GROSSI, PIETRO - Combinatoria

A comprehensive guide to the core recordings of one of the most visionary and inspiring, subversive and radical musicians from Italy, this 2CD box deluxe edition captures Pietro Grossis original vision, presenting a wide selection of his studio early recordings, beautifully remastered to preserve the enduring quality. Pietro Grossi used to playfully define himself as pigro (trans. "lazy"), but he wasn't lazy at all! Few musicians have been working everyday at such a cracking pace, creating, teaching and writing -- and when we listen to his music, we should bear in mind how this complex figure of musician, cellist and composer, and also visual artist, has developed creative thinking in a path where a blend of very different aspects organically cohabited. Since the late 50s, Grossi was convinced of the potential of the "new sound" and was totally obsessed with pioneering it, to the point where he would found the S 2F M (Studio di Fonologia Musicale di Firenze) in 1963 -- which made its headquarters in Florence at the Conservatorio, and then in his apartment -- spending days and nights on end splicing tapes and working with various modified machines to create his abstract soundscapes. The two CDs feature his first analogical electronic music, as well as some S 2F M studio works by colleagues such as Vittorio Gelmetti, Gruppo NPS (with Teresa Rampazzi) and Albert Mayr, while the second disc is focused on the prototype computer-generated sound synthesis." -Die Schachtel