listener of strange and unusual musics. DISCOGRAPHY 2001 Nth CD (LINE, US) 2000 Ring Ring compilation CD as Meta-Zu (ReR Megacorp, UK) MetaXu MetaXu CD (Plate Lunch, Germany) Unsettled Line CD (Metamkine, France) 1999 Trio di Napoli CD (Discoteca di Stato, Italy) 1998 Linguafonie compilation CD (Goethe Institut, Italy) 1997 Dentro CD (ReR Megacorp, UK) 1995 Meta-Harmonies CD (Staalplaat, The Netherlands) EXHIBITIONS & AUDIO PRESENTATIONS Martusciello has performed at festivals worldwide including Archipel 2001 (Geneva), Dissonanze 2 (Rome), Off ICMC 2000 (Berlin), LMC Festival (London), Musique Action (Nancy), Musiques Actuelles (Victoriaville), Biennale di Roma 1999, Biennale di Venezia 1999, amongst others. ARTIST STATEMENT z.e.l.l.e's graphically constructed sound compositions aim for a precision of abstraction with the abandonment of melodic structure. Electro-acoustic composers Maurizio Martusciello and Nicola Catalano create highly intricate (and, at moments, barely audible) snippets of sound on their debut collaborative CD, Nth. The sound is deliberately sparse, making the act of listening quietly active and participatory. Massimo Massimo left university to pursue his enthusiasm for music and computers. When not working on his music, Massimo spends his time hacking satellite television systems. He began to perform live electronic computer music in early 1999. DISCOGRAPHY 1999 Massimo CD (Microwave Recordings) 2000 Online audio (http://fals.ch) 2000 Minimo CD (Staalplaat). 2001 Generetion v.1 compilation CD (Bip-Hop) 2001 invalidObject CD (Fallt) 2001 Hey babe, let me see your USB and I'll show you my FireWire CD (Mego) EXHIBITIONS & AUDIO PRESENTATIONS ICMC (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), Dissonanze (Rome), Schweiz (Berlin), Rhiz (Wien), Nova (Bruxelles), Academy Overtoom (Amsterdam), Earational 3 festival ('s-Hertogenbosh), Extrapool (Nijmegen), Batofar (Paris), Le lieu unique (Nantes), and many more. fantasmagramma fantasmagramma are Francesco and Marco Leoci, a young and very exciting duo who have started creating audio-visual work only very recently. Their work is focused on the actual physical quality of sound. This is then composed into a futurist music that helps to extend our concept of music in the digital realm. Recognisable motifs repetition, beats are morphed into new forms that sound essentially freeform and improvised. DISCOGRAPHY 2001 ab CD (extrasensory) EXHIBITIONS & AUDIO PRESENTATIONS Netmage (Bologna), Clink & Click (Bologna), Link (Bologna), Sound.Light.Space (London). ABOUT THE ORGANISERS extrasensory is a collective of artists dedicated to promoting multimedia art events and performances, with a specific interest in art works concerned with sound, light and space. We have been established for 18 months, curating art works and live performances by new, upcoming and critically-acclaimed artists, including many debut UK appearances by overseas artists. extrasensory presents genuinely cutting edge work. We present previously unheard and unreleased audio material, and showcase interesting recording labels and concept series.