Livia Satriano

Author: Livia Satriano

Title: No Wave (Contorsionismi e Sperimentazioni dal CBGB al Tenax)

Publisher: Crac Edizioni

Year: 2012

Price: 15 euros

“No Wave (Contorsionismi e Sperimentazioni dal CBGB al Tenax)”, released in May by the small Marche-based publisher Crac Edizioni, has the merit of being the first book written in Italy about the influential and important “no wave” scene, born in New York in the late Seventies and whose founding manifesto is the historic compilation “No New York” (Antilles/Island, 1978) produced by Brian Eno. The author Livia Satriano, a mere twenty-five-year-old fresh out of university, has managed to condense into just over two hundred pages a decent “summary” of that artistic movement (which also encompassed other art forms connected to music, such as “off” and “underground” cinema), adopting a plain, accessible literary style, thankfully far removed from the pseudo-intellectualism and poetic affectation often favored by young critics trying to give themselves a loftier, if not haughty, air.

“No Wave” is a book of definite use to younger readers and listeners. Newcomers to the subject can glean plenty of useful information without having to buy (and translate from English) far more thorough and authoritative works such as “No Wave” by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, or the similar volume by Marc Masters. Another point in Satriano's favor is that she chose to look not only at no wave in the strict sense, but also to include several bands and musicians who had points of contact with that scene or who, in some way, paved its artistic path (starting with brief mentions of historic minimalist composers like LaMonte Young and Steve Reich, moving through Captain Beefheart and the Residents, not neglecting “loft jazz” and arriving, by the end of the book, right here at home with the bands of Italian Records).

There's also no shortage of interviews (somewhat brief...) with sacred monsters such as Glenn Branca, Arto Lindsay, Rhys Chatham, Jody Harris, and Mark Cunningham; the most difficult and fraught is the one with Lydia Lunch. There are also short profiles of some of the era's historic record labels (Ze, Lust/Unlust, though nothing on Y Records, Neutral, 99 Records and Lovely Music). Also useful are certain “off-topic” digressions, such as a general overview of Italian independent rock, and a nice touch is the inclusion of small QR codes next to the titles of many of the tracks mentioned, so you can automatically download and listen to them right away.

Roberto Canella (a longtime contributor to the magazine Blow-Up) contributed three chapters, placed at the start of the book. The graphic design is rather sparse, but functional nonetheless. The foreword is by Pierpaolo De Iulius.

Livia Satriano was born in Naples in 1987. A graduate in Media Languages from the Università Cattolica in Milan, she has worked in communications and event organization for various cultural and artistic institutions, from Spazio Oberdan to Superstudio Più. She currently collaborates with online magazines such as DesignCatwalk.com and curates the project Assez vu (http://assez-vu.com).

(20/06/2012)

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01/11/2025