The Objective Chance (2019) with Alípio Carvalho Neto (alto sax, tenor sax), Andrea Massaria (electric guitar, electronics), Giorgio Pacorig (piano)
Nervidi (2016-2017) with Michele Anelli (double bass, electric bass guitar), Dominik Gawara (electric bass guitar), guests: Kei Yoshida (trumpet), Steve Buchanan (alto sax, electronics)
The Five Roosters (2014-2016) with Martin Mayes (french horn, alphorn), Mario Arcari (curved soprano sax), Massimo Falascone (alto sax, baritone sax, ipad), Roberto Del Piano (electric bass guitar)
One Lip 5 (2014) with Guido Mazzon (trumpet, cornet), Nicola Cattaneo (electric, acoustic guitars), Franco Cortellessa (baritone guitar, 7 strings classic guitar), Giorgio Muresu (double bass)
Memento Mari (2012) with Gianni Mimmo (soprano sax), Angelo Contini (trombone), Marco Loprieno (reeds, electronics), Patrizia Oliva (vocals, electronics), Nicola Guazzaloca (piano, accordion, vibraphone), Cristina Lodolo (marimba, percussions), Bassirou Diakhate (african percussions), Patrizia Lugo (texts, visuals), besides other musicians, film/videomakers, photographers, playwrights, actors
Transition (2011-2012) with Nils Gerold (flute), Nicola Guazzaloca (piano)
Gamra (2010-2014) with Paed Conca (clarinet, electric bass guitar, electronics), Patrizia Oliva (vocals, electronics), Eugenio Sanna (amplified guitar, objects)
Carver (2010) with Ninni Morgia (electric guitar), Silvia Kastel (synth, vocals), Patrizia Oliva (vocals, electronics)
NotG (2010) with Gianni Mimmo (soprano sax), Stefano Ferrian (acoustic guitar, tenor sax), Luca Pissavini (double bass, tapes, objects)
Aghe Clope (2009-2017) with Paolo Pascolo (flute, bass flute, tenor sax), Andrea Gulli (laptop, electronics, tapes), Giorgio Pacorig (piano, korg ms-20, rhodes)
Crash Trio (2008-2011) with Edoardo Marraffa (tenor and sopranino sax), Chris Iemulo (amplified guitar)
Blistrap (2008-2009) with Mick Beck (tenor sax, bassoon, whistles) Jonny Drury (electric guitar, electronics)
Vincenzo Ramaglia’s Chimera (2008-2009) with Vincenzo Ramaglia (composition), Massimo Ceccarelli (double bass, loop station), Renato Ciunfrini (sopranino, soprano and contralto sax)
Bologna Improvisers Orchestra (2008-2012) with many musicians from the Bolognese area, including Daniele Giannotta (electronics), Dario Fariello (alto sax), Filippo Giuffrè (prepared electric guitar), Giorgio Simbola (trombone, violin), Nicola Guazzaloca (piano, keyboards), Patrizia Oliva (voice, electronics), Tristan Honsinger (cello), Enrico Malatesta (percussion), Andrea Grillini (percussion), Gaetano Alfonsi (percussion), Giovanni Falvo (percussion), Diego Cofone (bass clarinet, electronics), Antonio D’Intino (electric bass guitar), Claudio Comandini (trumpet), Gianluca Varone (tenor sax), Edoardo Marraffa (tenor sax, sopranino sax)
L’Amorth Duo (2007-2008) with Marino José Malagnino (two portable stereo sets, a broken stereo set played through contacts, prepared CDs, high hats, bow, objects)
Gebbia / Iriondo / Giust (2007) with Gianni Gebbia (alto sax, flute), Xabier Iriondo (mahal metak, electronics)
Mitchell Giust (2007) with Gareth Mitchell (vocals, electric guitar)
Squame (2005-2006) with different lineups, including Alessandro Boscolo (electric guitar), Mat Pogo (vocals), JD Zazie (CDs, turntable, electronics), Walter Belloni (double bass), Edoardo Ricci (alto sax)
Skinstrings (2005) with Fred Casadei (electric bass guitar)
Papiers Collés (2004-2010) with Lorenzo Commisso (audio laptop), Alan De Cecco (video laptop)
Rediffusion (2004-2005) with Andrej Bako (laptop), Karen O’Brien (laptop), Gareth Mitchell (electric guitar)
Suonimmagine (2004) with Vito Maria Laforgia (double bass, amplified objects), Giuseppe Mariani (trumpet, laptop)
Babelis Project (2000-2001) with Dominik Gawara (percussion, microsax, vocals), Daniele Pagliero (sampler, machines, electronics)
Gbur (1998-2011) with different lineups, including Dominik Gawara (electric bass guitar, acoustic and electric fretless bass guitar, percussions), Daniele Pagliero (sampler, electronics), Ivan Pilat (baritone sax, mellophone), Paolo Caleo (electric guitar, caleophone), Maurizio Suppo (electric guitar), Lorenzo Razzano (electric bass guitar, didgeridoo), Marcello Turco (trumpet, trombone), Davide Lorenzon (alto sax, curved soprano sax), Alessandro Fiorin Damiani (analog electronics), Alberto Collodel (clarinet, bass clarinet)
Margine (1997-1998) with Alessandro Cartolari (alto sax, microphone), Luca Cartolari (electric fretless bass guitar), Andrea Biondello (drums)
Orbitale Trio (1995-1998) with Ivan Pilat (baritone and tenor sax, trumpet), Paolo De Piaggi (electric guitar, electronics), also plus Roy Paci (trumpet) and Fred Casadei (double bass)
Le Bambine (1987-1995) with different lineups, including Vito Ciampa (vocals), Orfeo Ciampa (electric guitars), Marco Cossetti (electric guitars, vocals), Paolo De Piaggi (electric guitar, electronics), Bruno Romani (alto sax), Teho Teardo (electric guitar)
Opera (1982-1989) my first solo project, using prepared guitar, tapes, live electronics, radio, percussions, vocals, flute, keyboards, synth, piano, feedback and objects
The Objective Chance (2019)
Alípio Carvalho Neto alto and tenor sax
Andrea Massaria electric guitar and electronics
Giorgio Pacorig piano
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
Quartet gathered in January 2019 around Alípio Carvalho Neto, Brazilian and resident in Italy from many years, musician and musicologist (read his brilliant analysis of the work of Giancarlo Schiaffini, contained in Schiaffini’s book “Immaginare la Musica” published on Auditorium).
Nervidi (2016-2017)
Michele Anelli double bass, electric bass guitar and electronics
Dominik Gawara electric bass guitar and electronics
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
special guests:
Kei Yoshida trumpet
Steve Buchanan alto sax and electronics
“Here, the creative process is purposefully schizophrenic. Anelli and Gavara do a tour de force on the strings, traveling on them in the most egregious ways, either through extension techniques and the use of some live electronics. Giust, however, gives a true demonstration of his talent: I have rarely heard a drummer at the speed of light as he does, and in this project has the opportunity to do; and should not even surprise the creating vivid anguish surreptitious, quality which I discovered in his solo on Ossigeno, in Turin. Under this profile, Stefano is truly unique. Classified is free improvisation which knows no pauses, deliberately atonal and aggressive, but certainly with content: the risk of failure that can occur when you try impassable ways with experimentation, in Classified is totally canceled.” Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
“Raw meat pulled on the walls and floor. Dense tangle and complex, atonality. An improv trio who lands on a dislocation limit. Dislocated jaws of wonder. Stuff isn’t quiet, that expands when it becomes more treacherous. Heavy urbanization, bruises and broken bones. If you are not afraid of a punch in the nose, this is a good gnashing.” Marco Carcasi, Kathodik
Nervidi is a trio devoted to free improvisation, born in Turin after two concerts in February 2016. Their first album titled Classified is available on Setola di Maiale. In December 2017, in quartet with Steve Buchanan, they have played an incredible concert at Industrie 9 in Lucerne.
The Five Roosters (2014-2016)
Martin Mayes french horn and alphorn
Mario Arcari curved soprano sax
Massimo Falascone alto sax, baritone sax and iPad
Roberto Del Piano electric bass guitar
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“Five top Italian-based improvisers. While it might be difficult to convey exactly what goes on during their album, different sequences adhere enough so that the final product is as rousing as the sounds made by the band members feathered namesakes.” Ken Waxman, Jazz Word
“No theme, no solos, no accompaniment, no rhythm section. Instead of playing all together at the expense of readability, they alternate on half measures, on points and curves. Eminently collective, it’s a kaleidoscopic puzzle. In the first place the drummer, an organic crackling that accelerates and slows down around a pulsation that is implicit and rarely emphasized. It seems as if he didn’t care the rest. Yet, you can clearly hear how its tools and techniques hold up the building. I’ve really a great pleasure to listen to these crazy Five Roosters. An original disc where nesting playful and creativity takes the precedence over individual achievement.” Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Improjazz/Orynx-improvandsounds
“Everything takes place in the most logical and beneficial practice of the improvisation, full of vitality and inventiveness.” Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
“We start from the lineup, to rediscover the scene of free jazz in Milan in the 70′s. The brilliant electric bassist Roberto Del Piano had a past in the Gruppo Contemporaneo lead by Guido Mazzon, as well as in the Trio Idea of Liguori and now he is currently engaged in Three Uncles, with Magliocchi and Matthias Boss. Mario Arcari, one who did live in their own history De André as Steve Lacy; Martin Mayes, already in the Company by Derek Bailey as in the Italian Instabile Orchestra; Massimo Falascone, also with Gruppo Contemporaneo and dozens of other subsequent projects; and finally Stefano Giust, the youngest, but certainly propeller of the revitalization of the free improvised scene in Italy. A power quintet that seems they play together from many time: unplanned guidelines but perfect interplay that manages to emerge with great clarity (and creativity) at the every moment in which things happen. Music is enhanced a great physicality, just listen to the really brilliant rhythm section that enhances the enviable interplay of bass and drums, to convince yourself that set of improvisations as these, leave a mark among the many projects that are being produced today, in the field of free improvisation.” Michele Coralli, Blow Up
The band was set up by bassist Roberto Del Piano. The music of the quintet is a sea of sounds, a river that flows, sometimes, into unknown nocturnal lakes. They made one albums on Setola di Maiale in 2013.
One Lip 5 (2014)
Guido Mazzon trumpet and cornet
Nicola Cattaneo electric and acoustic guitars
Franco Cortellessa baritone guitar and 7 strings classic guitar
Giorgio Muresu double bass
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“With One Lip 5, jazz at high temperature. A sparkling concert of the group in Castello. Rhythms and atmosphere are rarefied, they don’t renounce to the movement, they stimulate reflection; reduced sounds, stumble continually on rhythms and unconventional measures. This is the trait but also the value of the quintet, which has delighted the audiences of Teatro Verdi in Castelsangiovanni. An unconventional concert, led by the trumpet of Guido Mazzon. The concert was called Jazz Jazz Jazz, but there is much more than we usually hearing on this kind of music. In fact, everything comes from a carpet of sound vague and precise at the same time, farewell from melody and traditional phrasing, instruments emerge on each other as having its own personality, without conform to a reassuring track. An education born in the seventies, that means music research, which obeys only to the fire of creativity and sent to the shredder traditional rules. Equally appreciated is the brushes work of Giust, flicking from one rhythm to another and among his cymbals, he has only spoiled for choice.” Quotidiano Libertà
“It moves around a post free, cleverly arranged, with echoes of Ornette and Lmo, also on large spaces with microsections that succeed with a mobility that is absolutely a salvation. The album is one of the best published in this first half of 2015.” Bazzurro, Musica Jazz
“Conditions of sensitivity for a serious representation of jazz improvisation, permeate the music of Guido Mazzon and group One Lip 5. It’s rather difficult to comment easly the course of music of Guido Mazzon. “Apro il Silenzio”, which is composed through contrasts between trumpet, rhythm section and guitars, shows new approaches, always kept in the general framework of a clear and creative vision of jazz that Mazzon expresses with much consistency as always. For example, the three-minute explosion of trumpet (Mazzon and Mandarini) and rhythm section (Muresu and Giust) of Free or Four, sends into raptures any jazz audience.” Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
The quintet was born on March 2014. Their music was a mixture of jazz with a distinct flavor, a fusion between past and present. There is a very special choice of musical instruments: many strings, a wind and percussion. Free improvisation and written music by Guido Mazzon, historical exponent of the first Italian avant-garde, founder of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, and guitar virtuosos Nicola Cattaneo and Franco Cortellessa (both of the Italian Guitars Trio). In October 2014 they have released the CD “Apro il Silenzio” (Setola di Maiale) in which there are several guest musicians: Alberto Mandarini, Pat Moonchy, Claudio Lodati ed Emanuele Parrini.
Memento Mari (2012)
Gianni Mimmo soprano sax
Angelo Contini trombone
Marco Loprieno tenore sax and electronics
Patrizia Oliva voice and electronics
Nicola Guazzaloca piano and accordion
Cristina Lodolo marimba and percussions
Bassirou Diakhate african percussions
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
The multimedia project Memento Mari was conceived in 2011 and was performed in Italy in 2012. At that time, as I guess you know very well, we had the first so called ‘emergenza Lampedusa’ – an emergency, in our opinion, created for political reasons only -. Anyway, Memento Mari was started from the indignation of a group of artists: musicians (mainly improvisers), videomakers, photographers, graphic designers, playwrights and actors. Since the beginning, the Memento Mari format was designed to include local artists/musicians in each place we have performed. Our goal, in fact, is to spread out as much as possible our concern/commitment for this huge, underestimated tragedy. Animator and factotum of the project was Patrizia Lugo.
Transition (2011-2012)
Nils Gerold flute
Nicola Guazzaloca piano
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“I’m generally steering clear of free improv dates these days, as I feel that there are relatively few musicians who can sustain interest in that format. This one, however, is an exception. They are a very close-knit unit that can turn on a dime from intense rumbling passages to sparse meditation has me wondering if maybe there are composed elements to this, or some kind of pre-arranged structure. At any rate, I like that there’s an underlying sense of purpose behind the music, it’s not just meandering about.” (on the first album) Craig Premo, Improvised
“This is another great release from them, following their self-titled record. The trio generates plenty of heat, with the interaction between Guazzaloca and Giust recalling the epic battles of Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley. Nils Gerold is pushing the boundaries of the flute as an improvising instrument, and he deserves to be mentioned alongside Nicole Mitchell as one of the top flautists in today’s music. The group exhibits great range, “transitioning” if you will from terse exchanges to very dense passages. Definitely one to seek out if you’re a fan of free improv or the flute in new music.” (on the second album) Craig Premo, Improvised
“Transition is inserted, for creativity and energy, in the best productions of European free improvisation.” (on the first album) Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
“Another convincing performance in three parts, three musicians chained to their instruments, projected towards a free improvisation where everyone seems to run independently, putting greater emphasis on the stylistic characteristics of each of them.” (on the second album) Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
“The trio faces an improvisation with absolute motivation, with great attention to dynamic values, to tonal variation, to the varied interplay plots. Guazzaloca produces bubbling sound masses, Giust’s percussion gives a structure as a rhythmic context and magmatic twitching, trembling, with crackling effects on metallophones in the most calm moments. Gerold is bent to the origin of classical flute, with an emission that is nervous, fragmented, wriggling into mystical content. The music they create has a material substance, an unavoidable concreteness, an expressive synthesis based on an undoubted honesty of great cultural and methodological rigor.” Libero Farnè, All About Jazz
“The internal dynamics are meticulously analyzed” Boddi, Musica Jazz
“An European feel, the trio achieves a very fine level of telepathy.” François Couture, Monsieur Delire
“A crucial trait in this general vibrancy of Transition, lies in the perpetual conversion of the sonic flux; from massive blocks of commutual inflammation, the trio pulls out passages where an instrument might linger unhidden amidst quieter perspectives. Not even in the latter zones one receives signals of half-heartedness: propulsive forces are there to be regained when the blood’s pressure goes up again. Don’t lose involvement as you listen, and the rewards will come.” Massimo Ricci, Touching Extreme
“Gerold, Giust and Guazzaloca make tremendous rhythmic cycles here with infinitely variables, with an impact strenght of G3 (‘au cube!’). For a first meeting “Transition” is an undeniable success. Stefano and Nicola are also two important leaders of the Italian improvisation scene, well beyond the Italian Instabile Orchestra, which is usually seen as the culmination of the creativity of the Italian avant-garde jazz.” (on the first album) Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Improjazz/Orynx-improvandsounds
“The music on this concert at MiBnight Jazz Festival in Bremen, is beautifully advanced in the creation of different perspectives and points of waterfall, in the manner of an happily different interplay. The trio has a nice combination with independence and empathy, I mean that they play at 100%, avoiding mimicry. Musically, behind there are Germany and England, but by now these are saturated. Transition at MIBnight illustrates this perfectly. All this smacks of European improvised music. Music, musicians, group cohesion, invention, etc. is perfect. Fascinating!” (on the second album) Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Improjazz/Orynx-improvandsounds
“Wild improvisational prowess” Tom Sekowski, All About Jazz USA
“Another fine free improvised music trio from Bella Italia. Now, bear in mind flute is not the main instrument on the CD, the three improvisations are played very democratically. As it can’t compete with the piano and drums in terms of volume, it fills the empty spaces, with grace and impeccable agility. Guazzaloca’s piano playing covers a wide dynamic territory, bringing some powerful impetus to the music, driven by Giust’s very original way of playing – filled with pulse yet asymmetric. The music flows gracefully with some turns and twists, ebbs coming and going, with a lot of surprises on the way. The has plenty of adventurousness and rides the musical tides with ease. There’s a plenty to enjoy on the CD.” (Free) Jazz Alchemist
They met for the first time in summer 2011 in Bologna. After playing a very successful concert, they founded the trio. Inspite of their wide both musical and geographical backgrounds – from contemporary new music to traditional japanese music and from middle Italy to north Germany – their improvisations seem to come from the same mind. Their music is deeply rooted in the free jazz tradition. They have published two albums in 2012 and 2014 on Setola di Maiale.
Gamra (2010-2014)
Paed Conca clarinet, electric bass, objects and electronics
Patrizia Oliva electronics and voice
Eugenio Sanna amplified guitar and objects
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“This excellent quartet, caught during a striking live performance, works perfectly, allowing the creation of a living music in constant movement and change. An important document, fascinating in its development.” Stefano Arcangeli, essayist, music journalist (thirty years with Musica Jazz), founder and president of Pisa Jazz and the Center For Research About Improvised Music (CRIM)
“A good point to each musician and kudos for this unusual quartet.” Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Improjazz/Orynx-improvandsounds
“Magnetic improv. A framework that know how create anxiety and the wait. Vital music.” Antonio Ciarletta, Blow Up
“Gamra is looking for a living sound articulation with several connections with contemporary music and in this sense it’s all provable in terms of the results. It travels into unthinkable sound worlds, led by the absolute expertise of the four musicians.” Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
Gamra was an Italian-Swiss ensemble. They played free improvisation, where decades of experiences of the musicians create an unique and contemporary soundscape. The quartet have published the first album on Setola di Maiale in 2011, recorded live at the Abbey San Zeno in Pisa – which was one of the best known places in Italy, since ’70, for concerts of free improvised music -. Again for Setola di Maiale, in 2015 they’ve released “Pow”, recorded at Chilli Jazz Festival (Austria).
Aghe Clope (2009-2017)
Paolo Pascolo flute, bass flute and tenor sax
Andrea Gulli laptop, electronics and tapes
Giorgio Pacorig piano, korg ms-20 and rhodes
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“Aghe Clope is a homogeneous and original group. The inventiveness of Stefano Giust creates scraping, demolition or rebound, a plot of details, a percussive activity that integrates every sound. The four musicians are heard each other admirably, encouraging diversity/ discontinuity of intentions and strategies. A series of playful processes and a clean mind for these Aghe Clope that seems that I’ve not heard anything like it. Many sensitive listeners will be interested and we bet that you will be won over by the cohesion of their freely improvised approach. Because it is the group’s strong point!” (on the second album) Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Orynx-improvandsounds
“Among the Italian quartets that lead to a desirable concept of true renewal of jazz.” (on the second album) Ettore Garzia, Percorsi Musicali
“Unconventional music that flows following the free flow of thoughts, embracing a wide range of references, ranging from radical improvisation to electronic music, from minimal noise to progressive rock music, from contemporary references to tribal. The characteristic element is the successful combination of acoustic and electric sounds, of solids and voids, of furious improvisations and moments of stasis that run on a thin wire tension. Sometimes tele-transported into the future and other times involved in a coven jarring, the listener will face a trip that will not leave indifferent.” Vincenzo Roggero, All About Jazz
“Nocturnal atmosphere. This is a super line up, dense, never magmatic, very classy and full of fascinating atmosphere.” Kathodik
“This disc on Setola di Maiale label, showcases a notable instances. Highly accomplished, unabashed free music, the Italians players on this disc can hold their own in any situations.” Ken Waxman, Jazz Word
Aghe Clope was a free improvisation ensemble, with lots of influence, from electronic and contemporary music to free jazz and psychedelia. The result has been an unstable, vibrating and vulnerable material. Often they have collaborated on stage with the Hybrida Light Show, a combo of visual artists that uses the tag-tool system. They have two albums published on Setola di Maiale, as Aghe Clope Ensemble in 2007 (with guests Nicola Guazzaloca on piano and synth, Chris Iemulo on amplified guitar and Gianluca Varone on tenor sax and toys) and “Blind Mind”, 2015, co-produced with Dobialabel.
Crash Trio (2008-2011)
Edoardo Marraffa tenor sax and sopranino sax
Chris Iemulo electric guitar
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“In the main they eschew the romantic tinge that in the past has affected even the most avant-garde Italian players. When it comes to pure improv, these players can be appreciated for the way they mix external influences, extended technique and atonality with cohesion, while being careful not to shrivel interaction into stasis, no matter how small the formation. Confirms that Northern Italian improvisers are still as frisky, first-rate and frenetic as they have been in the past.” Ken Waxman, Jazz Word
“This is a super trio. Radical improvisation with a strong base of jazz. A trio who works in a synergistic way. Free jazz made in Italy at its best.” Andrea Ferraris, Sodapop
“Fine smoking performances.” François Couture, Monsieur Delire
“Super! Iemulo, Giust and Marraffa are a good live band that combines the explosive energy of Afro-American free jazz and the research of the European free improvisation.” Improjazz
“The live dimension is the one that is best suited to certify the honesty of a totally improvised music and documenting its creative process. The performance at the Crash of Bologna is characterized by the sharp splinters scattered by Marraffa. Contrasted by Iemulo, until to distort his instrument, and Giust with his jagged drumming.” Boddi, Musica Jazz
“In a word, the true essence of improvisation. Without giving pause for reflection and analysis, throwing themselves headlong into the music, without showing any sign of abating, it’s a relentless rush of notes and inventions. Spectacular.” Sands-zine
Crash Trio was a free improvised music unit, with a strong attitude for hardcore free jazz. The trio was born on January 2008 and their album “Live at Crash” was published by Setola di Maiale. In 2010 they have played in Brazil at the international festival ‘SESC de Arts’, at Theatre Santana, São Paulo.
Blistrap (2008-2009)
Mick Beck tenor sax, bassoon and whistles
Jonny Drury electric guitar and electronics
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“An incredibly powerful trio driven by Italian drummer Stefano Giust, who never loses energy throughout the 40 min improv. The three seem to blend well together and yet not afraid to follow their own ideas with conviction, a great combination for free playing. Afterwards a friend said to me ‘amazing to be able to start with such intensity and then still take it up even higher.’ This is free jazz turned up to 11.” Noise Upstairs Manchester
“Beck, Giust and Drury deliver a tripartite blitzkrieg of full-spectrum dominance skronk, mind-bending improv noise, and a rhythmic assault ranging from butterfly light to neutron star heavy. In a good way, that is. A pantechnicon of dionysian treats for the synapses, sinuses and bowels: you’re worth it!” Zali Krishna
“Blistrap being an out-and-out Free Jazz exploration. Not only is the outcome boisterous, but it’s also profoundly non-Anglo-Saxon. The drummer’s speedy, but irregularly spaced pops and drags, involve all three in thick Energy Music. A trio that creates memorable Free Music here.” Ken Waxman, Jazz Word
“A group that certainly doesn’t ask compliments when it comes to push, a pushing to the consciousness boundaries. A unique ensemble with much capacity over the top.” Andrea Ferraris, Sodapop
“Dark and lumpy is the approach of Blistrap sound, it’s free from bias, open to risk. The three musicians exploit any pretext, every scrap material to create sounds and shape their musical vision. They have the impact of a volcanic eruption, the flow of sound has the density of a lava flow that inexorable infiltrates in every hole, it viscously expands in the possible / impossible space. Visionaries. Brave.” Vincenzo Ruggero, All About Jazz
Blistrap has combined a powerful free jazz and improv, with an extreme onslaught of noise. This focused harnessing of sonic energy during the fully improvised sets, comes from the members decades of devotion to spontaneous, energetic creativity. Essentially Blistrap were Beck and Drury, usually combined with a selected drummer (myself or Phil Marks) and occasionally a blower or a keyboardist. Mick Back, a virtuoso of tenor sax, is active on the free scene since 1980. Beck’s scorching and utterly lawless tenor is occasionally sprinkled with whistles and balloons that appear from nowhere, screams and shouts plunge listeners into further confusion. The overall synergy of this trio was best appreciated live! Blistrap has published two albums on Setola di Maiale.
Vincenzo Ramaglia’s Chimera (2008-2009)
Vincenzo Ramaglia composition
Massimo Ceccarelli double bass and loop station
Reneto Ciunfrini sopranino, soprano and alto sax
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“Elusive, an impossible dream, this is the essence of Chimera. And here is also one of the most ruthless of possible definitions of contemporary composition. Today the composition is emerging as an unreachable illusion. It’s very significant that Vincent Ramaglia, Roman composer with fully academic training, has maintained a healthy distance from it. In the seven tracks on the disc, it’s realized the union between very different musical elements: composition and free improvisation, the predetermined and the unexpected. Massimo Ceccarelli interprets the score, he records and superimposes, gradually, with a loop station on which the saxophones of Renato Ciunfrini and the drums of Stefano Giust are called to improvise. The only control that the author has had on them, has been exhausted in the act of creation. Ciunfrini and Giust are very free, they move between the loops of double bass. The musical result is shimmering and multifaceted.” Zeno Gabaglio, Azione
“A little masterpiece. In the work of Chimera, the choice of loop station with the double bass player Ceccarelli blend beautifully well, that seems all perfect as it is, but the fact is that on a plot already excellent, Giust and Ciunfrini fit their instruments really fabulously. Chimera intersects contemporary music and advanced jazz.” Andrea Ferraris, Sands-zine
“Chimera is a score for double bass and loop station with a free improv duo. Ciunfrini and Giust pull the body of sound, patiently created by Ceccarelli with the pedals of the loop station, without invasions, without trauma… we are in the field of excellence in the improv’s universe. The sound is highly cinematic, enveloping and velvety, amazing. Ciunfrini with his sax, cuts thin foils of free sounds and Giust responds freely and it raises work, he suggests quickly, incisive and obliquely cubist, while Ceccarelli, after having developed the basis from which he comes off, begins to play with the other two musicians. Chimera runs perfectly. One of the works of the year.” Marco Carcasi, Kathodik
“In his new work Ramaglia puts together elements apart from each other, to create something impossible. Free jazz, art of loop, polyharmonies and polyrhythms of twentieth century, free improvisation and everything that flows from the background. Vincenzo creates something that is very alive, edgy, hypnotic and contradictory but amazingly, it works. To give life to his developed and introspective music, he relies, as usual, on excellent musicians.” Kiriku, Blogbuster
“The Roman artist realizes again a product of high invoice music and culture. There is a remarkable effort in Ramaglia because he trying to unite the score with improvisation, something not easy to achieve. The sax plays with himself, realizing abstract sounds. The drums are those that affecting more for the way they’re performed, begin a rhythmic period then abandoned and resumed in different point of the composition.” Massimo Salari, Rock-Impressions
“The music of Vincenzo Ramaglia moves with the effect of an antidote. Fleeing every banality, every possible easy road, with a singular purity of intent. Here’s a wonderful meeting point between avant-garde jazz and contemporary music. This disc isn’t for the faint of the heart, but it can be read with the innocence of a child, or the competence of an essay. Often the same thing. Well done indeed.” Massimo Marchini, Rockerilla
“Vincenzo Ramaglia loves to travel and travels willingly with the sounds, indeed: he explores! He finds the right musicians and organizes expeditions to reach places of unexplored sound.” Valerio Loraschi, Albero della Musica
“The aesthetics of contrast in Ramaglia’s music is renewed in this Chimera. The interest of this vision, could be lie precisely in the presence of a dualism of genres that instead to merge with each other, they repel or attract. Improvisation, electronic manipulation and rigorous writing are the elements that animate seven movements, in the form of suite.” Michele Coralli, Blow Up
“The new and well-kept Chimera of Roman composer Vincenzo Ramaglia, compares improvisation with sax and drums, with scores for double bass and loop station, creating a dissonance between free improvisation and ‘reiterative music’. A unique experiment, enriched by ideas and personal view of the musicians.” Vittore Baroni, Rumore
Chimera is a score of Roman composer Vincenzo Ramaglia, divided into seven parts, for double bass and loop station with improvisations of sax and drums. This was a freelance collaboration where I’ve played for the recordings of the CD release and concerts. In the booklet which accompanies the CD, Ramaglia has wrote, among other things: “I have tried to conceive my personal acoustic ambient – more experimental, explorative, extreme – superimposing in score phrases which use most of the boldest techniques of sound production by the double-bass, deepened by an eager study of the pages of Stefano Scodanibbio, the most extraordinary enquirer into this idiom. So tremoli, trills, bichords, glissandi of harmonics, circular movements of the bow, open strings, remote bourdons, non-conventional bow or hands positions, sound stylemes that in Scodanibbio’s scores are wonderfully suspended in space, in their uniqueness, here increase and juxtapose in a hypnotic and rarefied structure of unusual sonorousnesses. Thanks to the double-bass player Massimo Ceccarelli’s precious sensitivity, I’ve updated and integrated these stylemes with further techniques. I’ve tried to oppose variety to modularity with a second shift. It consists in making as different as possible a loop from another. Almost every single phrase, in Chimera, is a surprise as regards the former one and does not grant indications about the next one. The third choice, against the cyclicity imposed by the loop station, is the most courageous. The double bass player patiently builds alone the elaborate sound base carpet, after that, going on reading in score but without recording any more loops, plays on that carpet phrases at last free from modularity. Here perform sax and drums, that oppose to the stratification of the loops, the free and vital unpredictability of the ways they enter. Also the choice of the improvisators, after having listened to them live, was essential. About the necessity to subvert the loops cyclicity, I’ve found perfectly functional Stefano Giust’s smartly borderline way to wander with the drums about the rhythmic idea, suggested but never asserted, denied but never refuted, always finding changing and fascinating ways. I’ve immediately discovered in Renato Ciunfrini’s materic, tirelessly patrolling and extreme approach to his saxophones, the immediate translation into improvisational terms from timbre search and reflection on sound deepened in score by the double-bass. Just for fun, in the ludic and creative atmosphere we breathed in the studio, I’ve suggested a couple of guide-words before every improvisation (for example: cubist blues, soft tribal, frivolous noir, cathartic apocalyptic).”
L’Amorth Duo (2007-2008)
Marino José Malagnino two portable stereo sets, a broken stereo set played through contacts, prepared CDs
Stefano Giust drums, percussion and crackle box
“L’Amorth Duo wanders alone, compels you to stop and think. There is no middle way, or you get up and turn off the home stereo, or pay attention. It forces you to think. Not only simple improv here.” Marco Carcasi, Kathodik
“A wall of organized sound with, if that were not enough, the classy coup: the anger, the direct one, policy. Mind you: no proclamations, it’s the same primitive rage of Art Ensemble Of Chicago. Malagnino and Giust require attention, in every minute of their performance. A jazz band disguised as an orchestra of noise: fuck!” Giorgio Pace, Rocklab
“There’s nothing better to combat banal music of every day: no choruses and prepackaged sounds in this voodoo ritual in the name of war to those radio waves that soften the environment.” Guido Siliotto, Il Tirreno
“The work of the Amorth Duo deserves a pretty specific, in fact while being focused on noise, it is very organized and nothing is done randomly. The album develops the noise with an free approach, not free-form.” Andrea Ferraris, Sands-zine
“I could say to myself as it be a complex story, but the silence of the final measure knows longer than me. Their album is! Throbbing meat, alive. The beauty of the nettle, the toad and the hyena.” Sands-zine
“Perennial refraction of the ordinary that makes this music extraordinary and that is second to none without hesitating, about genres or subgenres. The Amorth Duo, in the words of the protagonists, aims to exorcise the spaces of radio waves.” How can I contradict them?” Stefano Pifferi, SentireAscoltare
L’Amorth Duo was an improv combo based on the new rural music’s principles: a research on domestic environment music. L’Amorth Duo have meant to clear the negative places of capitalistic and controversial “rock energy”. L’Amorth Duo was aimed to avoid the invisible waves which saturate the air. These waves, according to the duo’s manifest, are detrimental to body and mind’s health. Method of cure was a handful of CDs based on previously mangled songs, two inoffensive picnic stereo sets, forward, backward, seize the right track at the right time, stop, two tracks, interaction, the ‘repeat’ button, radio, wild percussions, one time free, one time rhythmical, a slap in the face followed by a tender caress, a slap and a caress. This process should you remind of an once well-known world, which is dazed to the point that you can’t even recognize. At last, all you need is noise ’cause silenze doens’t exist. The duo published an album co-produced by Setola di Maiale and Produzioni Pezzente.
Mitchell Giust (2007)
Gareth Mitchell vocals and electric guitar
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“Impromptu songs that show the resulting void left from its passing, you can imagine the beauty. There remains a final vibration in the air. The audience, speechless.” Kathodik
The two have worked together, for the first time, in 2005 for a londoner tour with Rediffusion, a project leaded by Andrej Bako and Karen O’Brien. The music that they did at that time was electronic improvisation, close to experimental minimal techno. Instead, in this duo they play songs written by Mitchell and adapted to the free improvisation of the drums. The music changes and it’s enriched with new elements every time. Their album “Live Somewhere” was published by Setola di Maiale in 2008.
Papiers Collés (2004-2010)
Lorenzo Commisso audio laptop
Alan De Cecco video laptop
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
Papiers Collés was an art project launched in 2004, where different aestetic models distant in time blend with each other. Papiers Collés transforms fragments of classical music in new, unrecognizable pieces of music. Musical anagrams which represent interesting reflections on the potential of sound. The active and static nature – drums and digital sound – set agains each other in the performance, just like their original cultures do: contemporary and electronic improvised music. This project uses diverse aestetic elements in full freedom so as to question the conceptual habits of common sens. It plays with what is real and what is not and tries to underline all the shades and possible reflections that electronic recording allows in contemporary art fruition. The Papiers Collés project was mentioned and exibited at the 2005 National Multimedia Arts Awards supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, Department of University Research in Arts and Science.
Babelis Project (2000-2001)
Dominik Gawara acoustic and electronic percussion pads, microsax and voice
Daniele Pagliero samples, sound manipulations, filtering, synths and loops
Stefano Giust drums and electronic percussion pads
“An excellent work!” Juan Antonio Rotuno, Taladro n.13
A strange and unique trio, active from 2000 to 2001. The music was free improvisation with a huge sense of structure, full of electronic sounds, a result of strong interaction between acoustic instruments and machines. In 2002 they’ve made an album that was co-produced by Setola di Maiale and Genital Production (Mexico).
Gbur (1998-2011)
(1998)
Dominik Gawara percussions, piano, voice, flute, trombone and prepared electric bass guitar
Paolo Caleo electric guitar
Lorenzo Razzano electric bass guitar and didgeridoo
Marcello Turco trumpet and trombone
Stefano Giust drums, electronic percussion pads, voice, piano and prepared electric bass guitar
(1999)
Dominik Gawara electric fretless bass guitar
Ivan Pilat baritone sax
Daniele Pagliero sampler and electronics
Paolo Caleo caleophone
Maurizio Suppo electric guitar
Stefano Giust drums and electronic percussion pads
(2009-2011)
Dominik Gawara acoustic fretless bass guitar, electric bass guitar and kaoss pad
Ivan Pilat baritone sax, trumpet and voice
Daniele Pagliero sampler and electronics
Davide Lorenzon alto sax and curved soprano sax
Alessandro Fiorin Damiani analog electronics
Alberto Collodel clarinet and bass clarinet
Stefano Giust drums and percussion
“Jazz is a pig head, it always has been – but if you want to talk about the record, they are the first to do as well, out of sheer rudeness. God strike me dead if the time is not ripe!” Francesco Vignotto, Blow Up
“Gbur are pieces of flesh, infected improv, more structured of a sneer. Cool like few others.” Kathodik
”A radical approach without compromise, a symposium that is developed with more sonic layers, opposition and confluences between rock debris, noise, post jazz phrasing.” Flavio Massarutto, Villotte Emigranti e Altre Storie Jazz
“This music goes everywhere ’cause there isn’t only one direction where to go.” Marco Pandin, A-rivista anarchica
“This is heretic jazz, it doesn’t need finesse, it’s rude and rambling and more demonstrates its vitality. An ongoing challenge.” Luca Pagani, All About Jazz
“A suffocating metropolitan sound. The flight. The effort of the flight. The sound of a sound that the sclerotic auditorium (at the mercy of boiled prostitutes) will never listen.” Kathodik
Gbur was an open project that revolved around Dominik and myself. The music was based on free improvisation with a strong sense of structure and cohesion, a combination of free jazz, rock and electronics, whose construction didn’t refuse rhythmic patterns or reiterations. They have released four albums on Setola di Maiale, three are studio recordings and the fourth is a live concert.
Margine (1997-1999)
Alessandro Cartolari alto sax and microphones
Luca Cartolari electric fretless bass guitar
Andrea Biondello drums and percussion
Stefano Giust drums, percussion, tapes and electronics
collaborator:
Paolo De Piaggi electronics and computer
“A liquid music, dark and visionary. There is an other-aura here, lunar it might say.” SentireAscoltare
“The only comparison plausible, for the freedom with which the material has been reworked, it might be, at large, with Chicagoans Rome.” Francesco Vignotto, Blow Up
Margine was active from 1997 to 1999 and has realized four studio albums on Setola di Maiale. Their music was free improvisation, free jazz and electronics. One of their best albums has been “Esplendor Lunare”, an obscure soundscape divided in two parts and consisting of strong manipulations of recorded free improvisations by the instrumental trio (Cartolari brothers and myself) through filters, a four track tape recorder and computer; I’ve organized and directed all parts with the knowledge of Paolo De Piaggi.
Orbitale Trio (1995-1998)
Ivan Pilat baritone sax, tenor sax and trumpet
Paolo De Piaggi electric guitar and electronics
Stefano Giust drums, percussion and electonic percussion pads
collaborators:
Roy Paci trumpet
Fred Casadei double bass
“Wind instruments, variegated rhythms and anything else, into something that is neither pure and simple jazz, or rock, or anything else. It’s music that is intelligently designed and played.” John Vignola, Rockerilla 213, 1998
“Intense and out of scheme.” SentireAscoltare
“I think in Italy, there is nothing comparable to Orbitale Trio. Great!” Pierantonio Pezzinga, Intersezioni
“It is not a simple task to describe in words, what you feel when you listen to a work like this, nor to combine the music in a very specific kind, but it must be said, however, that all this makes it even more interesting.” Genia Box 1998
The group was active between 1995 and 1998 and has produced five albums, three are live recordings and two are studio recordings (including the quintet with Roy Paci and Fred Casadei). The three musicians gave birth to an instinctive and uncompromising music, whose alea was sometimes organized with a certain oral intent or through graphic scores. Most frequently was preferred the free improvisation. They sounded outside the purely formal conventions of making music: everything a musician wanted to do was permitted such as Dada/Fluxus performance on the stage, during concerts. Reference points were for sure Afro-American free jazz, the early European improvisation scene; the thought of some contemporary classical musicians and also the non-literate cultures, non-Western, non-.
Le Bambine (1987-1995)
(1987-1991)
Vito Ciampa vocals
Orfeo Ciampa electric guitar
Marco Cossetti electric bass guitar
Stefano Giust drums
guest: Bruno Romani alto sax
(1991)
Vito Ciampa vocals
Teho Teardo electric guitar
Marco Cossetti electric bass guitar
Stefano Giust drums
(1991-1995)
Marco Cossetti electric bass guitar and vocals
Paolo De Piaggi electric guitar
Stefano Giust drums
“The history of our national rock passes through the exploits of Le Bambine and this LP 1994 is here to remind us.” Loris Zecchin, Solar Ipse, 2014
“A great record! Carni a Metà Prezzo has characteristics that make an unique and authentic work of sure value. Difficult to make comparisons of any kind, at best, we have blurred images. Le Bambine applies free jazz to hardcore and vice versa, broke new ground in the Italian underground sound. In a nutshell, an original and wonderfully inspired band, that about the overseas models, doesn’t know what to do.” Luca Collepiccolo, Blast! n.8, 1993
“The categorizations are not easy with Carni a Metà Prezzo. The band manage to express better than others the ability to shuffle cards without falling into the trap of mess, the most obvious flaw of many groups who play crossover.” Gino Tozzini, Rockerilla n.165, 1994
“A truly album of energy this first self-titled LP, a new thing created to make up for the current compositional crisis, as proved by many Italian bands. Don’t miss them live, their show is excellent. This album is destined to the first places of the top ten of Italian independent music.” Sulla Strada n.2, 1990
“This group know how to do, stirring with a lot of freshness and spontaneity traces of hard core and rock suggestions. Interesting texts and ability in knowing how to coordinate the many facets of their sound. It will be interesting to follow them.” Paolo Maiorino, Metal Europa 1990
“Already acclaimed cult band in the north-east Italy. Viva Le Bambine!” Marco Mathieu, Velvet 1990
“A great debut album. This is the first time I hear an Italian band that plays wild rock and uses texts in Italian with the utmost ease. Discs like this means that Le Bambine eludes any quotation-comparison-cataloging. Definitely a must for anyone who loves loud sound and full of power, which is not used in such a way as an end in itself, but carried and humanely guided towards real sonic dimensions, live and beautifully indomitable.” Teho Teardo, Urlo n.29, 1990
The story of the group through the words of Adriano ‘Mago’ De Gasparo: “ln the late Eighties, the Northeast of Italy seemed like a theatre for a sort of ‘rock renaissance’, often predating the stylistic, crossover approach which would dominate the following decade: Le Bambine hybridated their initial hard core punk sound with hard-rocking elements, funk, jazz, a vigorous melodic approach and, at the end, improvised elements, with a result close to art rock. The group formed in 1987 from the miraculous union of four thinking heads. Bass player Marco Cossetti and drummer Stefano Giust were purveyors of a certain experimental vein (not so evident in the early stages of the band, though it would emerge in later times as a trio with Paolo De Piaggi and in the post-band experiences of the two, who even ended up flirting with jazz and improvised music). It was the sheer rock attitude of the other early members, however, brothers Vito and Orfeo Ciampa, that would most characterise the group in the early period, though the histrionically theatrical vein of the singer would also boost the ensemble impact by creating a lyrically surreal universe, where dreamlike visions, sexual perversions, mood swings and cinematographical references would blend. They could seem surreal, but to us they are more reminding of a poetic image of the situation, or sensation they were talking or singing about. You never got cheap slogans, but rather visual-evocative impressions only apparently bordering on nonsense, prompting someone to use the term art-core to define the band. All of these elements were there from the beginning until the definitive break-up in 1995, and had already been focused on their debut mini-LP (with the collaboration of saxophonist Bruno Romani and production by Alex Fabbro on Devon Rexcord in 1989). They were taken to further mature development with “Irruzione Nel XX Secolo” (CD, originally recorded in 1989 and published by Aua Records in 2000), “Carni A Metà Prezzo” (Setola di Maiale, 1992), recorded as a trio: the result is interesting and original, hinting at the avant-garde direction taken by the group and by each band member after the break-up. The fourth LP “1994″ was recorded live in concert in 1995 and published on Setola di Maiale in 2013. It contains the latest music composed by the trio and remained unpublished. Other musicians who were involved in the latest trio were Furio Rupnik, on desktop computer (laptop wasn’t available for the masses at this time) and Ivan Pilat, on tenor sax. Over the years the group held hundreds of concerts in Italy and abroad, even playing on the Italian tours of Primus, Fugazi, Fishbones, Verbal Assoult, D.O.A., Fuzztones, Seers, Flashtones, Kerosene, Marphy’s Low, The Haters (Survival Research Laboratories), Negazione, Silverfish, as well as many others.”
Opera (1982-1989)
Stefano Giust prepared guitars, tapes, percussions, live electronics, voice, keyboards, feedback, analogue synth, piano, radio, tv-set, flute, objects, recorders.
“A sound more than delirious, super distorted, extraordinary in its total electric madness.” Stefano Bonagura, Rockstar n.70, 1986
Opera was my first experimental music project and it was totally into a scene that was becoming what we now know as Cassette Culture or Tape Network. Opera was active between 1982 and 1989 – including two tapes printed before using the name Opera: Les Temps Anciens and The Sounds Of Expression Studios (Expression Studios was in fact my very first experimental label, for which five tapes had been released, three of which – those of Opera – just before they were officially released by Old Europa Cafe AVS). At that time big influences were some ideas of John Cage and the most radical side of post-punk and industrial culture. Opera has produced three albums on cassette, published on Old Europa Cafe AVS, then reprinted by Setola di Maiale and now out of print again. Opera I “The Silence Of The Noise That Collapses”, with twenty-three short pieces of acoustic, electric and electronic music, Opera II “Love Factory”, with three long improvisations for prepared electric guitar, feedback, tapes and live electronics, and finally Opera III “Concert without Audience,” an anti-concert for feedback, prepared electric guitar, percussions, tape recorder, electric bass guitar and live electronics. Besides these three cassettes, there are tracks in ten international compilations of experimental music of that period, among other “Il Pranzo Di Trimalchione”, Acteon (FR); “Woundz Never Heal! #1″, Harsh Reality Music (USA); “L’Ultima Insonnia”, Discipline Produzioni (IT); “Porn To Be Wet”, Das Fröhliche Wohnzimmer (AT); “The Spy 001″, Old Europa Cafe AVS (IT); “International Sound Communication #12″, A Man’s Hate (UK); some of the artists who shared these compilations were Sue Ann Harkey, De Fabriek, Vox Populi!, MCH Band, Die Form, FAR, MGZ, Costes Cassette, Vittore Baroni, Bene Gesserit, Gerogerigegege, Lyke Wake, TAC, Big City Orchestra, Klimperei, MTT, Randy Grief.
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